The USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty [Hardcover]

Steven Travers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2006

In 2000, the University of Southern California Trojans were named Collegiate Athletic Department of the 20th Century. However, it still seemed that the greatest historical football program was USC's biggest rival, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In this lively history of USC football, Travers makes the case that under the guidance of coach Pete Carroll the Trojans have overtaken Notre Dame as the "greatest ever" collegiate tradition. Illustrated with both historic and contemporary photos and containing an extensive appendix listing college football's all-time greatest teams by year, this book celebrates college football's best and provides a blow-by-blow account of perhaps the greatest game ever played: the 2006 USC-Texas Rose Bowl.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Steve Travers is the next great USC historian! . . . the Trojan Family needs your work. Fight On! (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. His writing is great storytelling, and the result is pure genius every time. (Mike McDowd )

You're a great writer and I always enjoy your musings, particularly on SC football - huge fan! (Billy Beane )

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 )

About the Author

Steven Travers is an ex-professional baseball player whose books include One Night, Two Teams: USC vs. Alabama and the Game that Changed a Nation. He lives in San Anselmo, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing (August 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589793560
• ISBN-13: 978-1589793569
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,681,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty, September 20, 2006

By 

W. M. Williams (Albany,OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty (Hardcover)

The book is well done and covers the complete history of the USC football program. The author has done a ton of research and put it together in a well organized order for easy reading. The chapters are not long and that makes it easy reading. The author has rated all the college football programs and presented them in the order of their successes.
The author is an ex-athlete and is able to express the Trojan stories very well. His research also corrected some myths that have been built on for years.
It is a history book that you love to read.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for college football fans, September 21, 2006

By 

L. Lautz (SF Bay Area) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty (Hardcover)

Travers' latest book is a must have for every college football fan, especially USC Trojans. He did serious research and was able to capture the events as they happened. It made me feel like I was back at USC. I could not put this book down. It backs up in every way how USC football is THE dynasty. I highly recommend this excellent book.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The ALL-TIME TOP TEN, January 10, 2009

By 

Mike Whitney (McDavid, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty (Hardcover)

While Mr. Travers makes some good points, the premise of the book is wrong. USC is not the all-time #1 team in college football. To the extent that there could ever really be anything such as an all-time top ten, here's my admittedly subjective try, subjective because I abjure any effort to use any complicated mathematical system in rating the all-time programs. You only need think of the BCS annual rating system to see how far wrong mathematical point formulae can go in rating teams. My criteria are at the bottom of the list.

1) MICHIGAN (1st all-time wins, 1st in winning percentage)
2) ND (3rd all-time wins, 2nd winning percentage, which percentage, like Michigan's, is still signicantly higher than the eight teams under them)
3) TEXAS (2nd all-time wins, 3rd all-time winning percentage)
4) USC (10th all-time wins, 7th all-time winning percentage, but ranked this high because of head-to-head advantage over virtually all the top ten here except ND. However, ND still has a significant lead in the historical head-to-head annual rivalry match)
5) OKLAHOMA (8th all-time wins, 4th all-time winning percentage, but is historically dominated by Texas in their total annual rivalry comparison)
6) ALABAMA (7th all-time wins, 6th all-time winning percentage; the historical dominator of history's premier conference)
7) OHIO STATE (5th all-time wins, 5th all-time winning percentage; however, is not even first in its own conference, but is historical loser to Michigan in their head-to-head series)
8) NEBRASKA (4th all-time wins, 9th all-time winning percentage, but is dominated by Oklahoma in their long, head-to-head rivalry)
9) PENN STATE (6th all-time wins, 11th all-time winning percentage)
10) TENNESSEE (9th all-time wins, 10th all-time winning percentage)

Obviously, I've put greatest significance on all-time victories and all-time winning percentage. These figures are current through the 2008 football season and BCS series into early 2009. I've also taken head-to-head rivalry into account when it applies, as it is a good indicator of relative strength. I've ignored national championship titles because they are strictly mythical and essentially meaningless: just witness this year's travesty - Texas, USC, and Utah could all reasonably lay claim to the national championship and have at least as good a case as Florida. In fact, I think the BCS should have matched USC and Texas, which would have been as good a draw as Florida-Oklahoma. Perhaps the BCS folks didn't want that match for that very reason, and because the competing AP poll might have voted the winner of that game as its National Champ.