Trojan Warrior : Goux Remembers Most Fondly USC’s Battles With Notre Dame

Perhaps it isn’t coincidental that the last time USC beat Notre Dame, in 1982, Marv Goux was on the Trojan coaching staff.

To Goux, the Notre Dame game was more than a traditional rivalry. It was a holy war, the focal point of his life, a gauge of his manhood.

Goux, 60, is proud and honored that he opposed Notre Dame 29 times, 26 as an assistant coach and three as a player. And he had a winning record: 15-12-2.

“Probably the main reason I went to USC was to play against Notre Dame and go to the Rose Bowl,” said Goux, who is in charge of the Rams’ speakers’ bureau.

As USC’s defensive line coach, Goux began preparing his players for Notre Dame the day they enrolled at school.

“That’s the way you beat Notre Dame,” he said. “You start talking about the game the day they get to school. When we had spring practice, I’d say, ‘What are you going to be like at the five-yard line when Notre Dame is coming after you?’ You don’t start talking the day of the game; you talk way in advance.”

Goux was often called upon to give stirring pre-Notre Dame game speeches to the entire squad.

With his bushy black eyebrows, he has the look of the guy on the poster who says, “The Army Wants You.”

Goux was particularly stimulated when USC played Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

“I loved that stadium,” he said. “It was a football stadium. The dressing rooms weren’t very big, what you think of in college football. No carpet on the floor, old lockers and cold as hell when you were getting taped.

“You’d be breathing cold air coming out, and you’d look at those leaves turning brown on an autumn afternoon. You could see the Golden Dome, and I always could imagine that I could see (Knute) Rockne and (Frank) Leahy and all the great players. I loved all that.”

Goux’s signature address to the players was “Big man on big man. Best in the West against best in the East.”

“I’d say to the players the day of the game, ‘This day you’ll never forget the rest of your life. The greatest feeling is to remember all that and beat the Irish.’ ”

In an earlier interview with Goux at his home, a reporter rang the doorbell and the chimes played “Fight On for Old SC.”

The license plates on his car read: “USA USC.”

When he was USC’s defensive line coach, Goux’s players practiced in a corner of the field away from the rest of the team.

A reporter who played for USC once visited Goux during practice before the Notre Dame game. The reporter was missing a front tooth.

Goux stopped practice and said to his linemen: “See that man who is missing a front tooth. He lost it right here on this field while getting ready for Notre Dame.”

The players growled, then cheered. The reporter was silent. He knew the tooth was gone because of neglect--not combat. But he didn’t have the temerity to correct Goux.

Goux himself has lived with a painful reminder of the Notre Dame game for 40 years.

As a center and linebacker for USC, he played against Notre Dame in 1952, ’54 and ’55.

“In the 1952 game, I intercepted a deflected pass and three guys hit me and nailed me to the ground,” Goux recalled. “I saw stars. I staggered off the field, but I didn’t want to show them that I was hurt. I carry my Notre Dame trophy with me everywhere I go.”

Goux has been hunched over for years with the back injury he suffered in that pileup. However, he said he had another operation last summer, and finally got some relief.

“It was another fusion and they put a steel plate in my back,” he said. “I can stand up straight now. Before, I always looked like I was looking for nickels.”

Goux was an assistant coach under Don Clark, John McKay and John Robinson. He said each of those coaches recognized the significance of the Notre Dame game.

“As a former USC player, Clark had the opportunity of playing in the game, so he knew what it was like and what it felt like,” Goux said. “Even as a coach, he wanted to play himself.”

USC has lost nine consecutive games to Notre Dame, but the Trojans prospered under McKay, who had an 8-6-2 record against the Irish. After losing to Notre Dame in 1966, 51-0, McKay won six of the next nine games, with two ties.

“He has told me since that what he misses most about college football is playing that game,” Goux said.

After the 51-0 defeat, Goux said that McKay would look at the Notre Dame game film once a week for a year.

“Especially when he was annoyed,” Goux said. “Then he’d come out of the film room fuming. After that 1966 game, McKay said, ‘From now on, we will play these people to the best of our ability and we will never let that (51-0) happen again.’ ”

Goux recalled a game at South Bend when McKay kept his team in the locker room because he wouldn’t go onto the field before Notre Dame did.

An official opened the door to the USC dressing room and told McKay he would forfeit the game if his team didn’t go on the field immediately.

Goux recalled that McKay asked, “How much can we lose by?” When informed that a forfeit was 2-0, McKay said, “That’s a hell of a lot better than 51 points.”

Robinson had the knack of beating the Irish, winning six of seven games when he was USC coach.

“I remember one time at South Bend when we were coming back to the locker room after the team warmed up and the Notre Dame band saw Robinson and me and decided to intimidate us by playing the Notre Dame ‘Victory March,’ ” Goux said.

“So John and I stood in front of them and clapped and sang with them. And then we said, ‘Thank you.’ ”

Goux will be honored at the Coliseum on Saturday at halftime of the USC-Notre Dame game.

The Friday night preceding the game Goux and his 1952 teammates will hold a reunion at Phil Trani’s restaurant in Long Beach.

So poignant memories will stir the old Trojan, who recalled opening the dressing room doors at South Bend after a USC victory and heard the Trojan band playing, “Fight On,” and “Conquest.”

“I told the players, ‘I want you to listen to these songs and not forget them as long as you live,’ ” Goux said. “The band members were waving towels over their heads. It was like the Trojans, or Romans had just conquered a new land. It was a magnificent day.”