Tag: Traveler

USC football traditions for visiting Big Ten fans at the Coliseum

USC is a citadel of tradition in college football.

Trojans Wire talks about the USC football traditions that Big Ten fans can enjoy when they visit the Coliseum this year and in the near future. The lighting of the Olympic Torch on the east side of the stadium, at the peristyle end of the Coliseum, is one such tradition.  USC’s horse mascot Traveler and its triumphant sprint down the sidelines after every Trojan touchdown is a staple of football games in the venerable stadium which has hosted multiple Olympic Games and Super Bowls. Kicking the flagpole just outside the Philosophy Library at the  south end of campus for luck started by the USC Spirit of Troy Marching Band is another tradition.  The Jeweled Shillelagh is given to the winner of the USC versus Notre Dame game and the Victory Bell is given to the winner of USC versus UCLA. The “V” for victory sign is part of life at USC. Hear someone else say “Fight on!,” and the big V comes out.

We talked about this and more at The Voice of College Football:

https://www.youtube.com/live/ec1FoKT_GXo?si=TpyjjSdjaPBqX-8r&t=1951

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USC scored so many points so quickly that Traveler needed a rest vs Stanford

#USC knows how to take care of Traveler. The school made sure the beloved horse rested when USC scored all those first-half TDs.

The Oregon Duck mascot does push-ups when UO scores a touchdown. Last week, Oregon scored 81 points, causing the Oregon Duck to do 546 push-ups during the game. The USC Trojans have their own mascot workout, but in this case, it’s a real animal doing the work, not a human in a mascot outfit.

Traveler, the beloved Trojan horse who gallops around the Coliseum field after USC touchdowns at home games, had a very, very busy first half on Saturday.

USC scored three touchdowns in the first quarter, then two more touchdowns in the first five minutes of the second quarter, then a third touchdown with 6:46 left before halftime. That’s six Traveler touchdown gallops in a quarter and a half.

That’s a lot of work, far more than what the beautiful animal normally expects to do.

Cooler, calmer, wiser heads prevailed. It wasn’t necessary to run the horse into the ground. This isn’t horse racing. The USC staff very thoughtfully did not insist on running Traveler around the Coliseum after USC’s seventh first-half touchdown.

Like Caleb Williams, this workhorse got a rest.

Here’s how all of this went down, with reactions and video included: