In the past there was a great visible rivalry between USC and the Cal marching Bands. I have heard that one year there were a bunch of Cal band members that were dressed up in USC band uniforms and that their plan was to go out during half time and make a mess of the half time show for USC on national television. Apparently though the members of the USC marching band were smarter than this and when they were about to take the field they all punched out the Cal members that were in the band that day.

My father told me this legend when I brought up the fact that there must be some folklore that surrounds USC. He found out about this legend when he first started school at USC. He thought about this legend because it always sounded like it could have happened.

He thought that this legend has kept going through all the years because of  the marching band. The marching band has traditionally been one of the bigger and louder college marching bands in the nation, and for this reason people are always trying to compete with the marching band. He believes that this legend continues on because it makes it seem like USC’s marching band was able to prevent something bad from happening to their field show.

Another reason why I think the legend continues today is because today we live in a society that need for us to all be politically correct. It would not be appropriate for our students to try to do that to another school. It makes us long to be back in the old days when things like this were expected rather than worried about.

I also find that this legend continues today because the marching band is still very well known. If the band had not been as famous as it is then I doubt that a legend like this would ever continue to be popular on campus. Again, this kind of legend is only popular among students of the schools because we feel that we need to be a part of our school, and this is just one more way that as a group we build special connections.