USC football and Dodgers World Series games do have a Friday history
USC football fans are going to have a late night on Oct. 25. The Trojans host Rutgers in a game which will start just after 8 p.m. local time in Los Angeles. One plot twist: The game follows Fox’s broadcast of Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. You might wonder if the Los Angeles Dodgers have played a World Series Friday game on the same day that USC football played a game. You would probably say this has never happened, given that USC football games aren’t usually played on Fridays in October. Without looking anything up, we thought the same thing.
For a long period of time, the World Series did not have Friday games. In 1985, the League Championship Series moved from best of five games to best of seven. The World Series started on a Saturday and did not have a Friday game for roughly two decades. Friday games have not been a consistent feature of the World Series schedule. They existed for several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and have recently returned to the schedule, but for long periods of time, they didn’t exist.
Yet, in 1959, there was a Friday World Series game. The Dodgers played in it. USC football played later that night. It’s surprising, but it’s real. This really has happened before.
Friday, October 2, 1959. The Dodgers faced the Chicago White Sox in Game 2 of the 1959 World Series at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Dodgers beat Chicago, 4-3, to even the series at 1-1. Two days later, Los Angeles hosted its first-ever World Series game in USC’s home football stadium, the Coliseum.
Hours after Dodgers-White Sox in the World Series on that October day in 1959, USC faced Ohio State on the gridiron in a nighttime start. We know it’s a night game because Columbus Dispatch Ohio State beat writer Joey Kaufman (who, by the way, previously covered USC) made note of the night start.
So there you have it: The Dodgers played a World Series game and USC played a football game on the same Friday. It really has happened. Let’s see if the Dodgers can make the World Series and create the sequel in 2024.
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