Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

The assault on USC’s campus canine prompted angry letters to The Times and a pointed barb on the sports pages. “Whoever did that had a warped mind,” columnist Braven Dyer said.

Of course, the Trojans were up to the challenge and shortly before the schools’ annual grudge match, painted the Westwood campus with slogans like “George Tirebiter’s Revenge.” The scoreboard was vandalized to read: “USC 1,000, UCLA 0.” The actual score was much closer. USC, which at that point was unbeaten, defeated UCLA 6-0 and went to the Rose Bowl, although it subsequently lost its homecoming game to Notre Dame 38-7.

As for the unpleasantness on New Year’s Day, 1948, USC was devastated 49-0 by the Michigan Wolverines, a game that remains the worst defeat in USC history.

George Tirebiter, who got his nickname from chasing cars near the USC campus, died in 1950 while pursuing a car in El Centro, where he had been sent after becoming a little too aggressive. The Times obituary reports that his paw prints were in concrete at the north entrance to the campus.

Bonus factoid: George Tirebiter’s middle name was Torres.

Quote of the day: “I don’t like you. You are not a good American.”

New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno, before sticking a gun in the stomach of a doorman at the Drake Hotel in New York.