Letters: Will USC get off the grid-lock in search for athletic director?

Bill Plaschke’s column on Lynn Swann’s departure has an underlying current that everything would have been just fine if the football team kept winning championships.

He notes “Mike Garrett’s fortunate hire of Pete Carroll,” yet the lack of institutional control during Pete’s tenure led to the decimation of the football team.

Rich Holland

Aliso Viejo

::

Anyone who believes that Lynn Swann resigned from being the athletic director at USC rather than being pushed out must be living in a fantasy world.

Ralph S. Brax

Lancaster

::

In the line of tradition used by USC to hire the athletic director, there has been Mike Garrett, Pat Haden and Lynn Swann.

Who’s next in line, O.J.?

Ken Ng

Monterey Park

::

Bill Plaschke wrote “This ultimate insider school should, for once, crave the viewpoint of an outsider” about USC’s next hire as athletic director. Bill, do some research before writing your column. USC hired Jess Hill from within. He is the most successful athletic director in the history of college athletics. Trojan teams won 29 NCAA championships during his tenure from 1957 to 1972 and were easily the top athletic program in the nation at the time. He hired Hall of Fame coaches John McKay (football), Peter Daland (swimming) and Vern Wolfe (track and field) and an outstanding basketball coach, Bob Boyd.

Russ Ewald

Sunland

::

First action of new USC AD should be to bring back the song girls.

Dale Clanahan

San Dimas

::

I sure hope all the Trojan and Clay Helton boo birds have stocked up on crow. They’ll soon be eating it!

Brian Adams

Malibu

::

It’s frustrating to read about the exploits of Chip Kelly and his Bruin agenda while giving limited coverage to USC football except for the upcoming demise of its coach. It seems to me that Clay Helton is just what the university needs at this time. He is a kind, ethical man, and from what I’ve observed, a true “teacher.” He had one bad year. Give the guy a break. USC football deserves more print than this continual useless speculation.

Lillian Marshall

Santa Monica

::

JT Daniels, meet Wally Pipp.

Steve Ross

Beverly Hills

Oh, those Bruins

Perhaps it is time for Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott to borrow a page from the English Premier League and commence the relegation of UCLA football into a more apt conference commensurate with their recent playing ability. I would suggest the SCIAC, as I surmise that teams such as Cal Lutheran, Pomona-Pitzer and LaVerne would give the gutty little Bruins all they could handle.

Erich Stein

Upland

::

I never thought George Villafuerte was still kickin!

In 1966, I had just graduated from Franklin Ave. Elementary school and wanted to be a coach for my school team, but was deemed too young by the YMCA league directors. George heard about it and made me his assistant at Mother of Good Counsel for a couple of years until I could land the Franklin job. Later I was George’s replacement at MGC where I coached throughout the mid-70s after he retired. We often went round and round about SC and UCLA., usually in a good-natured sort of way.

MGC and Franklin were local neighborhood rivals in those days, and he was a super coach as he had about one-fifth the number of kids to pick from when putting his teams together, being a small parochial school.

I just retired from coaching and league directing after 50 years, (I still help direct YMCA mountain camps) and imagine that might never have happened if George didn’t take me under wing. He also often counseled me to follow my dreams, so this lifelong Bruin directly had an effect on my career choice.

Pete Arbogast

Voice of the USC Trojans

::

UCLA football’s missing links include more than one man’s absence from a home game. How about an absence of good coaching, both offensively and defensively? Effective recruiting is also missing, as is a competent head coach.

Constance Giguere

Palos Verdes Peninsula

::

Well, apparently I was looking at it all wrong. UCLA isn’t playing any patsies on its nononference schedule, according to Chip Kelly. I wonder if the same could be said for Cincinnati, San Diego State or Oklahoma?

Robert Worrall

La Mirada

::

Chip Kelly used a botany analogy with Ben Bolch in pleading for patience from the fans, saying “You don’t tear up the roots of a tree to see if it is growing.” But from the fans’ perspective he has cut off the big branches of the tree by cutting loose a bunch of upperclassmen, and he is insufficiently watering what is left with poor recruiting classes. That provides a poor prognosis for his tree.

Alan Abajian

Alta Loma

::

Bruins football fans, if you don’t like what you are seeing, do something. Boycott the games. If you have tickets to UCLA football games, don’t use them and don’t sell them. If you don’t have tickets, don’t buy them. Nothing will get the administration’s attention like a nearly empty stadium.

Mark Mead

San Diego

::

Speaking as a loyal Bruin alumnus, maybe Dan Guerrero will take a hint from Lynn Swann and likewise resign.

Joe Cohen

Mar Vista

::

Any chance the sports section could skip publishing letters to the editor after the UCLA-Oklahoma game?

Ralph Snyder

Santa Monica

Equal play?

If a woman drives the same amount of rivets in an airplane fuselage as a man does during an eight-hour shift, she should be paid equal to the man. Simple.

On the flip side, after watching the U.S. Open women’s and men’s championship matches, it’s inconceivable how they can pay each champion $3.85 million under the guise of gender equality.

Though the women’s two-set, one hour-forty minute match was, at times, somewhat compelling, how can you compare it to the ferocity and sweat-dripping drama of the men’s nearly five-hour, five-set match? If the women really want pay equality, let them play the best three-of-five as the men do and give them a chance to show that their tennis skills are equal to the men.

John R. Grush

Palm Desert

Olympic wasteland

It boggles my mind when I read that the Summer Olympics will cost a staggering $6.9 BILLION! Furthermore, that as part of an agreement, Los Angeles will get “a promised” $160 million of Olympic money for youth sports that must be spent within deadline. “I don’t want us to get behind on this issue,” Council President Herb Wesson said.

With the sea of homelessness in Los Angeles, may I suggest that the City Council, guided by Wesson, withdraw from the Games and instead spend those billions on our homeless citizens in Los Angeles? Maybe then he could say with pride: I don’t want us to get behind on this issue.

David Tulanian

Las Vegas

Flop of fame

Vlade Divac in the Hall of Fame? You’re talking about the NBA Hall of Fame, right? Because I’ve got a guy in my over 50 rec league who is better than Vlade right now.

William David Stone

Beverly Hills

At a loss

So far this year the only sports decision worse than the New England Patriots signing Antonio Brown would be Mike Trout’s decision to re-sign with the Angels.

Russell Beecher

Canyon Lake

Stop the party

Congratulations to the Dodgers on winning their seventh straight division title. But really was it necessary for them to celebrate as if they had just won the World Series? The New England Patriots have won the division for 10 straight years over a group of horribly inferior teams. The big difference is that the Patriots often follow it up by actually winning a title that means something.

David Booth

San Bernardino

::

Ah, the sweet smell of success, or as others would say, the same old scent of cheap beer and stale champagne.

Mer Valdez

Long Beach

::

The Los Angeles Times welcomes expressions of all views. Letters should be brief and become the property of The Times. They may be edited and republished in any format. Each must include a valid mailing address and telephone number. Pseudonyms will not be used.

Mail: Sports Viewpoint

Los Angeles Times

2300 E. Imperial Hwy.

El Segundo, CA 90245

Email:

sports@latimes.com