Category: Track & Field

Virtually, the world’s only coeducational sport!

Posted on

USC Crushes UCLA with Style!

new Trojan Banner I've seen around a lot lately

Well… in all my memory, I can’t remember a USC-UCLA dual meet that wasn’t fraught with controversy. Last year, it was the ‘lost’ long jump results that would have given USC the win… this year it was the long jump again… but it went USC’s way. Although it was a USC home meet, there was some talk about a former UCLA hurdler turned judge who disqualified the USC athlete who was the big winner… and it goes on and on. Naturally, UCLA had their own take on the subject. I’d have more sympathy for my former team if I hadn’t watched the circus of deliberate distractions happening while my daughter was trying to throw last year for ‘SC… Karen’s tough and she won anyway. We got a big chuckle later watching and listening to the film of folks trying to razz Karen. Champions don’t beat themselves.

In issue 176 of Karen’s Blog… she writes about the USC-UCLA meet… “It doesn’t get better than this!”.

One of the things people ask you about this duel … and I was asked three times at the meet… “How did you do when you competed in it?” In those days, UCLA won so infrequently against ‘SC that they passed out silver track shoes if you scored any points! They stopped this after 1972. As for me, I only lost once against the now former Trojan record holder in the shot… and only lost once to a Trojan as a freshman in the discus. One kindly older gent asked me why I wasn’t on the all-time Trojan list… some nice folks forget. Yep, I threw for the other guys.

It is always a great meet.

Fight On!

Roger Freberg

PS. UCLA needs someone (Nigel, perhaps) to help them design better uniforms… the old ones were much better….. and the sweats were very cool.

Oh yes... the old uniforms were much better

Posted on

Fight On! USC-UCLA Track Meet!

USC and UCLA 2007 Track And Field Press Conference!

Very few track meets pit one great team against another now-a-days and this is unfortunate… most meets feature many schools together. However, the USC-UCLA dual meet has always been a historical event… and competing in it retains city bragging rights…. forever. When alumni meet years later… they will always ask,” how did you do in THE dual meet?” Some folks will say,” I never lost… or it took me four years to win one…”… but everyone KNOWS who did what and when… also WHO didn’t.

Last year, Karen PR’d in 3 events winning the Shot Put at 57-07.5. The key word in the entire sentence is that ‘she won.’ She also left as the Trojan record holder.

I participated in the meet in my time and won… although I was on the other side as the Bruin recordholder for roughly 10 years or so. It was always so much better to meet alumni when you won. However, I picked up my two masters at Southern Cal… and that always ment a lot to me.

The latest press conference brought out a lot of ‘talk’… but the match-ups are set and all that is left is the meet. USC’s take on the meet. It’ll be a fun meet to watch.

Fight On!

Roger Freberg

Posted on

American Great Parry O’Brien Passes On…

1957 finds former Trojan and Olympic Great Parry O'Brien throwing the discus in Iowa 

I was reading on one of the track sites in a post by Harold Connolly that Parry O’Brien passed away. I first learned to throw the shot by studying frame-by-frame pictures of his efforts.

In the photo above, Parry competes in the discus in 1957 in Iowa. O’Brien held the world record in the shot put from 1953 until 1959. At the Drake Relays in 1954 he broke his own world record in the shot put. O’Brien won 18 National AAU championships, 17 of them in the shot and one in the discus.

He was inducted and honored many times… most importantly — to me — he was a Trojan Hall of Famer. He will always be remembered as an inspiration in track & field.

Fight On , Parry.

Roger Freberg

Posted on

Coaches as ‘Mentors’

Coach Ron Allice of the Southern California Trojans... Head Track Coach & Mentor
Recently, Laura and I went back to a couple of high school track meets … it is always fun to see ambitious young athletes striving for perfection. What struck me very odd was some of the old feelings of foreboding. Then I saw some familiar track coaches and I realized why. They think the sport is all about them. As ‘Maranda’ said, “Don’t be silly, everyone wants to be us!”

Sports — contrary to folks like Florida’s Urban Myer –should be about athletes and at the high school level should be as much about their future beyond athletics as their future as an athlete.

Coaching should be as much about mentoring and personal development as about athletic performance. I have always respected coaches who can do both… they employ the power of positive coaching and work towards the personal development of the athletes in fields other than their sport. Just like the late great Coach of Grambling University, they are loved by their athletes for reasons beyond their sport.

I see Head Track & Field Coach Ron Allice of the Southern California Trojans in that rare breed of ‘mentoring’ coaches. He definitely has his ‘eye on the prize’, he wants to win, but he supports his athletes to be all they can be in life. 

Roger Freberg