The Trojan Ten: The Ten Thrilling Victories That Changed the Course of USC Football History
by Barry LeBrock
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Book Summary Information
Author: Barry LeBrockForeword: Mike Garrett
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-08-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: NAL Hardcover
Book Reviews of The Trojan Ten: The Ten Thrilling Victories That Changed the Course of USC Football History
Book Review: USC and the Psychology of Winning
Summary: 5 Stars
While Barry LeBrock's "The Trojan Ten," as the title suggests, focuses on what he considers to be the ten most significant victories in the long and celebrated history of USC football, the book is actually an historical compendium of a program that stands at the top of the gridiron pedestal alongside Notre Dame, USC's oldest and most competitive rival.
Currently the Trojans and Irish have each secured 11 national championships. They are also even in the Heisman Trophy department with each school boasting 7 winners.
LeBrock explains how graduate manager Gwynn Wilson of USC, realizing that legendary playing Notre Dame under famed coach Knute Rockne could be the springboard toward a Trojan surge into the top ranks of collegiate gridiron teams, was able, with the assistance of his wife doing a good sales job on Mrs. Rockne, to get the famous Notre Dame to okay the series.
LeBrock also reveals how, when USC fired football coach Gloomy Gus Henderson, Rockne lent the Trojans a helping hand in recommending that they consider hiring Iowa's coach Howard Jones. It was a 16-14 come from behind victory by USC over Notre Dame at South Bend in 1931 with Jones as coach that prompted the school from the West to catapult into the same elite circle with ND. This, understandably, was LeBrock's first choice as he chronologically presented his choices of the ten most significant victories in the school's history.
Two other victories over Notre Dame also fell into the elite ten category, the others being 1964 with a 20-17 upset over the number one ranked Irish and the benumbing 55-24 victory over the Irish after the men of Troy overcame a 24-0 deficit and appeared ready to sustain a humiliating defeat.
While the title scheme and a certain amount of emphasis on LeBrock's part extend to the ten victories selected, the book has much more. He leads into those classic games by giving shape and perspective to the Trojan program during the periods in question before and after the classic victories then reveals the aftermath of the impact on the school's overall program.
For instance, in analyzing the great 1931 triumph solid emphasis is given to the winning mentality developed by Howard Jones in establishing a juggernaut that provided national titles in 1928, 1931, 1932 and 1939.
We then see a passing of the dynastic baton almost one generation after Jones's death from a heart attack following his final season in 1940 to the advent of witty and jovial John McKay, the architect of the 1964 and 1974 storybook wins over the Fighting Irish and the molder of four USC national champions in 1962, 1967, 1972 and 1974.
Another game put in LeBrock's top ten was one of the most memorable of McKay's career, when USC battled crosstown rival UCLA for the 1967 national championship. The Bruins featured the quarterback who would win the Heisman Trophy that season in Gary Beban. The game's deciding touchdown in USC's exciting 21-20 win was scored on a 64-yard romp by O.J. Simpson, the Heisman winner to be in 1968.
Once that the McKay years are completed LeBrock segues to the era of Pete Carroll, the next and current USC dynasty coach. His first top ten selection concerning Carroll was a 27-0 shutout of UCLA in 2001 in what he sees as a milestone game in which the Trojans made significant inroads into the future and the recruiting war with the Bruins.
One of my favorite elements of this book is the way that the author explores the USC winning tradition based on the productive careers of three coaches, providing an important insight into winning psychology. Given that there are a lot more people to interview concerning the McKay and Carroll dynasties, this psychological element involving a dynastic football program can be explored at greater detail than in the case of Jones, the great coach who built an impressive Trojan foundation in the twenties and thirties.
Current USC athletic director plays a major role in the development of this book. In addition to writing the foreword, he was recruited by McKay and became USC's first Heisman winner in 1965. As athletic director he was responsible for hiring Carroll over the vociferous objections of many L.A. sports media figures and prominent school alumni, who were proven wrong by Carroll's enormous success.
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