...and their memories

Carol Brownstein
I was trying to locate some other Carol Brownstein who lives in Marina del Rey and whose mail I have apparently been getting, and I stumbled across your site. Wow, it brings back a lot of memories seeing all those names! What a great site! It's cool to see what everyone's up to these days. You've done an excellent job compiling and maintaining all the info. It had been so long, I had forgotten what a blast it was working for the DT, and how much fun everyone was. The last DTer I talked to was David Hernandez a couple years ago. We kept in touch for a bit until our busy lives intervened. Add your own memory

Kristofer Chun
As for events at school... Gulf War #1: What I remember most is that how great it was to have both sides represented well on campus. Those who supported our every effort and those with the signs "No Blood for Oil" I covered many rallies/protests for the DT and have some great shots in my porfolio from the experience. But the DT lost a great photographer because of the war. Rocco (can't remember his last name Eddie might) was in the National Guard. No he didn't die, but he was called up and had to leave school for a year, I don't think he ever returned to the DT. Riots: I remember studying (cramming) when a security guard escorted me out of the library to a van and took me back to my apartment on the Wednesday the Riots started. We all went to the roof of Troy Hall to look at the fires burning. I remember thinking HOLY SHIT, tomorrow is stop day, but I have 2 finals on Friday -- this is BAD. I need to learn a semester's worth of information in two days and there is no way I can study now. At graduation, I remember my friends posing with National Guards men and thanking them for being there. Magic Johnson HIV announcement: I was walking back from class and someone walked out of TSC and said "Magic has AIDS." I walked in and he was doing his press conference. I honestly think it was the quitest I ever heard campus. The days at the DT: The photogs and cartoonists were always banished to the back corner. I remember everyone having a crush on Tracy Wilson. And hanging out with Larry and Dan. Ignoring (Chief Photog) John. Having to shoot "Trojan on the Street" was the worst assignment you could get. Senior year I had to take too many classes (one semester I took 24 units) because I needed to make up some GEs that I had been putting off. Therefore I had to give up the photography. As my dad put it. "I'm paying for 4 years if you want to take five that is fine, but your dime" I had a lot of incentive to finish. Glad you have put the effort into this site. It is great to hear what is going on with the crew. Add your own memory

Neil D'Monte
I was the guy who came in there with the long black hair (I think that I had the longest hair out of guys on the campus as Grunge was "in" then). It's funny, though, I miss being a student at 'SC. After graduating, I see my 'SC friends rarely and wish that we could all still be hanging out together. Add your own memory

James Drnec
Spent one (maybe two) semesters writing music reviews and enjoyed it. Can't really remember why I stopped. [Yes, the mind does that for protection after many a DT party. -Ed.] Add your own memory

Trisha Fike
She wrote 60+ articles, mostly film reviews and interviews with actors and directors, for the paper as a freelance contributor. Add your own memory

W. Guy Finley
The end of my academic career (to date anyway) came to an end at a very intersting time -- the Rodney King Case and the subsequent L.A. Riots. The day of the verdict I had a gig to park cars in Santa Monica at a hotel. Obviously the news about what was going on was starting to hit the street and after watching some news coverage I knew I couldn't go back to campus. Fortunately American Express had recently graced me with a card so I got a room at a cheap motel in Santa Monica. I checked in with my valet company to find out that Hugh Hefner was having his party come hell or high water. So, I drove to the Hills to park cars for Hef's party. I parked cars all day and then it came time to go home which was an interesting adventure. It appeared that things had mostly died down so I decided to give it a try. So, the great journey home began. I got on the 405 and it was a parking lot, wall to wall cars and hardly moving at all. I was very glad I had plenty of gas in the ole 85 Civic that day. After a couple of hours on the 405 I finally got to the 5 and it was the absolute opposite -- I don't think anyone was going east on the 5 that day besides me!! What I saw was the most surreal thing I have ever seen in my life -- a Los Angeles freeway completely devoid of traffic and huge plumes of smoke coming up from either side of it. There were a few cars going west but not too many and I don't recall a single car going east as I was. Needless to say, the smoke got thicker the closer to campus I got. I was living in Annenberg House (that's what they call it now, I don't think that's what it was at the time) which is way on the north side of campus. I got off on Vermont I want to say and it was an utter wasteland -- burned out buildings every few blocks. There wasn't much sign of carnage as apparently it had been hit early in the riots and people had moved on. I got to the building and fortunately second semester I lucked into parking in the building which is under the building and secured which made me feel good. The problem was the security system in the building had been shut down and I had no way to get in. I picked up the security phone and was told that everyone had been evacuated to campus but they would send someone up to let me in. Not wanting to miss security I decided to wait in front of the building (thinking back I have no idea why). LAPD cars would rush by every now and then but other than that it was pretty quiet. Then, a man pushing a shopping cart piled with several bags of loot comes down the sidewalk to where I was at the front of the building. He tells me he knows someone who lives there and they asked him to get their stuff (interesting tale). I told him I couldn't get in myself. He didn't believe me and after a few minutes of conversation including me even swiping my card for him to show it didn't work he went on his way. Security showed up a bit later and I spent the night on the floor of my living room with my sand wedge by my side. The next day things had greatly cleared up so I grabbed my trusty Pentax and headed down Vermont to photograph the carnage. I made my way to the University Village where National Guard units had secured the mall. I even interviewed some of the Guardsmen and, as I recall, they were brandishing M-16s with empty magazines -- they didn't even have magazines as I remember. I'll have to dig through my photos and scan them so maybe one day I will complete the DT story I never wrote. As I remember I called the office and was told they had plenty of copy and photos already so I was tardy to the party but had an interesting ride nonetheless. My other big story was the one that fell into my lap when an anonymous person wrote to all incoming African American freshman about racism at 'SC. I'll have to look at my article to piece that one back together in my mind though. Add your own memory

Brian Finnerty
I came to USC to study computer science. One day our department received a request for a computer science grad student to help j-school students with elementary computing skills. I got sent over, and the rest was history: I enjoyed the taste of journalism, starting writing for the Daily Trojan, and with the encouragement of Professor Ed Cray, enrolled in the journalism program myself. One of my first memories at the DT was describing to my editor some bitter, ugly, nasty dispute in some department, and getting her excited response, "Oh, that's great!" After USC, I was hired at Investor's Business Daily by Susan Warfel, a fellow USC alumnus. I covered mostly hi-tech companies. Afterward, I began doing public relations for Opus Dei, a Catholic organization that I belong to. I became our U.S. communications director in 1999. My favorite assignment: helping with the media relations effort when Pope John Paul II canonized Opus Dei's founder in 2002. Among the nice coverage we received was an article by Martin Mazloom, an old buddy from the Daily Trojan. One of my current hassles: thanks to a bizarre portrayal of Opus Dei in the popular novel "The Da Vinci Code," I now receive queries from people asking how to find the legendary Holy Grail. (Sorry, I don't know where it is.) Add your own memory

Aric Johnson
I was at the DT about the same time as you, started about 1990 and worked through 92 or 93. Did the Gulf War, that was fun. Glen Justice and Petula Dvorak were there too. Taught me a lot. [While at the DT I] did a story on paper mills, bought a term paper and had it graded. The paper cost $140 and was pretty crappy. Add your own memory

Chris Rogness
Don't keep in touch with my old USC buds much anymore, and that's too bad. Hopefully I'll hear from some of 'em.I was a graduate student in print journalism from August of '90 to when I finished my master's in May of '92. I worked at the Daily Trojan because the person teaching the copy editing class at the time (Ann Connors, I think?) required all of us to work there for one semester. I liked it and kept editing and writing headlines during my tenure at USC, and did a bit of writing as well, but that was over a decade ago and my memory has faded. Add your own memory

Greg Sandoval
I was a staff writer on DT, one of the only sports staffers to win best city news story for piece on Todd Marinovich (I should send Todd some flowers, the stories I did on him helped make my career). During the riots I found the guys who shot the Reginal Denny beating and brokered it for them. Made some cabbage and then Times Sports hired me in Nov. 1992. Add your own memory

Travis "Nep" Smith
Probably my best memory of the Daily Trojan is the time George and I literally dove into the sports office to hide from something in the city room, and Matt White, without asking a single question, looked up from his keyboard, saw us, and reached for his baseball bat. We turned and ran so fast, our shadows had to catch up. To this day, there's no doubt in my mind that he was going to bludgeon us to death if we interrupted him from filing his column on time. p.s. He's an Air Force special attack guy now. Add your own memory

George Stankow
My best memory of the DT (at least, the best one for public consumption) didn't even happen there -- during the 1992 riots, I was constantly on the phone with various members of the staff, checking to make sure everyone was all right, spreading information, planning for a special issue if we survived.... Because of the DT's reporting network,, I got to tell my dorm floor that finals had been canceled, about a half hour before the announcement filtered its way through official channels. Add your own memory

Tiffany Tai
I first wrote for the DT sometime between my freshman and sophomore year, under Glen Justice. My most vivid memory: those section meetings in Glen's apartment with the x-rated wallpaper. I had a blast writing for the DT, though for the most part I kept to myself. Many thanks to the awesome guidance of Glen, Petula, Oscar and Roy (I forget his last name). Add your own memory

Rob Verdi
I really had a lot of fun writing for the D.T. Great college memories. Add your own memory

Back to Top