Well, That Would Be a Very Happy Reunion

Members of the 1943 and ’44 USC football teams held a reunion at the L.A. Athletic Club last week. Those teams won back-to-back Rose Bowl games, 29-0 over Washington and 25-0 over Tennessee.

Gordon Gray, an end who scored two touchdowns in the Trojans’ upset victory over Washington, was the moderator of the event.

“Our next reunion is scheduled for 2054,” announced Gray, an eternal optimist.

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Trivia time: Who was the USC quarterback who threw three touchdown passes against Washington on Jan. 1, 1944, and passed for two scores and ran for one against Tennessee in ‘45?

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Tailgating’s appeal: Joe Cahn of New Orleans was at Saturday’s Rose Bowl game. But he didn’t go inside the stadium; he was there just to tailgate.

Cahn, who bills himself as the “Commissioner of Tailgating,” sold his home and his cooking school nine years ago, bought a motor home and has been tailgating around the country ever since. He now has sponsors and a website, www.tailgating.com.

Asked about his love of tailgating, Cahn said an admiral at a Navy game at Annapolis, Md., a few years ago summed it up best.

“I asked him if the officers had their own area for tailgating,” Cahn recalled. “And he said, ‘Tailgating has no rank.’ ”

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Food critic: Cahn, who makes the rounds tasting the gourmet spreads at tailgate parties, said he was served champagne and caviar before the USC-California game at the Coliseum on Oct. 9.

But his all-time favorite tailgate fare was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich offered to him by a 5-year-old boy at a Brown game in Cleveland this season.

“Because of that young man’s generosity, that sandwich tasted better than any bratwurst,” Cahn said.

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Odd couple: January Barker, a young woman wearing a burnt-orange top, was seen posing for a picture with members of the Michigan band before the Rose Bowl game.

Her boyfriend, John Thomas, wearing a Michigan sweatshirt, asked to take the picture. They are lawyers who work together in Houston. She went to Texas as an undergraduate and also got her law degree there. He got his law degree from Michigan.

And they did have a bet on the game. That’s probably why Thomas was singing “The Eyes of Texas” at their hotel’s bar in Beverly Hills on Saturday night.

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Trivia answer: Jim Hardy, who later was general manager of the Coliseum. Hardy, 82, now lives in La Quinta and works for a branch of the Bank of La Jolla.

And finally: Legendary Texas coach Darrell Royal, who participated in the Rose Bowl pregame coin toss, was asked at a news conference last week about current Texas Coach Mack Brown’s new 10-year, $25-million contract. Royal said the question reminded him of a time Sammy Baugh was asked about NFL player salaries.

“Sammy, who chews a bit, paused for a moment, and then spit,” Royal said. “Then he looked up and said, ‘I was just born too soon.’ So I guess that would be my answer, I was just born too soon.”

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.