Saturday, April 19, 2008

Exhibition celebrates centennial of Gamble House - Pasadena Star-News
The year was 1908. Henry Ford introduced his Model T. Admiral Peary set sail for the North Pole. William Howard Taft won the White House, and in Pasadena architects Charles and Henry Greene broke ground for what would become the masterpiece of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America, the Gamble House.

Commissioned by Mary and David Gamble of Cincinnati, heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune, the mansion became the winter residence for two generations of Gambles. At one time, the family contemplated selling the house, but soon reneged when the potential buyers mentioned painting the magnificent hand-rubbed woodwork white "to brighten it up." Knowing its architectural significance, the family retained the property until 1966 when they deeded it to the city of Pasadena in a joint agreement with the USC School of Architecture. It was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1977 and underwent a major restoration in 2004...

Friday, April 18, 2008

USC coaching continuity keys strong spring camp - Inland Empire Press-Enterprise
It was one of those moments scripted as if by a comedy writer with an equal sense of timing -- and irony.

The day UCLA's football players went "over the wall" and skipped out the gate to blow off practice while coaches fumed, USC may have had its best practice of the Pete Carroll era.

CBS' Craig James said he'd never seen a team hit, especially one not in full pads, and compete the way the Trojans did. Ditto for Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel, who's been coming to see USC work out for four or five years.

Maybe there is something to having a coaching staff that for the first time in Carroll's seven seasons hasn't turned over, not a single spot...
SC’s Keith Rivers hopes to follow long line of Trojan greats in the NFL - KC Star
The jersey number at the University of Southern California is handed down from one player to the next as if it were a family heirloom.

No. 55.

It went from Junior Seau to Willie McGinest to Chris Claiborne to … Keith Rivers.

Seau, Claiborne and Rivers were All-American linebackers. And Seau, Claiborne and McGinest were first-round picks in the NFL draft, a legacy Rivers hopes to continue.

“That’s a big tradition,” Rivers acknowledged at the NFL scouting combine. “Great linebackers have worn it and made it proud. I was honored to have it and tried to do my best to live up to it.”...

Also, Rivers proves he can drive 55 - Detroit News
Keith's Journals - Yardslice.com
[Mandel] Sanchez expected to continue USC's long line of excellence at QB - CNNSI
...Carroll and Sarkisian decreed that fourth-year junior Mark Sanchez had performed impressively enough in that environment to officially earn the Trojans' starting job, and on this day, Sanchez clearly looks like a No. 1 guy both in performance and demeanor. With the pocket collapsing around him on one play, Sanchez laces a throw to Vidal Hazelton across the middle, eliciting a roar from coaches and teammates behind him and causing the ever-excitable Carroll to start racing down the field while marking a first-down signal. (Everyone runs at USC practices, even the guys holding the down-and-distance chains).

When it's time for one of his fellow quarterbacks, Mitch Mustain or Aaron Corp, to take their reps, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Sanchez is the most vocal cheerleader on the sideline. "C'mon Garrett, let's see what you got,"...All the while, he sports a mile-wide smile, high-fiving and joking with teammates...
USC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis is a beast who’s a beauty - KC Star
Of all the awards and trophies handed out in college football, this may be the most obscure.

But to USC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, it was the most cherished.

Ellis was a two-time winner of the Morris Trophy, which goes to the best lineman in the Pacific-10. It’s not the Heisman Trophy or the Outland Trophy or the Lombardi Award, nor is it determined by a vote of the media or the coaches.

What makes the Morris Trophy so special to Ellis is that it is voted on by the league’s starting offensive linemen.

“I hold it in high regard as one of the best awards because it’s voted on by your peers, by the people you play against,” Ellis said...
Lockwood candidate for BHS grid job - Boulder Daily Camera
...the job of Boulder High head football coach apparently is still a pretty coveted one.

Coveted enough anyway to attract the interest of one of the biggest prep football names the city has produced.

The Camera has learned that former Fairview High running back Scott Lockwood has applied to become BHS' next coach.

Lockwood was a Parade All-American for the Knights in the mid-1980s before playing collegiately at USC and spending three seasons in the NFL...