Now Everyone Will Say They’re a Trojan Fan

I’m happy we won, of course, but you know what’s going to happen now -- we’re going to get all kinds of yahoos wanting to jump on the Trojan bandwagon.

Some people have no shame.

Hey, I remember holding two fingers in the air while sitting in Sister Lavina’s second-grade class, so you know how far back I go with the Trojans.

I asked Coach Pete Carroll after the convincing Rose Bowl win over Michigan if he was as concerned as I was about these folks who are going to become Trojan fans overnight, and he gave me a look as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“It’s true,” I told him, and I know how busy he has been coaching so I wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t fully aware of such a phenomenon. “There are going to be people who suddenly swear they love USC now.”

“Really,” he said with a “well, you would know better than I would” grin. “I know there were a lot of people still sitting in the stands after the game was over, and it didn’t seem like they wanted to leave.”

Would you want to go back to Michigan at this time of year?

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I EXPRESSED similar bandwagon concerns to my old pal, USC AD Mike Garrett, after our big win together, and he said, “We’re a family, and we’ll welcome anyone.”

“Anyone?” I said with surprise.

“Anyone,” Garrett said, and he obviously knew who I was talking about. “Yes, we’ll even take a sports editor who went to Notre Dame.”

The fact that USC would embrace just about any schmoe is interesting, and something for Bruin fans to consider -- especially given the Bruin quarterback situation next year. When I left Garrett, the last thing he said to me was “Happy New Year.” Think about that. Could UCLA AD Dan Guerrero promise you the same thing?

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ALTHOUGH GARRETT might not be opposed to accepting checks from new boosters, I’d still like to know where were all these Trojan fans, who are now wearing cardinal and gold Christmas gifts, when things weren’t so rosy for USC?

I think back to all the tough times we’ve gone through together at USC, like beating UCLA by only 25 points this season. Some of us go so far back with the team we can remember its last loss, a triple-overtime shocker at Cal.

We’ve paid the price for loyalty, but it was all worth it. If for some reason the Bagger makes the daughter pregnant, I intend to suggest they name the little monster Tommy Trojan in the hopes the nickname will stick, and the kid won’t have to go through life known as Tommy Grocery Store Bagger.

It is a Happy New Year for USC, of course, so my heart goes out to UCLA, which has been left behind in all the hoopla, while contributing so much to the Trojan championship march this season with the hiring of Coach Karl Dullard.

As for the Bruin faithful, as long as everyone else is jumping on the bandwagon, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t cash in on the Trojans’ popularity.

I don’t know if you noticed the security guards in yellow jackets standing at the bottom of each aisle in the Rose Bowl. They stuck out here, because they were assigned to watch the spectators all day long, which meant their backs were turned to the action on the field.

Now I figured it’d be impossible to find anyone willing to turn their back on the Rose Bowl, but then I realized most of the guards were probably UCLA grads who had no reason to think anything interesting ever happens on the field behind them.

And as popular as the Trojans are going to be next year and with so many key performers returning, I’d imagine the security company is going to hire more guards to work USC’s games in the Coliseum. Sounds like a good UCLA fund-raiser.

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YOU CAN imagine what a thrill it must have been for composer/conductor John Williams, the grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade, to direct the USC band during the playing of the National Anthem, along with the Michigan band.

I suppose the ex-Bruin could have held out until UCLA made it to the Rose Bowl, but most of us have only so many more decades to live.

By the way, as National Anthem renditions go, this one was major league. The bands played on while fireworks filled the air overhead, followed by three military planes, including a Stealth bomber. I never saw the Stealth bomber, of course.

(It flew over the top of the press box.)

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I’M TOLD Joanne Frederick has been a Trojan fan forever, and she was pacing up and down during the Rose Bowl as if there were a reason to be nervous. Hey, imagine being a Bruin fan forever and pacing up and down during the Silicon Valley Classic.

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ON PAGE 9 of the $10 Rose Bowl program there was a story detailing the careers of Carroll and Lloyd Carr. This was said of Carroll: “He had limited success in four seasons as an NFL head coach.” Now if there is one thing that still gnaws at Carroll, it’s the perception he had “limited success” in the NFL, and now in his finest hour in a program designed to hype the very best the Rose Bowl has to offer, there it was again.

I don’t know why they allow writers from UCLA to work on such things.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Julian Woods, MD:

“There are thousands of UCLA alumni in the southland and yet you freely insult and disrespect the coach and football program. The coach deserves criticism, I admit, but your recent slander will be a factor why I will never buy a LA Times again. Being a 37 year old male physician, and an avid sports fan, I assume I would be a part of the Times target audience.”

No sir -- doesn’t sound to me like you went to USC.

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.