I've been a fan of USC athletics since I was in diapers. My dad is a USC alum, and his dad took him to games when he was a kid. My dad and I bonded throughout the years by going to USC basketball & football games.
Crenshaw high school football star De'Anthony Thomas was set to make his college decision last night at Crenshaw high. He was choosing between USC and Oregon. He had been expected to go to USC all year, but took a surprise visit to Oregon and apparently came away very impressed. Now, don't get me wrong; while I love USC, my second favorite college sports school is the University of Oregon. My mom lives in Oregon and I've had great respect for their program since I visited the campus in 2005. So, if Thomas decided to choose Oregon, I wasn't going to be too upset.
I live 20 minutes away from Crenshaw, so out of boredom, I decided to drive out there to see the decision. I brought a magazine to hopefully get autographed by De'Anthony after he made his decision. I may technically be an adult now, but I still enjoy collecting autographs. Anyway, I got to Crenshaw at about 5:45 and the announcement was to be made at 6pm. I parked inside a school parking lot and asked a group of high school students where to find the MPR room (where the announcement was to be held). A nice young lady showed me where to go, and immediately I spotted a few news vehicles.
I go inside the MPR room and notice I am the only white guy in there. I felt kind of strange, especially since I was there by myself, so I decided to log onto twitter and act as if I'm texting people or doing 'business work'. Six o'clock goes by and there is no sign of De'Anthony Thomas. It was then that I received a call from my dad telling me to "come home!" because he just scored front row tickets to the USC vs. UCLA game at Pauley Pavilion. The game started at 8pm, so I told him I would leave Crenshaw no later than 7pm.
It's already 6:30 and there's still no sign of the man everybody wants to hear from. My mom called me and we start talking outside. I saw Crenshaw's football coach talking to people right next to me, proclaiming he has "no idea where De'Anthony is gonna go". I speak to a woman who looks like she works for the school, and she tells me the announcement will probably be around 7pm. I tell her I have a basketball game to go to in Westwood and she said I should be able to get there on time.
Around 6:50, I see lots of people walk into the MPR room, so I decide to follow them. De'Anthony is on stage decked out in Oregon gear. Shortly after that, he announces he's going to Oregon. Most of the people in the audience cheered, but I can tell they would have loved if he had stayed home to play for USC. De'Anthony speaks for a minute or two and you can tell he is emotional, as tears drip down his eyes and face. After he gets off the podium, his fellow teammates go and hug him before De'Anthony comes to speak with some media looking to ask questions. I decided to join this little circle of 'reporters'. De'Anthony sits down on the stage and I ask him if he can "sign his first autograph as an Oregon Duck". He signed my magazine and answered questions asked by a woman that looked like a reporter. I took out my cell phone and recorded some of this conversation. You can watch the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm3ZiWsnXZc
I even decided to ask a silly little question of my own at the end of the video.
At that time, it was 7:05 and I called my dad to let him know I was on my way home to pick him up and head to Westwood for the USC vs. UCLA game. We got to the game five minutes before tipoff. I wasn't wearing my USC gear, as I didn't expect to go to the game before I left the house. This ended up being a good thing, as UCLA's crowd is full of hecklers who HATE USC and won't let you walk out of the building without you feeling like crap if USC happens to lose in the Bruins building. Well, it was a great first half. USC was down one point at halftime and even took the lead to begin the second half. Then, they couldn't hit a bucket. They scored 15 points in the second half, after scoring 35 in the first half. You won't win games like that.
All in all, it was a typical day in LA for me. It started off with no plans, but I ended up having a fun day doing stuff you really can't do anywhere outside of Los Angeles.
I hope you enjoyed reading this - I'll be sure to update it with more stories as they happen.
