...and their memories

Hazel Browning
Says Dan Smith: Hazel was a journalism major and, accordingly, was required to work on the paper. She did simply the required jobs--at that time it was a year as a reporter, a semester as a copy editor (one night a week) and a semester as a news editor (one night a week). Add your own memory

Richard "Dick" Patman
You asked about favorite memories while working for the DT. There were many. It was a wonderful four years, some of the happiest of my entire life. We had a truly outstanding staff...I was lucky enoughÊto work for people like Garry Short,ÊJoe Jares and Jim Bylin. ÊÊJoe Saltzman was an effective editor and always gave me great latitude concerning the sports page. I recall with great clarity the special DT edition about SC's track and field legacy that we issued in spring 1959. I was lucky enough to write much of that material. Track was a co-first love of mine, along with football, and I traveled with the team to the NCAA meet in Berkeley in 1961 and also covered the Olympic final tryouts at Stanford in 1960. I recall, among many other memories: (1)Êmeeting and discussing track with Jesse Owens at a Los Angeles sportwriters luncheon, (2) watching Dallas Long break the national shot put record on his FIRST THROW AS AÊFRESHMAN on Cromwell Field against Pierce JC, (3) doing all night duty on the fourth floor of the Student UnionÊduring the week preceeding the UCLA gameÊ(looking for wayward Bruins trying to paint Tommy Trojan) and (4) uncovering the story of ÊWorld War II experiences of Trojan miler Atis Petersons whose family was trapped between the Nazis and Russians, and then seeing my DT article picked up by the L.A. Herald-Examiner and run verbatim complete with credit. The sports office in those days was filled with Playboy centerfolds (risque stuff for the 50s) and we surely did get our share of visitors!! It was a wonderful time, and I value it to this day. Add your own memory

Peter Plagens
I'm afraid i'm not in contact with anybody from my DT era, although i've given passing thought to wondering where larry fisher and wes gregory have gone. never played in a blood bowl (b'ball was my sport). and i was a kind of independent contractor, the art student who brought in his cartoon once a week on wednesday, and not really part of the paper's 'culture,' as they'd put it these days. DT parties much better, however, than my frat's, and more adult-drunk than kegger-drunk. brought a date to one who modeled in life drawing classes, a bit of a beatnik. she brought her guitar and did joan baez. some large guy named george was inebriated and besotten with her, wasn't going to let me leave with her. threatened him with a broken bottle, and other calmer people prevailed upon him to let us go home peacefully. vaguely remember a guy still with a high-school elvis-y haircut dutifully bringing in his frat's party date list for the social page and whining about lack of coverage: donald segretti, a minor watergate player. that's about it. Add your own memory

Dan Smith
The most memorable event in the world when I was editor was the assassination of John Kennedy. It shocked the entire campus (the whole world,for that matter) and brought everything to a halt for several days. We managed to get an edition out that I think provided some good coverage to the campus reaction to this terrible thing. Otherwise, USC in those days was trying to be "an Isle of Tranquility," as the dean of students put it, while most campuses were swirling in student protest and demonstrations. The administration wanted to keep everything calm--I recall the University President in one somber meeting warning me I was meddling in Trustee business because I wanted to report some controversial stuff. It was a challenge to come up with coverage that I felt did not compromise my journalistic integrity without getting fired. The Daily Trojan staff of that day was a pretty close-knit group of people with real talent and skills. My class was probably the smallest in the Journalism School history (seven--four men and three women). Fortunately the next class was larger and, as I say, we had a good staff. The paper was selected as the top student newspaper in the state that year. Add your own memory

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