University of Southern California -- Guest Photographer

After I posted a notice about my Texas Tech photo display on the RaiderPower.com chat site (the school's sports teams are known as the Red Raiders), someone who goes by the moniker "Raider Aficionado" commented about being at the University of Southern California recently and posted some pictures he or she had taken of the USC campus (the University of South Carolina also, of course, goes by USC). Raider Aficionado also kindly stated that I could use the photos for this blog, and so I'm posting some of them (as can be seen in all of my earlier postings, I'm generally limiting the number of photos per campus to three or four, so that the page will come up relatively quickly on most computers).



The central icon of the Southern Cal campus, of course, is the statue of Tommy Trojan, the school's athletic mascot. As documented here, Tommy needs to be protected from possible mischief by supporters of cross-town rival UCLA in the days leading up to the schools' annual football showdown.



Next is a shot of the Student Activities Center, which I believe Raider Aficionado took to illustrate the abundant trees on campus as much as the center.



Finally, we have the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, located within walking distance of USC. In addition to being the home of the Trojan football team, the Coliseum has hosted two Olympics (1932 and 1984) and used to host L.A. Rams (now in St. Louis), L.A. Raiders (now back in Oakland), and UCLA Bruins (now at the Rose Bowl) football games. Also in the athletic realm, after many years of playing at the decaying L.A. Sports Arena near campus, the Trojan basketball teams will inaugurate a new on-campus facility, the Galen Center, this season.