Stadium Stalwart
Spring 2007
Alumni Profile - Class of ’49
| Trojan football fans may not know Cliff Hirsch
MA ’49 by name, but there’s a good chance they’ve seen him. This
energetic alum has been patrolling the stands and tunnels at home games
for the past 59 years, ensuring that fans have an enjoyable experience.
Hirsch is one of the six captains who manage the ushers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He was hired in 1947, when his friend Allen Ewen, then-assistant director of athletics, started the usher program. Hirsch quickly worked his way through the ranks to captain. “It has been the best 59 years of my life, being associated with USC and the program,” Hirsch says. The captains oversee the roving army of more than 100 people who help USC fans with any problems that arise. These run the gamut from wrong seats to stolen tickets to true emergencies. With nearly six decades of experience, Hirsch, 85, has seen it all. He has seen season tickets passed from grandfathers to sons to their children. He has seen the heart attacks, accidental falls and the resulting broken arms and legs. He has seen many people – and once, a dog – run onto the field and get chased by the police. He has seen games delayed by flyaway tarps during the rainy season and sprinklers that came on at inopportune moments. “I’ve seen sideline coaches almost go wild over plays that should have happened but didn’t happen,” Hirsch says. “I’ve seen the players do the same thing.” Hirsch has also seen the team’s winning and losing seasons. “I’ve seen attendance as low as 25,000 and as high as 102,000,” Hirsch says, noting that the current maximum capacity of the Coliseum is 92,000. “The fans become more loyal when you’re a winner. The fans love a winner.” Hirsch says he has seen all of the Trojan’s Heisman trophy winners play. Hirsch was born in 1921 in New York City. His father delivered fruits and vegetables for a living; his mother taught piano lessons. The family moved to California a few years later and eventually settled in Watts. “We were very, very poor. … As I grew older, I realized that you have to be accountable for what you do,” he said. “You have to save.” Hirsch’s diabetic father died in 1933 at age 54. Two years later – Hirsch was 11 years old – a drunk driver killed his older brother, Walter. “My mother suffered a great deal because of that, but she still held the family together,” Hirsch says. Hirsch embraced sports and was chosen as one of the city’s five best basketball players after he graduated from high school. Colleges took notice. He was offered scholarships to Compton Junior College and later Pepperdine University, where he earned a degree in physical education in 1943. Hirsch married his high-school sweetheart, Gladys, and the couple had three children – Tom, Susan and James – all of whom were educated at USC. They are now a dentist, a doctor and a design engineer, respectively. After earning his master’s degree in physical education from USC in 1949, he worked as an administrator for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 17 years, before retiring in 1981. Hirsch said has no plans to quit anytime soon. “I am going to keep working until I can’t work any more – or until they retire me. I love USC.” – Usha Sutliff |
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