STEVEN TRAVERS

THE USC TROJANS: COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S ALL-TIME GREATEST DYNASTY by STEVEN TRAVERS

FOREWORD BY HALL OF FAMER CHARLES "TREE" YOUNG

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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1589793560/qid=1144613621/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-0561832-7246323?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

PUBLISHED BY TAYLOR TRADE PUBLISHING (2006)

A DIVISION OF ROWMAN & LITTLE FIELD PUBLISHERS

Praise for Steven Travers

Steve Travers is the next great USC historian, in the tradition of Jim Murray, John Hall, and Mal Florence! The Trojan Nation needs more of your work."
- USC Head Football Coach Pete Carroll

Steve Travers combines wit, humor, social pathos and historical knowledge with the kind of sports expertise that only an ex-jock is privy to; it is reminiscent of the work of Jim Bouton, Pat Jordan and Dan Jenkins, combined with Jim Murray's turn of phrase, Hunter Thompson's hard-scrabble Truths, and David Halberstam's unique take on our nation's place in history. His writing is great storytelling, and the result is pure genius every time.
- Westwood One radio personality Mike McDowd

Steve Travers is a great writer, an educated athlete who knows how to get inside the player's heads, and when that happens, greatness occurs. He's gonna be a superstar.
- Dave Burgin/Ex-editor, San Francisco Examiner

Steve Travers is a phenomenal writer, an artist who labors over every word to get it just right, and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of sports and history.
- StreetZebra magazine

Steve Travers is a Renaissance man.
- Jim Rome Show

He is very qualified to continue to write books such as this one. Good job.
- Marty Lurie/"Right Off the Bat" Oakland A's Pregame Host

Steve's a literate ex-athlete, an ex-Trojan, and a veteran of Hollywood, too.
- Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton/XTRA Radio, San Diego

You've done some good writin' dude.
- KFOG Radio, San Francisco

[Travers is] one of the great sportswriters on the current American scene.
- Joe Shea/Radio Talk Host and Editor

Travers appears to have the right credentials for the task.
- USA Today Sports Weekly

A very interesting read which is not your average book. Steve has achieved his bona fides when it comes to having the credentials to write a book like this.
- Geoff Metcalfe/KSFO Radio, San Francisco

Travers' established himself as a writer of many dimensions, a natural.
- John Jackson/Ross Valley Reporter

I love your writings, especially your USC stuff. Big fan!
- Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane

Steve Travers is a true USC historian and a loyal Trojan!
- Former USC football player John Papadakis

Pete Carroll calls you the "next great USC historian. High praise indeed."
- Rob Fukuzaki, ABC/7 Los Angeles sports anchor

"One Night, Two Teams" is a book like Roger Kahn's "Boys of Summer" that people will be talking about two decades from now.
- Fred Wallin, Business Talk Radio

"The Good, the Bad & the Ugly Los Angeles Lakers" is a great new book.
- Michaela Pereira, KTLA/5, Los Angeles

"A breezy look at A's history."
- Bruce Dancis, Sacramento Bee

On the morning of January 1, 2000, the dawn of the New Millennium, an Associated Press-style "Top 25" of the all-time greatest collegiate football programs of the 20th Century ranked the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the top. Six football seasons have passed since then. A monumental, heretofore never-seen-before dynasty has taken shape, altering the very historical structure of the college grid landscape.

This book argues in convincing and meticulously researched fashion that now, at the beginning of the 2006 season, the University of Southern California Trojans have surpassed Notre Dame as "history's greatest all-time collegiate football program." Named "Collegiate Athletic Department of the 20th Century," USC continues to hold off cross-town rival UCLA for the top spot in that category. The Trojans under John McKay and John Robinson (1962-81) represent the most dominant 20-year period. In addition, Pete Carroll's Trojans of the 2000s threaten to surpass Bud Wilkinson's 1950s Oklahoma Sooners as the greatest dynasty ever. Additionally, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush represent the finest same-team combo since Army's "Mr. Inside" and "Mr. Outside," Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard.

There is no doubt that author Steven Travers's premise will spur lively debate from fans of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Alabama Crimson Tide, Oklahoma Sooners, and other storied programs. While there is no "answer" to the question of, "Whose number one?" the author nevertheless uses statistics, analysis, common-sense and drama to arrive at a conclusion that may be disputed but is not without considerable merit.

THE USC TROJANS: COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S ALL-TIME GREATEST DYNASTY details the fabulous record of Southern California football from the beginning of its storied rivalry with Notre Dame right on up to Travers's eyewitness account of its attempt to win a third straight national championship in 2005. Within these pages, read about USC's tied-for-most-with-Notre Dame 11 national championships and seven Heisman Trophy winners. Written in the non-narrative, reads-like-a-novel style of Tom Wolfe-meets-Jim Murray, Travers brings to vivid life the fabulous moments that make Trojan football the most exciting, dramatic and glamorous of them all.

Read all about the nation-shaping 77-year rivalry with Notre Dame and its ageless, titanic struggle for national supremacy. Herein is the story of the incredible series with UCLA, which has captivated a country, excited a great city, and formed a backdrop for social change. The history of the Rose Bowl is the history of USC and a country through two World Wars and beyond. This books tells the inside details of Sam "Bam" Cunningham and the mythic 1970 USC-Alabama game in Birmingham, which paved the way for the ending of segregation in the American South. It proudly tells the tale of a school and a football program that provided equal opportunities for African-American athletes long before most of the country did.

Here are the great legends, All-Americans, colorful and controversial figures: Brice Taylor, Morley Drury, Erny Pinckert, Cotton Warburton, Ron Yary, Tim Rossovich, Mike Battle, the "Wild Bunch" and the "Cardiac Kids," Charles Young, Richard "Batman" Wood, Lynn Swann, J.K. McKay, Pat Haden, Anthony Davis, Ricky Bell, Brad Budde, Paul McDonald, Ronnie Lott, Junior Seau, Tony Boselli, Keyshawn Johnson, Mike Williams, "Wild Bunch II," and "The Four Horsemen of Southern California": Leinart, Bush, LenDale White, and Dwayne Jarrett.

Heisman winners: Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson, Charles White, Marcus Allen, Carson Palmer, and the incredible Leinart. The iconic coaches: Howard "Head Man" Jones, McKay, Robinson, Pete Carroll. Dark days: the O.J. case, losing streaks to Notre Dame and UCLA, the "curse of Marv Goux" and the "fall of the Trojan Empire." Highlights: Johnny Baker's 1931 field goal to beat Notre Dame; Doyle Nave's pass to "Antelope Al" Kreuger to upset unbeaten, untied, unscored upon Duke in the 1939 Rose Bowl; Frank Gifford leading the 1951 upset of Cal at Berkeley; C.R. Roberts' 251 yards in a racially hostile environment at Texas in 1956; beating Wisconsin's Ron VanderKelen in the 1963 Rose Bowl; Craig Fertig-to-Rod Sherman to upset Notre Dame in 1964; O.J.'s mad dash to beat UCLA in 1967 with a national title on the line; Anthony Davis's two superhuman games against the Irish, including 55 straight points to beat Notre Dame in 1974; Pat Haden-to-J.K. McKay to beat Ohio State in the 1975 Rose Bowl; Frank Jordan's field goal to beat Joe Montana's Irish in 1978; Fred Cornwell's catch to defeat Oklahoma in 1981; and Todd Marinovich-to-Johnny Morton to beat UCLA in 1990.

The miracle comeback at South Bend in 2005. The "resurrection" of the Trojan Empire: routing Oklahoma in the 2005 BCS Orange Bowl.

The "greatest football game ever played" vs. Texas in the 2006 national championship Rose Bowl game.

THE USC TROJANS: COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S ALL-TIME GREATEST DYNASTY, is the most thorough, comprehensive, dramatic telling of the Southern California football story yet told, filled with Hollwood endings that are a must-read for all Trojans and football fans alike!

EXCERPT FROM

"THE USC TROJANS: COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S ALL-TIME GREATEST DYNASTY" by STEVEN TRAVERS

CHAPTER THIRTY-FORTY

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

"Outlined against a blue, gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore, they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden."

- Sportswriter Grantland Rice, 1924

Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Once named Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden, the gladiators of the New Millennium are men of youth, color and American diversity. Their real names are: Leinart, Bush, Jarrett and White. These new Four Horsemen of Southern California came to the land of destiny riding their famed white steed Traveler, that dreaded Coliseum sight of Irish past. They relegated the old Notre Dame ghosts to their place and time, a time when the only color was white, myths were protected, lies told as Truths. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another Fighting Irish team was swept over the precipice at Notre Dame Stadium on the afternoon of Saturday, October 15, 2005. 80,795 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.

These fans observed the changing of the guard, the team of the New Age, the University of the 21st Century. For the better part of the previous century their team held that loftiest position on the grid landscape. No more. Their ancient rivals arrived at their house of worship, paid homage to their shrines, and honored their traditions.
Their skill, class and guts emanated like water pouring forth upon a barren valley, informing all whose eyes saw that Truth, when witnessed in an American arena, is never misunderstood.

The Truth of October 15, 2005, in that most perfect of settings, was that the Trojans of Southern California had taken over from the previous title-holders, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, the lofty moniker Greatest Collegiate Football Tradition of All Time! They did as their legendary old coach, Marv Goux, advised countless legions to do. They did as Goux's beloved granddaughter asked them to do. Four games in four years passed since Kara Kanen advised that future Trojans, "Win one for the Goux!"

For four years now they took on the Irish at home and away. Each time they left them heartbroken in noble defeat. On this day, they would take more than a shillelagh back to Heritage Hall. There was no plaque, no crystal football, nothing inscribed.

There was only pride and knowledge that what they did secured for them everlasting glory. Legends were made. Expectations had been met. 80 years of excellence had not only been lived up to, but exceeded by a new generation. They took the foundation laid brick by brick by decades of Trojans, erecting a higher statue than ever before.

A modern Lancelot led them, for indeed the times he was living in were those of a Camelot quality. His name is Leinart. The similarity to "Lion Heart" is not insignificant. It is, rather, cosmic, for he does not lace his cleats in a land of mere mortals. He is part of something ancient and utterly sacred The standards this tallest and sturdiest of the new Horsemen set under that blue, gray October sky, with the wheat of an Indiana harvest swirling about like so much stardust, are standards that nobody will ever be expected to meet. To strive for, but not to meet.

The second new Horseman's name is Bush. On a field of play where 81 years ago he would have been invited to leave, this step-son of a preacher man stepped up and took a nation, a Trojan Nation, and with his loyal partner with the "Lion Heart" he thus moved mountains on the flat Midwestern plains.

The third new Horseman's name is Jarrett. A babe in the woods, a child desperate to return to his Jersey roots rather than accept the challenges that God graced him with the ability to meet, he did meet them on the green plains of South Bend. He met them; soft of hands and swift of feet did he meet them as he raced through the gauntlet set forth before him. His was a moment of mystery and wonder, a Shakespearean marvel: "There are more things on Heaven and earth, Horatio, than can be dreamt of in your philosophy."

Finally, in the "most Gracious" Shakespearean of seasons, did the fourth new Horseman emerge. His name is White, a famous last name and one he lived up to, as he had taken the previous man's number, 12, and turned it around: 21. In the glare of the spotlight, Mr. White did what makes him splendid. He sacrificed for his team. His name will not be synonymous with the glory and memory of this challenge met under the watchful eye of "Touchdown Jesus," but his mates knew that they would not have been there without his sacrifice.

Thus was history made. Leave no doubt? Thus is the statement made.

****

"Sometime, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys - tell them to go in there with all they'e got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy."

- Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne's apocryphal description of former Irish star George Gipp's dying words.

On a cold November 1920 afternoon in Evanston, Illinois, Notre Dame's first All American, halfback George Gipp, sat shivering under a blanket on the bench as his teammates controlled Northwestern. He had a sickly complexion. He was racked by pain. He coughed violently. Coach Knute Rockne was looking ahead to the big game the following week against Michigan State.
According to a teammate, the star player had fallen behind in his gambling debts. The rumor is that his bookies promised to forgive what he owed if he would sit out the Northwestern game. For three quarters, Gipp did just that.

For reasons that can only be speculated on, Gipp then ignored his respiratory problems, coming off the bench in the fourth quarter to throw a couple of meaningless touchdowns. The scores extended Notre Dame beyond the spread.

In the wake of that game, Gipp was hospitalized. Less than a month later he died of strep throat and pneumonia. Coach Rockne visited him one last time.

"I've got to go Rock," Rockne says the 25-year old Gipp told him. "It's all right. I'm not afraid."

Eight years later at Yankee Stadium, an injury-depleted Irish team trailed at halftime against heavily favored Army. Rockne gathered his team together in the quiet locker room. He told them Gipp once asked a favor of him. Rock told his breathless team that the dying Gipp had said to him:

"Sometime, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys - tell them to go in there with all they've got and 'win just one for the Gipper.' I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy."

Notre Dame rallied to defeat Army, 12-6. Over the years it became "common knowledge" that the story was fabricated by Rockne. Rock died tragically three years later in a plane crash. He insisted it was true. There is so little chance that it is true that, for all practical purposes, it can simply be stated that it is false.

However, like so much Notre Dame malarkey, it lived on just as the "Four Horsemen" story had. Granmtland Rice did indeed write those words, but it was a heads-up Notre Dame PR man who found four horses from nearby stables, then photographed the four star players on them, thus creating the imagery to go with the words.

Nobody would argue that Notre Dame is a great tradition; a tradition of great teams and great players. But while so much of Notre Dame's storied legacy is legitimate, much of it is built on the strength of fables such as Rockne's "win on for the Gipper," or the over-inflated, flowery words of Rice.

USC, ironically the "Hollywood school," had built their tradition on the solid foundation of actual accomplishment, not myth and lore - at least not in comparison with the Irish. Thise game was thorough proof of just that.

USC was not tested, they were out-played. But championship teams do what championship teams do. On the game's final play, Leinart pushed into the line, then did a spin move that looked like something he learned in a Tuesday night ballroom dancing class. With three seconds left, he found a seam, and might have gotten a push of momentum from Bush, which may or may not have been an uncalled penalty, to score the winning touchdown. Number one USC escaped with its 28th straight victory, 34-31 over the ninth-ranked Irish. The game more than lived up to expectations. It was the greatest game in the history of the storied rivalry that goes back to 1926. Depending on one's perspective, and considering the pressure, the stakes, and the atmosphere, it may have been the greatest football game ever played, college or pro. It was watched by the largest TV audience of any regular season college football game in a decade. To say it meant the rivalry was revived was as obvious as saying Pamela Anderson possesses sex appeal. The college football world, increasingly complaining about Trojan hegemony, now saw a reason to tune back in.

"You gotta believe you're going to win the way that happened," Carroll said.

Notre Dame came in 4-1. They broke out their Kelly green jerseys. Before Leinart's dive, they and their fans thought victory was theirs. Trailing 31-28, there was enough time for one pass play from around the five. The southpaw Leinart rolled to his left. He could pass for a game-winning touchdown, throw an incomplete pass or run out of bounds. Options tow and three would stop the clock and probably set up a game-tying field goal to send it to overtime. Instead, Leinart went for a fourth option, one fraught with consequences bathed in glory or cloaked with agony.

Leinart, Carroll and the Trojans did not want to go to overtime. They were beat up, exhausted, hurt. Leinart was decidedly not right. He was shook up, his head in cobwebs. LenDale White inadvertently stepped on his back after Leinart fell leading a block for Bush early in the game. Former USC quarterback Pat Haden, announcing the game for NBC, said over and over again that he was not right. Sideline camera shots showed him sitting silently, in pain, head in his hands. One shot showed the Mater Dei graduate making a small, quick sign of the cross.

He needed every ounce of strength and inspiration he could muster. Overtime was not a good option. Too tired, too beat up. They played for a tie at Berkeley in 2003. The ball had not bounced their way. It was to quote George Patton, victory "or let no man come back alive."

When Leinart scrambled from inside the five and headed towards the goal line, not the sideline, he committed himself. If he could not make it, USC had no time-outs. The clock would expire to an agonizing 0:00. The field would explode in Irish green and the kind of rabid football happiness that only Golden Domers are capable of. USC would have to slog their way through the mess to their losing locker room and their losing flight home, facing the rest of their probably Rose Bowl-less season.

The 6-5, 225-pound Leinart, who turned down multiple millions to do all of this for free, built up momentum and launched himself toward the end zone. For a split second it looked like he might make it, but a wall of Notre Dame defenders sacrificed their bodies, meeting him at the line. It is not an exaggeration to say Leinart was stopped one inch from the end zone. It was close enough that the referee could have seen him in.

All he needed was to have the ball cross the plane. It was agonizingly close.

In a desperate effort to do just that, Leinart one-handed the ball towards the end zone, hoping the pigskin, if not his body, would cross that plane for the six points. Quinn basically did the same thing on his touch score just two minutes earlier.

But Leinart was stopped short by a phalanx of defenders, led by Corey Mays. The referee was right there. He saw it correctly. USC wanted his arms to go up, but they did not. The ball, precariously held in Leinart's hand, could not withstand the pressure of the defenders who made themselves into a veritable Irish wall. The ball was knocked out of Leinart's hand and sent flying?ut of bounds.

Had Leinart not fumbled the ball out of bounds, the clock would have ticked down. They would have lost. Had he fumbled and it was recovered in bounds by USC, time would have expired. It was a lucky break.

In the USC broadcast booth, announcer Pete Arbogast saw clearly what happened. He knew the ball went out of bounds with three seconds left, stopping the clock and giving USC the ball wherever the referee spotted the ball's plane going out of bounds. However, the clock continued ticking, probably because the clock master did not see the fumble amid the bodies and confusion. But Arbogast calmly assured listeners that the clock stopped and the refs were on top of it.

TV viewers, on the other hand, only saw the clock tick down to 0:00. For Trojan fans, it was like watching a car crash. Notre Dame fans, most of whom did not see the ball pop loose, just saw the clock tick to zero. They rushed the field. Charlie Weis raised his hands in victory.

But Carroll knew what happened. He ran down the sideline. The officials, to their credit, saw it correctly. After clearing the field and holding a conference, they put seven seconds back on the clock. Leinart probably lost close to a yard via the fumble. He had been stopped inches away but the spot after the fumble placed it on the one.
Some pundits would later say the spot favored USC, that it should have been the two or the three, but no post-game film verified this. Others said that the ball was fumbled out of the end zone, and should have resulted in a game-clinching touchback for Notre Dame. That argument does not hold weight. If the ball was fumbled in the end zone, then it would have meant Leinart crossed the plane, which is all he would have needed to score. But he did not.

The clock stopped but Leinart and USC had to make a decision. They could spike it and take their time instead of the quick formation required with no time outs, although Leinart would not be able to go to the bench to confer with Carroll. In terms of confusion and player decision-making, it had all the earmarks of the 1931 game. Howard Jones did not trust Johnny Baker to make a game-winning field goal. He missed an extra point and Troy was down a point because of it.

But Orv Mohler and Baker had been practicing field goals all year. They knew he could make it. On that day, when they lined up Notre Dame thought they would run a regular play, but they quickly formed into field goal formation. Baker kicked it true. Troy escaped with the16-14 win.

In 2005, the teams lined up as Leinart approached the line. Carroll could be seen making the "spike it" motion. Apparently it was a deke. In the NFL, Miami's Dan Marino approached the line against Carroll's Jets, looking to spike the ball to stop the clock, luring the Jets off-balance before throwing a touchdown pass.

Leinart looked at the stack of Notre Dame defenders. The play called was a sneak. He turned to Bush.

"What should I do?" he screamed. "I don't think I can make it, Reggie, what should I do? You think I should go for it?"

"GO FOR IT, MATT!!" yelled Bush.

Then the Irish crowded the line. Bush had second thoughts.

"NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!" he screamed. Leinart never heard him.

Leinart took the snap, heading into the line. It was not even close. He had no chance to muscle through the pile. But it was all in one place. He pirouetted. The ball was precariously held half-way tucked against his shoulder and half-way in the air, where it could be swatted away. He somehow found a hole. Bush rushed into the fray and was right up Leinart's back.

It is a penalty to "push" a ball carrier on one's team forward. Replays were not totally conclusive. Bush's action was part of the natural body contact that happens when 22 behemoths crowd into one area a few feet wide. With the game safely won, Bush was happy to take credit, though.

"I used all 200 pounds of my body to push Matt in," he said.

In the previous confusion of the time clock, Brennan Carroll approached the officials. TV cameras showed him making a "time-out" signal with his hands. Critics said he was calling a time out the team did not have, similar to what basketball player Chris Webber did in costing Michigan an NCAA Final Four championship game some 15 years earlier. But it was not a correct assumption. Carroll was not calling time out, just making the time out sign to indicate to the officials that the time should already have been called.

The "Bush push" did not appear to be what got Leinart in, either. It was his footwork and drive. A penalty would have been outrageous. In the end it was Leinart who propelled the final drive and the phantasmagorical ending, but it was Bush had kept his team alive for four quarters, running for 160 yards on 15 carries with three touchdowns. It was his fifth straight 100-yard game. Arbogast and Paul McDonald were appropriately excited. Pat Haden seemed stunned. An ending this extraordinary required the unique talents of Bill King, who called dramatics for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders in the most eloquent, descriptive manner possible.

Tragically, King died of complications from hip surgery in a Bay Area hospital a few days later.

The field goal, according to Carroll, was not an option.

"We did not want to have to keep playing them in overtime," he said.

"I just saw it, I thought it was there and I just wanted to get in," Leinart said. "I didn't want to spike the ball so I made the choice and they were looking down from up above and we got in. That was all that mattered."

Brady Quinn gave Notre Dame a 31-28 lead with 2:02 left, rolling and then running to his right end for a five-yard touchdown, extending his right arm across the goal line with the ball in a manner somewhat similar to what Leinart would try a couple minutes later. SC may have won the game on Quinn's touchdown, curiously enough. Had he not made it, the clock would have ticked away while Notre Dame lined up. They likely would have scored, but too much time would have passed for USC to be able to get it back and drive. As it was, USC had the necessary two minutes to run a "two-minute drill."

But it was not a "smooth" two-minute offense.
Bush returned the kickoff 20 yards to the USC 25. Leinart was deep in his own territory, where the crowd is loudest. In the history of Notre Dame Stadium, never were the echoes awoken quite so loudly. Leinart threw incomplete on first down. He was sacked by defensive lineman Trevor Laws for a nine-yard loss on the next play.

Faced with a third-and-18, Leinart split the difference with a pass to Bush. The hope was that Reggie would break it after the catch, racing down the field for a first down, maybe get out of bounds. But Bush was tackled after a 10-yard gain.

There was one minute, 32 seconds left.

Fourth-and-nine, ball on the USC 26. The game was all but over. USC fans were virtually relegated to a smile and the consolation that it had been a great ride. If it had to end, this was the fitting place for it against a worthy foe.

The crowd was beyond comprehension: a wall of sound desperately pounding their noise into Leinart's ears. His signals could not be heard, an audible could not be called. Leinart brought the Trojans to the line. In the huddle he had exuded confidence. Desperate confidence, but the hope that sprung from years of pulling games out of the fire, from Mustang League to Mater Dei to now.

But Leinart's heroics had not led Mater Dei to victory in that 31-28 loss to De La Salle in 2000. He had done all he could do, but the game-tying kick had failed. Now, a kick could again tie, but Leinart wanted to control his team's destiny. He and his coach wanted a touchdown.

Leinart looked at the Notre Dame defense. Something was not quite right. To the horror of USC fan's from Maine to Manhattan Beach, Leinart called an audible!

He's calling an audible. Nobody can hear him.
But Dwayne Jarrett was ready for it. He was paying attention. He was focused. They practiced with noisemakers and they had a system. They tuned the crowd down and let time slow down, let their God-given skills take over. Pat Haden said the same thing about the final winning plays of the 1975 Rose Bowl. Leinart could have looked to the sidelines in deference to the clock. Charlie Weis had what was called the "Two Tampa" defense in place. It was designed as a prevent; nothing long, nothing over the middle, narrow it to the lanes.

Leinart decided to throw into the heart of it, knowing that Jarrett, the child from New Jersey who wanted to go home a year earlier, had the speed to beat his man.

"Nobody throws a pass like that into a 'Two Tampa' defense," said Weis.

But Leinart did. A perfectly thrown half-floater, half-bullet that threaded the needle directly into Jarrett's hands, right on the numbers, just before the outstretched hands of Irish defenders, including cornerback Ambrose Wooden, who only needed to touch it, deflect it, block it, screen it off, blur Dwayne's vision, obstruct him; but could not.

Jarrett got it, his hands as soft as a child's, the ball nestled into his grasp. Now he had momentum up the field. He ran and ran and ran, 61 yards, finally dragged down by Wooden saying penitence with every step, at the Notre Down 15.
After Leinart called his own number a few plays later to win the game, he sat on the bench with his helmet still on, looking exhausted.

**************************************************

"BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"

BY STEVEN TRAVERS

FOREWORD BY CHARLIE SHEEN

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by
STEVEN TRAVERS

Travers' new book finally explains the phenomenon.
The Bonds tale is spelled out in the most thorough, interesting, revealing, concise manner ever reached.
MAURY ALLEN/WWW.THECOLUMNISTS.COM, GANNETT NEWSPAPERS

I think you'll not only enjoy yourself but learn a few things that you didn?t know about Barry Bonds. And perhaps you'll come to realize as I have, that he's not only a great ballplayer, but a most interesting person.
BRUCE MACGOWAN/KNBR RADIO, SAN FRANCISCO

Travers appears to have the right credentials for the task: He is a former minor leaguer who also penned screenplays in addition to a column for the San Francisco Examiner. He calls on that background in crafting a straightforward, warts-and-all profile that remains truthful without becoming a mean-spirited hatchet job.
USA TODAY BASEBALL WEEKLY

A great new baseball book and must-read for fans of the Giants and Barry Bonds.
MIKE MCDOWD/KFTY 50, SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA

Travers' work is a remarkably frank assessment of Bonds' character, his background, his flaws and virtues...
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

Bonds book paints tough portrait.
DWIGHT CHAPIN/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

This is a fascinating book written by a man who knows his subject matter inside and out.
IRV KAZE/KRLA RADIO, LOS ANGELES

Get this book. You've brought Bonds to life.
FRED WALLIN, SYNDICATED SPORTSTALK RADIO HOST, LOS ANGELES

This promises to be the biggest sports book of 2002.
GREP PAPA/KTCT RADIO, SAN FRANCISCO

This cat struck out Kevin Mitchell five times in one game. I'll read the book for that reason alone. Plus, he hangs out with Charlie Sheen. How do I get that gig?
ROD BROOKS/KTCT RADIO, SAN FRANCISCO

Gossipy, easy-to-read tale, explores the sports culture that influences this distinguished slugger, entertaining.
LIBRARY JOURNAL

Warts-and-all. Travers explores Bonds' mercurial temper and place in baseball history.
NOVATO ADVANCE

The first comprehensive biography of Barry Bonds.
BUD GERACIE/SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

Travers thought he hit the jackpot.
FURMAN BISCHER/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

Travers' hit the big time. Travers established himself as a writer of many dimensions, a natural.
JOHN JACKSON/ROSS VALLEY REPORTER

Travers is a minor league pitcher turned sports writer, and therefore qualified to evaluate [Larry] Dierker's thought process in ordering all those walks regardless of the score or the situation.
STAN HOCHMAN/PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

Looks at all of Barry's warts, yet remains in the end favorable to him. Not an easy balancing act. This is not your average sports book. It is edgy and filled with laughs... and inside baseball. Good, solid reading.
AMAZON.COM

GRAND SLAM HOME RUN. Travers, a former baseball pitcher himself, delves into the mind of Bonds.
BORDERS.COM

It reveals some aspects of his relationship with Willie Mays and is instructive in what makes Barry tick, good and bad.
STOCKTON RECORD

It's a great read.
PETE WILSON/KGO RADIO, SAN FRANCISCO

"This a good book that really covers his whole life, and informs us where Bonds is coming from. His entire life is laid out. He is very qualified to continue to write books such as this one. Good job."
MARTY LURIE/"RIGHT OFF THE BAT" OAKLAND A'S PRE-GAME HOST

A quality piece.(Travers) uses his experiences in baseball, providing a humorous glimpse into the life of a player. Would I recommend this book? Absolutely. I laughed out loud several times at Travers' unique way of explaining his experiences. This book is definitely worth the time.
JOHN KENNY/ESPORTNEWS.COM

Travers' account mentions everything from cocaine to sex to car crashes to what Bonds said he would do to Roger Clemens. More than a hit piece.
JOHNSON CITY PRESS

Travers' book does do a more well-rounded job of solving the mystery of who Bonds is appealing,is the more inside look at Bonds in Travers' book.
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

Travers' work is every baseball aficionado's dream.
FAIRFIELD DAILY REPUBIC

You've created quite a stir here at the station, with the Giants, and throughout baseball.
RICK BARRY SHOW/KNBR RADIO, SAN FRANCISCO

You've stirred a hornet's nest here, man.
JT "THE BRICK"/SYNDICATED NATIONAL SPORTS HOST

This is a controversial subject and a controversial player, but you've educated us.
RON BARR/"SPORTSLINE", ARMED FORCES RADIO NETWORK

A baseball player who can write, who knew? This one sure can!
ARNY "THE STINKIN' GENIUS" SPANYER/FOX SPORTS RADIO, LOS
ANGELES

You know baseball like few people I've ever spoken to.
ANDY DORFF/SPORTSTALK HOST, PHOENIX, PHILADELPHIA AND NEW JERSEY

Congratulations, a tour de force.
KATE DELANCEY/WFAN RADIO, NEW YORK CITY

Good work!
DON SHIELDS/WRKD RADIO, HONOLULU

I really loved this book.
DAVID UNKLE/WNJC RADIO, NEW JERSEY

Good stuff.
BRIAN LONG/KGEO RADIO, BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA

I can't stand Bonds, but you've done a good job with a difficult subject.
GRANT NAPIER/SACRAMENTO SPORTSTALK HOST

Steve's a literate ex-athlete, an ex-Trojan and a veteran of Hollywood, too.
LEE "HACKSAW" HAMILTON/XTRA RADIO, SAN DIEGO

A great book about a great player.
KTHK RADIO, SACRAMENTO

A gem.
ROSEVILLE PRESS-TRIBUNE

Here's the man to talk to regarding the subject of Barry Bonds.
JOHN LOBERTINI/KPIX TV, SAN FRANCISCO

He's enlightened us on the subject of Bonds, his father, and Godfather, Willie Mays.
BRIAN SUSSMAN/KPIX TV, SAN FRANCISCO

I hate Bonds, but you're okay.
SCOTT FERRALL/SYNDICATED NATIONAL AND NEW YORK
SPORTSTALK HOST

You've done some good writin', dude.
KFOG RADIO, SAN FRANCISCO

One of the better baseball books I've read.
KOA RADIO, DENVER

The "last word" on Barry Bonds?
SCOTT REIS/ESPN TV

A hot new biography on Barry Bonds.
DARIAN HAGAN/CNN

One of the great sportswriters on the current American scene, Steve Travers.
JOE SHEA/RADIO TALK HOST, BRADENTON, FLORIDA AND EDITOR, AMERICAN-REPORTER.COM

"To a real pro."
JEFF PRUGH, FORMER L.A. TIMES REPORTER

PUBLICITY:

Travers appeared, promoting "Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman", on:

CNN, ESPN News, KPIX/5 in San Francisco, KRON/4 in San Francisco, NBC/3 in San Jose, KFTY/50 in Santa Rosa, plus other TV stations.

Steve was a guest on the Jim Rome Show. He has appeared numerous times with Bruce Magowan and on the Rick Barry Show, on KNBR, the "Giant 68". He has been a guest on the Greg Papa Show and with Rod Brooks on KTCT in San Francisco. Other appearances include:

Fred Wallin's nationally-syndicated radio program

"JT the Brick's" nationally-syndicated show

Arny Spanyer on KXTA in Los Angeles

Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton on XTRA in San Diego

The Pete Wilson program on KGO in San Francisco

With Kate DeLancey on WFAN in New York City

"Sportsline", Ron Barr's nationally-syndicated program (including the Armed Forces Radio Network)

Marty Lurie's "Right Off the Bat" Oakland A's pre-game show on KSFO in San Francisco

Grant Napier's program on KTHK in Sacramento

Plus local stations in California, Utah, Washington, Colorado, Virginia, Hawaii, and other states.

He has beeen written up in USC Trojan Family, the USC Film School newsletter, the UCLA Writers' Program newsletter, and received notice in:

Mal Florence's column in the Los Angeles Times

Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle

Skip Bayless and Bud Geracie in the San Jose Mercury News

Numerous publications have given "Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman" predominatly good-to-excellent reviews

STEVEN TRAVERS - RESUME/BIOGRAPHY

111 Oak Springs Dr.
San Anselmo, CA 94960-1324

(415) 456-6898
Fax: (603) 658-0612
Email: USCSTEVE1@aol.com
Cell: (415) 531-0636 Los Angeles: (562) 598-9218

"Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman"

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=wbnavss/002-9982382-3579234?url=index%3Dblended&field-keywords=Steven+Travers&Go.x=11&Go.y=12

To order call toll free: (877) 424-BOOK

AGENT: Guichard Cadet (Serendipity Literary Agency, New York City)

Books Screenplays Stageplays Teleplays Songs Speeches Articles

GOOGLE SEARCH:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Steven+Travers+USC+Barry+Bonds%3A+Baseball%27s+Superman&btnG=Search

WEB PAGE:

http://hometown.aol.com/uscsteve1/myhomepage/index.html

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1QWEUEMPOLL9D/ref=cm aya pdp home/002-5417910-1817616

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (1994-2008)

SPORTS COLUMNIST - San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, Calif.

SPORTS COLUMNIST - StreetZebra Magazine, Marina Del Rey, Calif.

SPORTSWRITER- Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News.

SPORTS STRINGER - XTRA Radio.

SCREENWRITER & FREELANCE WRITER.

EDUCATION:

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, Los Angeles, Calif., Bachelor of Arts degree--Communication Arts & Sciences (attended USC School of Cinema-Television).

HOLLYWOOD FILM INSTITUTE, Los Angeles, Calif., Certificate of Completion.

UCLA WRITERS' PROGRAM, Los Angeles, Calif.

WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW, Fullerton, Calif.

BOOKS:

"One Night, Two Teams: Alabama vs. USC and the Game That Changed A Nation", 2007, Taylor Trade/Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

http://www.RLPGTrade.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=1589793560

(Soon to be a major motion picture; subject of College Sports TV documentaries on ex-Alabama coach Bear Bryant and "Tackling Segregation".)

"The USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty", 2006, Taylor Trade/Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. An Amazon.com "top seller" and a National Book Network "Top 100" seller.

http://www.RLPGTrade.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=1589793560

"A's Essential: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Real Fan!", "Dodgers Essential", "Angels Essential", "D'Backs Essential", "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Los Angeles Lakers," 2007.

"The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Oakland Raiders", "Trojans Essential", 2008; "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly San Francisco 49ers", 2009, Triumph/Random House (www.triumphbooks.com).

"Pigskin Warriors: 140 Years of College Football's Greatest Traditions, Games, and Stars", 2009, Taylor Trade/Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

"The Last Miracle: Tom Seaver and the 1969 Amazin' Mets", 2009, The Globe Pequot Press.

"Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman", 2002, Sports Publishing L.L.C.

http://www.sportspublishingllc.com/book.cfm?id=3

Best seller, currently in multiple re-print, now in paperback, and nominated for Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of 2002.

"The Last Icon: Tom Seaver's Team, His Town, His Times".

"A Tale of Three Cities: New York, L.A. and San Francisco in October of '62".

"God's Country: A Three-Volume Conservative, Christian Worldview of How History Formed the U.S. Empire and America's Manifest Destiny For the 21st Century".

"Angry White Male" (novel).

"The Writer's Life".

"Good Sports."

SCREENPLAYS:

"The Lost Battalion" (subject of A&E TV movie starring Rick Schroder).

"21".

"Wicked".

"Baja California".

SCREENWRITING AWARDS:

"Once He Was An Angel", Quantum Leap, Calabasas, California (optioned by group that included Frank Capra Jr., son of the famed director).

"Bandit", America's Best, Orlando, Florida.

"Rock 'n' Roll Heaven", Writers Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition, Beverly Hills, California.

ACTING: Appeared in "The Californians", starring starring Noah Wylie and Illeana Douglas.

INTERNET: Steven Travers' Journal.

LEGAL/SPORTS AGENT: San Francisco Sports Management, Inc.

MILITARY: United States Army Reserves.

ATHLETICS:

Professional baseball player, St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland Athletics.

Coach, USC; Cal-Berkeley; and a team in Berlin, Germany.

POLITICS:

Campaign manager, California Congressional election.

Campaign speeches, John McCain 2008.

Political consultant, speechwriter.

TRAVERS' PHOTO/BIO:
http://business.thomasnelson.com/publicFiles/AuthorDetail.jsp?CreatorID=2838

ORGANIZATIONS: NorCal Trojan Club Board of Directors. Christ Lutheran Church. Hollywood Congress of Republicans.

VOLUNTEER: Marin Literacy Program.

ACADEME: Guest lecturer, in discusions about becoming an adjunct professor, Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California.

STEVEN R. TRAVERS
Author of

"THE USC TROJANS: COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S ALL-TIME GREATEST DYNASTY"
http://www.RLPGTrade.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=1589793560

"BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"

To order call toll free 1-877-424-BOOK

http://www.sportspublishingllc.com/book.cfm?id=3

Steven Travers has always been entrepreneurial.

"I was turned down by my high school newspaper because they didn't allow freshmen," says the sixth-generation Californian, "so I started my own!"

Aside from journalism, Travers was a star pitcher, playing three years of varsity baseball for the same suburban California high school that USC football coach Pete Carroll graduated from years earlier. In his senior year, Travers helped lead his team to the mythical National Championship of high school baseball, according to polls conducted by Collegiate Baseball magazine and the Easton Bat Company.

Travers attended college on a baseball scholarship, where he was an all-conference pitcher, and played collegiate summer ball in Colorado, Nevada and Canada. The 6-6, 230-pound Travers played professionally for the St. Louis Cardinals' organization, where he was a teammate of Danny Cox. Travers once struck out 1989 National League Most Valuable Player Kevin Mitchell five times in one game (he K�d 15 that night). In the Oakland Athletics' system, he played alongside Jose Canseco.

"Punching out K-Mitchell was great," he recalls, "but the highlight of my career may have been when I was with the A's against the Giants in a Major League exhibition game at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. I struck out the side and went nine-up, nine-down in three innings."

Steve later coached at USC, Cal-Berkeley and was recruited to manage a team in Berlin, Germany.

After pro baseball, Travers returned to college. He studied in the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree incommunications. At USC, he was a classmate of Mark McGwire and Randy Johnson. Travers also went to Western State University College of Law, the Hollywood Film Institute, and was part of the UCLA Writers' Program.

He served in the U.S. Army during the Persian Gulf War, and was a political consultant, speechwriter and campaign manager for a California Congressional candidate. Travers was also a sports agent, co-founding San Francisco Sports Management, Inc. The agency represented Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder Al Martin. Another client, ex-Angels' playboy pitcher Bo Belinsky, was at that time being approached by Hollywood producers about a movie depicting his tempestuous life. Travers wrote the screenplay.

That script, "Once He Was An Angel", was a quarterfinalist in the Quantum Leap screenwriting contest before getting optioned by a Hollywood producing group that included Frank Capra Jr. and Frank Capra III (son and grandson of the famed "It's A Wonderful Life" director). Thus began Travers' embarkation into a full-time professional writing career in 1994.

"I've punched a lot of tickets," Travers says of his background, "and I bring real-world experience to my writing."

A veteran of Hollywood, Steve has written 15 screenplays, teleplays and stageplays. His credits include "The Lost Battalion" (the true story of a World War I unit during the Argonne Offensive, the subject of a film starring Rick Schroder), "21", "Wicked" and "Baja California". His additional writing awards are for "Bandit," an America's Best quarterfinalist, and "Rock 'n' Roll Heaven", a Writers Network Screenplay & Fiction quarterfinalist. He appeared in the film "The Californians", starring Noah Wylie and Illeana Douglas.

Travers also wrote for the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, and was a sports stringer on San Diego's XTRA 690 AM radio station. Steve has freelanced for magazines, newspapers and web sites. He produced Steven Travers' Journal on the Internet. Eventually, Travers became the number one columnist at StreetZebra, an L.A. sports magazine where he covered the USC beat and wrote a monthly "Distant Replay" of great events in the Southland's rich sports history.

"I have encyclopedic knowledge of history," Steve says. "I am truly versatile as a writer, able to use my knowledge of the past to understand the present."

In 2001, Travers was hired as the lead sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. While writing for the Examiner, Travers was an eyewitness to Barry Bonds' historic 73-home run season of 2001. He got Bonds to agree to authorize the writing of his autobiography, but a business deal with the publishers was not worked out. Eventually, by 2002 Travers wrote the Best Seller "Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman" from Sports Publishing L.L.C.

http://www.sportspublishingllc.com/book.cfm?id=3

It has been gone through multiple re-prints, is now in paperback, and was nominated for a Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. Actor Charlie Sheen wrote the foreword. A sequel, covering Bonds' alleged steroid use, additional MVP awards, and chase of Hank Aaron's career home run record, is in the works.

In 2006, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

http://www.RLPGTrade.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=1589793560

published his book "The USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty", which argues that the University of Southern California has replaced Notre Dame as collegiate football's greatest tradition. It features a foreword by USC legend Charles "Tree" Young. That book has made the Amazon.com "top seller" and is a National Book Network "Top seller."

In 2007, Taylor Trade/Rowman & Littlefield released "One Night, Two Teams: Alabama vs. USC and the Game That Changed A Nation". This is the true story of how the 1970 USC-Alabama football game ushered in desegregation of the American South. It features a foreword by "Forrest Gump" author Winston Groom, and a film is in development. Travers has joined a Producers' Team that includes Trojan legend Anthony Davis (USC '75), entrepreneur Jim Starr (USC '79) and Lloyd Robinson of Suite A Management (USC '64). A deal has been signed to option and develop the book by Kerry McCluggage (USC '74) of Allumination/Craftsman Films. McCluggage is the founder of UPN; was president of Universal Television, produced "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and "Miami Vice" among his credits.

Barry Kemp is co-producing. Barry has producing credits for "Patch Adams" (Robin Williams) and "Catch Me If You Can" (directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Leonardo DiCaprio). Jeff Nathanson ("Catch Me If You Can", "Indiana Jones' " sequel) may write the screenplay.

Random House/Triumph Books (www.triumphbooks.com) is publishing many of Travers's books. In 2007: "A's Essential: Everything You Need to Know to Be A Real Fan!", "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Los Angeles Lakers," "Dodgers Essential", "Angels Essential", and "D'Backs Essential".

In 2008: "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Oakland Raiders" and "Trojans Essential" as part of his multi-book deal with Random House's new sports division, Triumph Books. In 2009: "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly San Francisco 49ers".

Also in 2009 from Taylor Trade, a division of Rowman & Littlefield: "Pigskin Warriors: 140 Years of College Football's Greatest Traditions, Games, and Stars".

In 2009: "The Last Miracle: Tom Seaver and the 1969 Amazin' Mets" (The Globe Pequot Press). This is being discussed as a possible movie, most notably with "One Night, Two Teams" producer Kerry McCluggage.

Next up: "The Last Icon: Tom Seaver's Team, His Town, His Times" and "A Tale of Three Cities: New York, L.A. and San Francisco in October of '62". Both are possible films, as well. Also a sports motivation book, "Good Sports".

Steve is the author of three other books. "God's Country" is a three-volume conservative, Christian worldview of how history formed the U.S. Empire and America's manifest destiny for the 21st Century. He also authored a novel, "Angry White Male", and a compilation ofhis work over the years, "The Writer's Life". Steve is represented by Guichard Cadet of the Serendipity Literary Agency New York City.

http://www.pmalitfilm.com/bio.html


The telegenic Travers has made numerous appearances on television and radio, being interviewed for the books, articles and screenplays he has written over the years. His national appearances have included "The Jim Rome Show", CNN, ESPN, and the Armed Forces Radio Network. He has appeared on TV and radio stations in major markets such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In September 2005, Steve was interviewed on College Sports Television (www.cstv.com), a division of CBS, as part of a program devoted to the 35th anniversary of the 1970 USC-Alabama game. In February 2006, CSTV featured Travers prominently in their documentary "Tackling Segregation", which aired throughout Black History Month.

Travers, a guest lecturer at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, is in discussions to become an adjunct professor at USC.

Travers is a member of Christ Lutheran Church, is on the NorCal Trojan Club's Board of Directors, the Hollywood Congress of Republicans, and volunteers his time with jailed prisoners for for the Marin Literacy Program. He made speeches on behalf of John McCain in 2008.

Steve is the scion of a distinguished California family. His grandfather, Charles S. Travers, covered the 1906 Great Earthquake as a journalist, started a silent film magazine in Hollywood, and was President of the San Francisco Press Club. His great-uncle, Reginald Travers, was a noted Shakespearean actor. His father, Donald Travers, is a retired attorney and track coach, while his mother, Inge Travers, is a renowned artist. Steve's brother, Donald Travers II, is a former Naval officer who has built boats and twice sailed around the globe. Daughter Elizabeth Travers is a college student. Inside Berkeley's Memorial Stadium is the Col. Charles Travers Big Game Room (named after Steve's late uncle) to accommodate press conferences, and named after Steve's late aunt is the Louise Travers Memorial Club Room. Col. Travers also founded a wing of the universities political science department, dedicated to fair and balanced analysis of public affairs.

HIGHLIGHTS OF STEVEN TRAVERS' CAREER

- Author of Best Seller "Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman,

http://www.sportspublishingllc.com/book.cfm?id=3

currently in multiple re-print, now in paperback, and nominated for a Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of 2002.
- Author of "The USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty" (2006);

http://www.RLPGTrade.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=1589793560

argues that the University of Southern California has replaced Notre Dame as the greatest of all gridiron traditions. An Amazon.com "top seller" and National Book Network "top 100" seller.
- "Travers's book not only is a well-researched look at USC's football history, but describes why USC is number one in the NFL, too." - Garry Paskiewitz, www.wearesc.com
- "A great book with . . . a ton of research." - Amazon.com
- Author of "One Night, Two Teams: Alabama vs. USC and the Game That Changed A Nation" (2007);
http://www.RLPGTrade.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=1589793560

the true story of how the 1970 USC-Alabama football game ushered in the desegregation of the American South; under option with "A list" Hollywood producer Kerry McCluggage (USC '74) of Allumination/Craftsman Films and Barry Kemp.
- Author of "A's Essential: Everything You Need to Know to Be A Real Fan!", "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Oakland Raiders", "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Los Angeles Lakers", "Dodgers Essential", "Angels Essential", "D'Backs Essential", "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly San Francisco 49ers," and "Trojans Essential", Triumph/Random House.
- Multi-book deal with Triumph Books, a division of Random House.
- Author of "Pigskin Warriors: 140 Years of College Football's Greatest Traditions, Games, and Stars," 2009, Taylor Trade/Rowman & Littlefield.
- Author of "The Last Miracle: Tom Seaver and the 1969 Amazin' Mets", 2009, The Globe Pequot Press.
- Author of "Angry White Male", a novel.
- Author of "The Writer's Life", a compilation of his work over the years.
- Author of "God's Country: A Three Volume Conservative, Christian Worldview of How History Formed the United States Empire and America's Manifest Destiny For the 21st Century".
- Next: "The Last Icon: Tom Seaver's Team, His Town, His Times", "A Tale of Three Cities: New York, L.A. and San Francisco in October of '62", and "Good Sports".
- Lead sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner.
- Lead columnist for StreetZebra, a leading Los Angeles sports magazine.
- Sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News.
- Sports stringer on XTRA 690 AM radio.
- Freelance writer for magazines and web sites; produced Steven Travers' Journal on the Internet.
- Regularly interviewed on local andnational media.
- Author of 15 screenplays, teleplays and stageplays, half of which have been optioned, sold, or written for hire, and several of which have won awards; plus treatments and songs.
- Credits include "The Lost Battalion", "21", "Wicked" and "Baja California".
- Appeared in the film "The Californians", starring Noah Wylie and Illeana Douglas.
- Exceptional knowledge of all facets of the entertainment industry - creative, legal and business. Experience dealing with and interviewing celebrities in film, sports and business; reputation for discretion and maintaining �off the record� confidence of story subjects.
- Communications degree from the University of Southern California; attended USC School of Cinema-Televsion, UCLA Writers' Program, and graduated from the Hollywood Film Institute.
- Entrepreneurial self-starter who created his own sports newspaper while in high school; member of National Champion high school baseball team.
- Earned an athletic scholarship, and was all-conference pitcher in college.
- Ex-professional baseball player for the Cardinals and A's.
- Learned leadership skills while serving in the United States Army during the Persian Gulf War.
- Learned more leadership, and management skills, coaching at USC, the University of California, and managing a baseball team in Europe.
- Traveled throughout all of the United States, Canada, and Europe.
- Attended law school, and worked in a law firm during this time.
- Worked as a student intern in the USC Sports Information office, and as a production assistant for ABC Sports while in college.
- Campaign manager for a California Congressional campaign; political consultant and speechwriter; public relations and advertising experience.
- Made speeches, John McCain 2008.
- Comes from a journalistic family; grandfather started a silent film magazine in Hollywood during the Roaring �20s; worked on scary kids' stories with his daughter.
- Guest lecturer, USC Annenberg School of Communications.
- Discussions to become an adjunct professor, USC Annenberg School of Communications.

STEVEN TRAVERS ON SPORTS COLUMNS

What makes a great sports column? Beyond fancy lingo and entertaining tricks there must be a good opinion, written with the voice of authority, backed by top-notch reporting.

I think a column is less about the "who, what, why, when and where," and more about getting to the point quickly, moving through the narrative and bridge, and maintaining focus on a linear line of thinking that does not wander. It must be topical (what people are talking about), while maintaining an edge of analysis, practicality and, if possible, allowing for emotion - outrage or humor. Oh yes, it should not be afraid to break news.

A great writer is not necessarily a great columnist. Great prose in the style of Hemingway, Shakespeare or Jim Murray, to take three of my heroes, can be the focus of the reader�s attention while diverting from the purpose of a daily column, which is to inform. The first impression of Murray is that he wowed readers with his wordplay and knowledge of history, but at the heart of his work was research, research and more research.

Good newspaper editors recognize that fancy words cannot replace hard facts. This is the daily newspaper version of the screenwriter who tries to trick the reader into thinking the story can be carried by phraseology, not character development and plot structure.

Bring wit, literacy, social conscience and pathos to the work. Sports columns that are above and beyond the merely ordinary may have some combination of great love for sports, political sensibility, historical reflection, Hollywood flare, American wit, and old-fashioned humor. Incredible knowledge is not enough, like the law student with a photographic memory and fails to analyze. It is not a substitute for the hard digging for quotes, second opinions, counter-voices and fact checking that tells readers something they did not know or think about before.

Style is intellect and love of language. Information implies reporting. Point of view, as opposed to opinion, means "where your head is at." Without point of view a column is a flat, boring story disguised as a column. First person can be used, but only at the risk of being egotistical. The objective is to inform (report) and entertain on subjects that are timely, important, and talked about. The great sports columnist is the one sitting in the press box with the fresh, brilliant, insightful ideas that nobody else has.

Two things can cripple a column: Cliche-thinking and cliches. Example: "It's time to fish or cut bait." Change it to "It's time to angle or cut the smelt."

The most important thing is to learn from every mistake, lump, and criticism.

ONE NIGHT, TWO TEAMS

ONE NIGHT, TWO TEAMS by Steven Travers

Alabama vs. USC and the Game That Changed a Nation

FOREWORD By "FORREST GUMP" AUTHOR WINSTON GROOM

http://www.RLPGTrade.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=1589793560

"The truth,
as told in an American arena,
is never misunderstood."
- FORMER USC TROJAN FOOTBALL PLAYER JOHN PAPADAKIS

ADDED BONUS:
Includes, complete and excerpted, the last known interviews conducted with USC coaches John McKay and Marx Goux, plus additional classic columns of the author.

September 1970. In the words of legendary Los Angeles Times sports columnist Jim Murray, a group of "hostile black and white American citizens" invaded Birmingham, Alabama to do battle against an equally hostile group of white American citizens. The event could have gone either way. A riot could have ensued. Blood could have been spilled.

The battle did not take place at the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Bull Connor did not preside over the scene. George Wallace did not stand in the way. Instead of a riot, a fairly played football game took place between the University of Southern California Trojans and the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, on a sweltering hot night at the venerable Legion Field.

The Good Lord, as they say, works in mysterious ways. He picks ordinary, often flawed people, among them sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors and adulterers, to be his prophets and disciples. This book tells the story of how the Greek ideals of Platonic justice combined with Christian righteousness effectuated the only real change that ever matters, a change of heart, on an entire region - the South - allowing America to come together as only she can, more than a century after the Civil War. After years of protests, speeches and demonstrations, a tipping point was reached, spearheaded by a young football player from California named Sam "Bam" Cunningham. Cunningham on this day would be God's vessel.

This is the story of how one game finally ended segregation in the South once and for all. It is the story of how suspicious white and black USC teammates became a family of warriors, and how the team they defeated helped their fans to finally rise to the moral righteousness their Bibles had taught them since childhood. Thus, the power of Christianity was the impetus for the Deep South to pay heed to what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" and, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to "live up to its creed that all people are created equal."

The 1970 season played out without great success for either team, but in the succeeding years, USC and Alabama dominated college football. The Republican party husbanded the South into the mainstream of our political system. Cunningham would become a Pro Bowler with the New England Patriots. The game was all-but forgotten, its impact understood only by those who dig deep for such nuggets of Americana. Now, the story is spreading like Christ's Sermon on the Mount. Today, the tale is this book, a documentary, and a film in development. The story explains more succinctly the country we live in than any other tale told by columnists or know-it-all "talking heads." This is the story of Truth and the redemptive powers of change.

This work brings you into the locker room where Coach Bryant (according to the legend) declared to his beaten team that Cunningham was "what a football player looks like." It describes the "new breed" of black athletes influenced by the militancy of the Vietnam era. The entire story - the history that preceded it, the machinations that surrounded it, and the sea change that occurred after it - are tied together through the research and writing of the Evangelical Christian historian Steven Travers, himself a USC graduate whose unique love for his school's legacy shines forth in this monumental book. Travers successfully links Greek ideals and Christian love to modern America, demonstrating that desegregation was not a unique movement, but the result of centuries of philosophical evolution. This work, which combines theology and philosophy using the Socratic method of questioning, tackles the monumental task of exploring the nature of good and evil as it affects the ordinary decisions of men. Travers is also the last journalist to have interviewed deceased former USC coaches John McKay and Marv Goux before they passed away. The captured memories of these events shed great light on this story.

"One Night, Two Teams: Alabama vs. USC and the Game That Changed a Nation", written in the tradition of David Halberstam's "October 1964", is viewed through the prism of football as a metaphor for a changing America. The game played in September of 1970 was a seminal moment in which liberalism and conservatism came together, in many ways the last time this has happened. The winner was America. Travers demonstrates in this work how the events of that month explain much of what we now know about "red staves" vs. "blue states." He also goes to great pains to give a fair, balanced journalistic account of history, giving appropriate attention to both the USC and Alabama (or Northern vs. Southern) sides of this great event, and its aftermath.

Travers has been interviewed many times as an expert source on the 1970 USC-Alabama game. Interviews have included appearances on Neal McCready's radio show in Mobile, Alabama; Fred Wallin's nationally-syndicated radio and Internet program originating out of Los Angeles, and two appearances on College Sports TV.

In September 2005 Travers appeared on CSTV's 35th anniversary retrospective of the game, featuring Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's place in history.

In February 2006, CSTV ran a month-long documentary of the game called "Tackling Segregation," in which Travers is prominently featured.

Future projects include an ESPN "Sports Century" documentary and a movie, to be produced by "A list" Hollywood producer Kerry McCluggage (USC '74) of Allumination/Craftsman Films, with Rusty Gorman ("Home of the Giants" starring Haley Joel Osment) slated to direct.

EXCERPT FROM "ONE NIGHT, TWO TEAMS: ALABAMA VS. USC AND THE GAME THAT CHANGED A NATION" By STEVEN TRAVERS

Marv Goux, among others, said that Sam Cunningham �did more for civil rights in three hours than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.� King himself, in his famous �let freedom ring� speech, had quoted from the great Civil War �Battle Hymn of the Republic�:

"MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE COMING OF THE LORD."

King's dream has been realized. What he started was advanced as much by Sam Cunningham and the 1970 USC-Alabama game as any event that occurred following King's death.

But the game and its aftermath has had a profound effect on America that could not have been predicted at the time. Not only has black America seen a vast expansion of its rights, but the political landscape of the country has changed dramatically. What would have been most unpredictable, and what is most ironic, is that the beneficiaries of civil rights advances are not just the blacks in the South, but the whites in the South, the conservative movement, and the Republican Party. The man who might have predicted this was Mahatma Gandhi. He had encouraged the British to "join" him, because the righteous elevation of a group of human beings is the elevation of all human beings. The whites who saw a future of race-mixing and the lowering of standards - and their are still many who hold the racist views, to be sure - instead found themselves elevated by the advancement of their region. Today, the South is truly risen. This is not a hackneyed phrase. They are a cultural, economic and political juggernaut.

Bear Bryant reiterated the sentiment that Cunningham had done more than King, John McKay agreed with it, and over the years these words have become almost apocryphal. But Cunningham himself was never comfortable with them. He is a humble man, and while John Papadakis tacitly felt the Goux comment was true, building Sam up as an "American hero," Sam himself did not quite see it that way.

Sam may not have seen himself as a man of destiny, chosen almost in a Moses-like manner to lead his people to, if not the Promised Land, then to a better land. But he always knew he was a vessel of God. It could have been C.R. Roberts. It could have been Jack Johnson. But Sam, more than anybody in the American civil rights struggle, was in precisely the right place at the right time. The real credit he deserves was that he was the right man. It is instructive to consider that the "quiet revolution" that gentle Sam started (or ended, depending on the way one looks at it) was more effective than the orations of the loudmouth Muhammad Ali.

As for doing "more" than Dr. King, neither Sam nor any serious student of this era of American history would agree. What did happen was that King and his movement had built up the dominoes. They were poised, ready to fall. It was Sam who did the tipping. The "wrong" man would have either tipped them too much or not enough. Ali would have danced about, getting in people's faces, telling anybody who listened that "I am the greatest of ALL TIMES!!!" He would have set the whole thing back for years. Sam did it just right.

What is really not in dispute - and by Sports Illustrated ranking the event the "sixth most important event in American sports history" they gave credence to this notion - is that there is a truly defined demarcation line, and that line is September 12, 1970. There is America and race relations before that date, the game played on that date, and America's race relations after the event.

The forces of societal evolution that came about when Sam "sparked" this beautiful, quiet revolution have been nothing less than cataclysmic, and explain much of our political landscape, especially in the aftermath of George W. Bush and the Republican landslides of 2004. Black civil rights advancements had always seemed to be the province of liberal America, and if the dream was ever realized, it would be liberals who profited from it politically. The fact that they have not, at least not the way one might have predicted in 1970, is a matter of great frustration to them.

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