Joe Saltzman has been a Trojan since 1957. First as a student, then as a professor of journalism and communications at USC Annenberg, a post he has held for 59 straight years.
Somehow, in all that time, Professor Saltzman never attended a USC football home game at the iconic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. His impressive streak of absences ended on a hot and humid Saturday in August, when USC opened its season with a 42-26 victory over San Jose State.
“In 70 years at USC, I’ve never been to a live football game. I watch them on TV; I’m a big football fan, but I don’t like crowds, the Coliseum is so huge and I really never wanted to come to watch a game,” Saltzman said.
While he was a student at USC, Saltzman spent long hours on campus, driving every day as a commuter. He was heavily invested in the Daily Trojan, eventually serving as the publication’s editor-in-chief. He simply couldn’t find time to go.
“Going to a USC football game in the 50s and the 60s was a real social experience. And frankly, I was an outsider at USC,” Saltzman said. “I didn’t have time for those kinds of social activities. So for me, the game was nothing I wanted to do.”
Saltzman came close to attending an event in the Coliseum; however, his only exposure was quite brief.
“When I was a young professor here, we got tickets to the Bruce Springsteen concert in the Coliseum. I went with my wife and a friend. I walked in, and the music was so loud,” he said. “I walked out, went to my office, which used to be in the student union. It was so loud, I could hear it perfectly in my office. So after that experience, I said, ‘I’m never going to come near this place.’”
Since then, Saltzman had not returned to the stadium for any other event until Saturday’s football home opener against San Jose State. That’s not to say that he isn’t a fan of sports at all. In fact, Saltzman tunes in to the games, but from the comfort of his own home, watching in his own fashion.
“I’m a great fan of analyzing plays and trying to call the play before [Lincoln] Riley does. To me it’s more enjoying the game than enjoying the experience of being at the Coliseum,” he said. “I like them to win, but if they lose it doesn’t hurt me. So, I can root for it. I’m screaming at the television set, but once it’s over, it’s over.”
Similarly, before Saturday’s game, his wife, Barbara, had only ever been to one game at the Coliseum herself when she first became a student at USC.
“I was a year younger than Joe, and I entered as a Chime, which at that time was an honorary group for entering women, because they didn’t have too many places for women to be acknowledged. And the first thing we had to do the first week of school was to attend a football game,” she said. “I don’t remember anything about it except standing on the steps of the old Coliseum and thinking, ‘wow, what a crowd.’”
The Chimes, formerly part of what is now known as the USC Helenes, served as a community service-focused group and promoted school spirit amongst campus.
The idea of Saltzman attending a football game has been a running joke between him and fellow Annenberg professor Jeff Fellenzer. According to Fellenzer, the two have been friends since Fellenzer began teaching in the nineties. Saltzman even had the idea for the class now known as ‘JOUR 380: Sports, Business and Media’ that Fellenzer wanted to take on; they even co-teach a class together once every year since 2017.
Fellenzer then shared this information about Saltzman’s football absences with Willow Bay, dean of the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. When Bay heard the news, she knew something had to be done.
“My immediate reaction was, ‘We need to fix that right now.’ We really wanted to make sure that Joe and Barbara Saltzmans’ first USC football game was a special one,” Bay said. “I think it doesn’t get more special than this.”
When USC President Beong-Soo Kim asked Bay if there were any special guests she might want to invite to sit in the Presidential Suite on Saturday, Bay decided to bring the Saltzmans along so they could enjoy the game from the suite level.
“One of the things that I love and respect about Professor Saltzman is his priority on his teaching, and he conserves his energy on the weekends to save it up for teaching,” Bay said. “When I heard that, I thought, ‘OK, we are going to make this as easy as possible for him to attend.’”
As part of their experience, the Saltzmans were picked up from their house in the morning, driven to the game and taken up to their seats in the suite. The difference in the experience also left an impression on them.
“Watching a game in the presidential suite is like heaven. It’s air-conditioned, the food is fantastic. You then go into the presidential suite, there’s chairs and the whole field is there,” Saltzman said. “It’s been the most pleasurable experience I could possibly have.”
The Trojans’ win wasn’t the only benefit from the day. For Saltzman, the experience was “well worth the wait”.