Please, Don’t End the USC vs Notre Dame Annual Rivalry…

USC vs NOTRE DAME, streaky and all-consuming since 1926…

Allen Wallace (TDB)  —  It’s Rockne vs Jones. Midwest vs West Coast. Private vs Private. South Bend vs L.A. Deep Blue vs Cardinal Red. McKay vs Parshegian.

The Bush Push, Green Jerseys, Heisman’s galore, NC’s in the balance, the huge wooden Trojan Horse in South Bend, sending off a glum, defeated Lou Holtz in his final game as ND’s coach 27-20 in OT at the

Coliseum, the 55-24 ’74 Comeback, and too many absolutely fantastic outcomes, heartbreaks, miracles, and heroes on both sides to recount over 95 total games. Each knows the other is undisputably their greatest rival.

In Marv Goux’s day, it was also always “Big Man vs Big Man“, to use his term. I still remember Goux showing up at the Sigma Chi house in the early ’70s to give us raucous pep talks before the heavily anticipated USC/ND game.

(Incidentally, I was surprisingly introduced to Goux’s daughter this weekend. She seemed joyfully inspired to know she had met yet another Trojan out there who remembered her dad as arguably the finest USC assistant coach in history. We gave each other the Fight On! sign before she graciously thanked me for my admiration of her father, McKay’s perennial right-hand man, who also had much to do with reeling in OJ Simpson for the Trojans).

As a center and LB for USC, Goux played against Notre Dame in 1952, ’54 and ’55.
“In the 1952 game, I intercepted a deflected pass and three guys hit me and nailed me to the ground,” Goux recalled. “I saw stars. I staggered off the field, but I didn’t want to show them that I was hurt. I carry my Notre Dame trophy with me everywhere I go.”