Charles White USC tribute ceremony should be held before Utah game on October 21
No official word has come from USC on when it plans to honor legendary Trojan Charles White this upcoming football season. Mike Bohn has said that the school will honor White — who died at age 64 earlier this month — at some point during the 2023 season. Naturally, fans and alumni will wonder when that will happen.
Our view: USC ought to do this on October 21, when the Utah Utes visit the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Let’s be clear about one thing: Every USC home game should have a pregame tribute to White, just on a smaller scale. A video presentation, an announcement, something.
The first game of the season on Aug. 26 versus San Jose State should have a moment of silence before kickoff. However, a full ceremony on a day which is likely to be hot and miserable — in front of a non-maruqee opponent — would be untimely. Why have a ceremony in front of a Coliseum which won’t be fully filled?
Neither of the first two games of the season should have a lavish ceremony. If USC wants to consider a ceremony early in the season, the earliest possible date would be Sept. 9, when the Trojans begin their Pac-12 season versus longtime conference foe Stanford. Yet, even then, the opponent and the time of year are likely to produce a less-than-capacity crowd.
The Utah game will fill the stadium. The game will almost certainly be on national television, probably in prime time. That is the occasion to conduct a longer, fuller ceremony honoring Charles White.
Yes, USC should do other things as well: a No. 12 patch on every USC jersey, a No. 12 logo painted on the Coliseum field, and 1979 throwback uniforms. In terms of a ceremony, though, the Utah game clearly makes the most sense, with the UCLA game on Nov. 18 being another option.
If USC wanted to have big ceremonies before both the Utah and UCLA games, that’s fine, too.
We’re just trying to get things in order here and plan ahead.
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A Trojan tribute to Charles White: 1958-2023
