09-19-2020, 04:05 PM
In honor of the home game against USC that was originally scheduled to take place today.
When the Stanford Indians (as they were then called) were getting ready to play the USC Trojans on the road on November 11, 1933, the Indians were 5-1-1, and under a first-year head coach, Claude "Tiny" Thornhill, trying to fill the shoes of his predecessor Pop Warner. The Trojans were 6-0-1, defending Pacific Coast Conference champions, and had not lost a game since the 1931 season opener.
Yet Thornhill was not fazed. Following in the footsteps of Charles James Napier (who, in an immortal legend, sent the word "PECCAVI" ("I have sinned") in a telegram back to England upon capturing the Indian province of Sind), Thornhill sent the following two-word telegram to USC coach Howard Jones the day before the game:
WILBEET USURIOUS.
And he did.
When the Stanford Indians (as they were then called) were getting ready to play the USC Trojans on the road on November 11, 1933, the Indians were 5-1-1, and under a first-year head coach, Claude "Tiny" Thornhill, trying to fill the shoes of his predecessor Pop Warner. The Trojans were 6-0-1, defending Pacific Coast Conference champions, and had not lost a game since the 1931 season opener.
Yet Thornhill was not fazed. Following in the footsteps of Charles James Napier (who, in an immortal legend, sent the word "PECCAVI" ("I have sinned") in a telegram back to England upon capturing the Indian province of Sind), Thornhill sent the following two-word telegram to USC coach Howard Jones the day before the game:
WILBEET USURIOUS.
And he did.
". . . Now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb!"
-- Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet in Spaceballs (1987)