Before USC Fame, John McKay Built His Career at Oregon
The short version
- John McKay led USC from 1960 through 1975, winning four national championships and five of eight Rose Bowls.
- McKay played at Oregon in the late 1940s and joined the Ducks staff in 1950.
- He served under Len Casanova at Oregon for eight seasons, through 1958, including the 1957 Rose Bowl season against Ohio State.
- McKay became USC head coach before the 1960 season after Don Clark resigned.
The coach who delivered four national titles to Southern California spent nearly a decade on the Oregon staff under Len Casanova.
John McKay is regarded by many as the finest head coach in USC football history, ahead of even Pete Carroll and Howard Jones. Across 16 seasons in Los Angeles, from 1960 through the end of 1975, he captured four national championships within a 13-year stretch and guided the Trojans to eight Rose Bowls, winning five.
His path to USC ran through Oregon. A Ducks player in the late 1940s, McKay joined the school's coaching staff in 1950. When Len Casanova took over the program from Jim Aiken a year later, he chose to keep McKay on board, and the pair worked side by side for eight years, through the 1958 season.
That staff guided Oregon's 1957 squad to a Rose Bowl matchup against Woody Hayes and Ohio State. McKay departed for Los Angeles in 1959 to work as a USC assistant under Don Clark, a staff that also included Al Davis, the future Oakland Raiders architect. Clark resigned after that season, and McKay was elevated to head coach ahead of the 1960 campaign.
At USC, McKay dropped only three of 11 meetings with Ara Parseghian's Notre Dame sides. His formative years alongside Casanova in Eugene, the record notes, shaped both his football career and his life beyond it.
