In 1948 Oregon football coach, Jim Aiken, had put together a juggernaut team composed of many WW II vets from all across the country. If Aiken challenged you to a duel you could be certain one of his handlers had loaded your weapon with blanks. Jim liked to shave the odds but that '48 team with Norm Van Brocklin went to the 1949 Cotten Bowl after getting shut out of the Rose Bowl when a tie with Cal was decided by the University of Washington voting for the Golden Bears. That decision by the Dawgs still resonates with Duck fans.
John McKay was a star running back on that Cotton Bowl team. After Aiken was asked to leave Oregon, new Athletic Director Leo Harris hired Len Casanova to replace him. Casanova brought McKay onto his staff in 1950 and after nine years, his talent as the offense coordinator was recognized by other programs including USC. which hired him as an assistant in 1959. They appointed him head coach the next year, after which he would go on to win four national titles. McKay considered Casanova his mentor and his affection for Cas lasted throughout both their lives.
When you are the head football coach at USC, it's like being King with a really good army. After Cas retired as Oregon's Athletic Director in 1969, I went with him to LA where Oregon would play the Trojans in the Coliseum. Friday before the game, McKay invited Cas to have lunch with him and I tagged along. We went to a restaurant-bar across the street from the USC campus and it was apparent this was a royal gathering place. McKay had a round table on a raised landing in the back of the room and it was obvious only John and his guests ever dined there. After lunch we went back to McKay's office (no tab for the lunch ever came to our table).
Did I say office? Let's define it as a large, impressive reception chamber. One side of the room was dominated by a window overlooking the practice football field two stories below. On the wall behind McKay's massive desk at one end of the room was a huge oil painting of O. J. Simpson. A number of comfortable chairs surrounded a low table in the center of the room where we sat and I remember John telling Cas, "If you can't win at USC you should find another line of work."
John's son, JK, came into the room and after introductions said to his dad, "I need new tires for my car so is it OK to charge them to you." "How about using your Rose Bowl ticket money for your tires?" Rose Bowl ticket money? You mean wealthy USC alums might pay generous money to players for their Rose Bowl tickets? Shocking!
John McKay would move on to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and USC replaced him with another Oregon coach, John Robinson. We know about O..J. but what happened to that oil painting of him? The frame looked expensive.
