FW: What USC Rugby means to you - John Callaghan (Head Coach)
Dominic Riebli
To help USC Rugby build memories like Coach Callaghan’s, please contribute to our fundraising campaign (link here).
From: John Callaghan [mailto:call...@usc.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 10:31 PM
To: Dominic Riebli <dominic...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: What USC Rugby means to you - Mitch Morrison '75
Dominic,
Many thanks for your note, and for forwarding the epistle from Mitch Morrison.
Unfortunately I could not see Mitch’s e mail address, so cannot write to him directly to thank him for bringing back so many wonderful memories of that time when I had the pleasure and privilege of coaching the USC 🏉 Rugby team.
Perhaps you will be good enough to forward this note on to Mitch wherever he might now be.
I retired from the Faculty of the University, USC, just last year after four decades of teaching there - but way back, after that great 1972 season, I left the University to take a position in London, England. However, I returned four years later, 1977, on the invitation of the then President, Dr John Hubbard, who I had got to know well in earlier times.
Sadly, the rugby program by then just seemed to have somehow lost its’ way, and was nothing like as prominent or as powerful as it had been.
But going back to the earlier times, I well remember so many of the wonderful players who came out on to Cromwell Field to train and indeed to learn the game. Footballers galore came out, and certainly not initially, to the pleasure of Coach John McKay. But I do recall one occasion when he and Craig Fertig came out for one of our big games to watch - and no doubt to check on the progress of his stars ........and we had quite a few !! I think that eventually they realized that this was a marvelous experience for everyone, and what they learned at this “new game”, could well be beneficial when playing football !
Sadly, I don’t see many of the old faces these days......Bob Klein regularly when playing golf at LACC; Tom Reynolds when he makes an annual visit to L.A; John Alschuler periodically at the Desert. Tony Dawson became an airline pilot 👨✈️, but has now retired to somewhere in Montana I believe. All those other wonderful characters are now just great memories...........
I still live in Los Angeles, in Hancock Park, and I visit the University fairly regularly as I am on one or two committees........the Retired Faculty Association......and if any of the old group were ever on campus, it would be simply great to get together for lunch or whatever.
Mitch, thank you for your wonderfully detailed letter, recalling so many of the players, the great characters that they were. It was a great time in my life to be associated with all of them.
Kindest regards,
John Callaghan.
P.S. Dominic....if you let me have the Spring Schedule for team, I shall certainly come out for a game or two.
Thank you.
Sent from my iP
On Dec 4, 2018, at 2:07 PM, Dominic Riebli <dominic...@gmail.com> wrote:
Professor Callaghan, hope this email finds you well. I thought you might like to read the below from one of your former players.
You and I corresponded 3 years ago during suspension hearings. We navigated those waters and are on pretty stable ground now; hoping for a good season this Spring.
On Dec 4, 2018, at 2:40 PM, Dominic Riebli <dominic...@gmail.com> wrote:Thank you everyone who participated in last week’s #GivingTuesday. Because of your generosity, we are over halfway toward our goal. Please keep the donations coming by clicking the link here.
In a continuation of the series, I’ve asked some distinguished alums to share their thoughts on their time at SC. Here is the second installment from Mitch Morrison ’75. Read and feel awe inspired the massive amount of talent on display in the Pac 8 during his time.
On Wednesday, November 21, 2018, 12:25:05 PM PST, Mitchell Morrison < > wrote:
USC rugby for me goes down as some of the best days of my life. I was recruited to play SC Rugby by John Callahan in the late fall of 1972. John Callahan, a provost at USC, was the former rugby coach from St Marys College of Ireland. John chose to do something no one at USC would have even attempted. That was going head to head and challenge another John…as in John McKay…who was perhaps the best coach at USC football ever. John McKay was pretty much "God" at USC back then. I am, still to this day, flabbergasted that John Callahan had the balls (it takes leather balls to play rugby) to challenge John McKay and recruit his own football players for rugby.
In 1968 USC Rugby won the equivalent of the US National Rugby championship. Back then, whoever won the Monterey Rugby Tournament was considered champs of all USA rugby. After the 1968 rugby season, McKay banned all football players from playing rugby at USC because too many starting SC football players were getting hurt playing rugby. The rugby team was now no more and was no longer even funded because of not enough participation for 4 years running. In 1972 John Callahan had mustered the courage to go into Heritage Hall football locker room and recruit USC Football Players for the upcoming Rugby season. Keep in mind the 1972 football team was playing in the Rose Bowl against Ohio State for the National Championship. Jan 1, 1973, USC defeated the Buckeyes 42-17 and set all-time Rose Bowl attendance record of 106,869 and the NCAA bowl game attendance record.
Some of us in the football program, myself included, went out for rugby anyway.
We had about five football players defect to Rugby. Other groups joined like the graduate USC football players, Scott Webber, ex USC football all PAC 8, Steve Erickson, the ex USC football captain, Mike Swiderski, USC baseball and also became a U.S. Eagles player. Dave Boulware, Pat Morris, myself came on board as well as track and swimming guys. Graduates: Ron Guss, Brown Jaynes, and Tom Reynolds was an ex-starting linebacker from Notre Dame University, a graduate student player and Tony Dawson former English full-back joined and coached the team with John. The fraternities stepped up big and we had at least 20 from the Sigs, KAs, Kappa Sigs, SAE's, Betas etc. The Delts had the most at one time as 9 Delts were on the 1st or 2nd teams. We could field two full teams back then and still had about 8 or 9 extra players. Stanford and Cal had enough players for three full teams apiece and UCLA had four full rugby sides at the time.
We practiced 5 days every week and live scrimmages four days a week. Most of us did not know the game very well in those early games. As the season went along that USC rugby team was in better shape than any team we faced all year and tough as nails because we had live scrimmages almost every day. In that 1973 season, we tied Cal 4-4 on Cromwell field. Cal, who had at least 20 football players and six who got drafted in the NFL that same year, was really pissed they tied us and the rugby after party was not so well attended by them. We lost that year to UCLA and Stanford in regulation games very badly. UCLA had Randy Cross, lock forward, on that team. Randy became the center for Super Bowl 49ers and made all pro. Dave Dalby, lock forward, became an Oakland Raiders guard, Mark Harmon (quarterback) playing inside center and others who were pretty famous. NFL all-pros, movie stars were who we faced on the pitch. Stanford, back then, had almost the entire football team playing rugby, Eric Test, the father of Zack Test (U.S. Eagle), became a U.S. Eagle. Eric was also drafted by the Oakland Raiders. Greg Zaltoski, the leading PAC 8 football punt returner, was on that team we faced.
In spite of all this, we won enough games to get invited to the Monterey National Rugby Tournament. On a cold winter day with an 8 am start time at Monterey, we defeated Stanford, who had beaten CAL and UCLA that year. It was called the biggest upset of the tournament. I think we finished 9th out of 32 teams that year.
Thus the rebirth of proud USC Rugby. John McKay was not totally against rugby he just was looking after his players. McKay went to the NFL in 1975 and John Robinson took over as the head coach. More football players joined the ranks of USC rugby after McKay: John and Phil Cantwell, Doug Hogan, Norm Lacy, Dale Logie, Bill O’Brian, as well as former U.S. Eagle player Dave Morrison (my brother), a graduate player from Stanford football and rugby.
My advice to all USC teams going forward: recruit, recruit, recruit and scrimmage four days a week and you will win them all! Fight On Forever!
Best Regards
Mitch Morrison