Josh on USC: The Missing Intro

J tells me this blog is supposed to be somewhat of a personal thing. So here’s some background. I was welcomed into my first family by my mom and dad back in ’86. I joined my second family in ’92 when I accepted the everlasting love, eternal grace, and miraculous gift that is Jesus Christ into my heart. I became a part of my third family in ’04 when I returned the letter that came in the “big envelope” to the University of Southern California. My fourth family.. well, my fourth family is what the rest of this blog is about, and I’ll leave that telling up to J. I’m here to discuss that third family.

USC is a private university located in the heart of Los Angeles and the 23rd ranked college in the US (1). The recent university brass (Sample and now Nikias) have taken it upon themselves to push USC into becoming one of the top educational schools in the nation (2). I say educational because we have always been the top football school in the nation (3). We have 11 national championships and have put more kids into the NFL than any other university (4). From the Juice, to Allen, to White, Garrett, AD, Palmer, Seau, Lott, Swann, Del Rio, Haden, Leinart, Bush, Palmer, Polamalu, etc., etc., we have more than enough tradition and heritage for that claim.

I was welcomed into the Trojan family in ’04 and graduated with a degree in biomedical engineering in ’08 before going back for a master’s degree through ’10. I bleed cardinal and gold and care (5) about college football in a way only those from the old confederate would understand (6). I graduated, maybe for the last time, from USC in ‘10, but I’ll never really leave. Like they say, “You’re a bruin for 4 years but a Trojan for life.”

Now, it’s gametime. Fight on. I leave you all with this:

(1) http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/spp+25 Bruins, I understand these rankings “don’t mean anything”, but that’s not what you were saying up until 2 years ago. Although I must say, I am impressed with your ability to stay at the top of the nation with the same budget my high school operated under.
(2) They have been doing a very good job. http://uscnews.usc.edu/university/usc_announces_largest_fundraising_campaign_in_higher_education_history.html Money isn’t everything, but it does matter. Most of the universities in the top 25 can also be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment
(3) arguably – settle down Texas, ND, OSU, Ok, Fl St., and Bama fans
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USC_Trojans_football
(5) http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/07/sports/la-sp-0908-ucla-football-20110908 I'm going to miss that guy.
(6) hi willis’.