USD Football 1992

"I think I could have been good, but I don't know if it would have turned out the same way." said Gifford of his shon stint as a signal-caller. "I was a victim of my own talent, because I could do anything well enough 10 play." Robenson saw the beginning of the end against Cal in the first quaner. "Frank called a weirdo play," Robenson said. "Everyone went one way, and he went the other and got sacked. That was the end of his quanerback career at USC." The Trojans lost that game 10 the Golden Bears. 13-7. and Cravath lost his job to Howard Jones understudy Jess Hill when USC finished the '50 season at 2-5-2. That Gifford led the Trojans in scori ng with only 25 points - only fi ve other teams have had a lower seasonal-best figure in the 67-year history of USC football - illustrates how deep the program had sunk. Hill then

attack. and Gifford grabbed headlines every weekend by being Hill's triple-threat back. The Trojans responded to the new system with four wins in a row before playing California, owners of a 38-game, regular-season winning streak and the nation's top ranking. in Berkeley. Four years earlier in Strawberry Canyon, Cravath was the mastermind behind Cal's only previous loss. a 39- 14 drubbing 10 USC. And the '51 game staned out looking like the Golden Bears' 39th consecutive win when they took a 14-0 lead into halftime. But Bakersfield's pride and joy, as one scribe tabbed Gifford (another called him "The Blond Bombshell"), shocked a crowd of 8 1,490 with a 69-yard touchdown run halfway through the third quaner that cut USC's deficit in half. Hit by a high fever two days before the Saturday, Oct. 20 game, Gifford wasn't cleared to play by team doctors until just before kickoff. "I didn't think about much of anything," Gifford said afterward, "except how won– derful it was to get those great blocks out there in the open. The blocker cenainly made me look good o n that one

Gifford later threw a six-yard touchdown pass to Dean Schneider 10 tie the game, 14- 14, and with five minutes to play and Cal in possession of the ball, Gifford called the Trojans ' offensive unit together on the sideline and said. "We've got 'em whipped now, fellas, let's go." Two minutes later. Leon Sellers slammed through the right side of the USC line for a two-yard touchdown run that sealed the Trojans' improbable 2 1-14 win. "I actually had more fun beating my buddies from high school," Gifford said of Golden Bears Les Richter and Bob Karpe, whom Gifford has teamed with in private business. "They gave me hell for going to 'SC." Gifford ran for 115 yards, completed five of seven halfback-option passes for 59 yards and booted a pair of punts out of bounds within Cal's 5-yard line. "Boy, were we fired up," Gifford said after the game. '·We thought all along that we'd win. No. We didn't have any doubt, even at the half." The Trojans ran their record to 6-0 with a win over Texas Christian the following week, then had a game against Army in Yankee Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 3, that solidified Gifford's place among national critics, who until then had given scant credit to the athlete from "the Coast.'' uln his unveiling here," wrote Allison Danzig of the New Yo rk

ThePrudent1al ~

The financial s tre n g th of T h e Prude n tial. Rock Solid~