Tommy Trojan suffers un-egg-splained attack
An unidentified perpetrator splattered the statue after the Trojan Knights ended their weeklong watch.
By CHRISTINA CHKARBOUL & NATHAN ELIAS
This rivalry week, USC learned that humiliation doesn’t just come in the form of a heartbreaking loss to crosstown challenger UCLA: It can also be served up hard-boiled, poached or deviled.
Between Saturday and Sunday morning, Tommy Trojan endured an impassioned egging before the perpetrator promptly scrambled away from the scene. The statue sustained no damage, thanks to a layer of duct tape covering the entirety of its bronze frame.
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The Trojan Knights stand on guard by Tommy’s side each year over the week leading up to the rivalry game. The attack added insult to injury for the Knights, the historic keepers of the Victory Bell, which the Bruins seized after defeating the Trojans 38-20 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Saturday afternoon. The Knights ended their round-the-clock watch Saturday morning as tailgates swept campus in anticipation of the game.
One Knight has a bear-shaped suspect in mind. Alex Cull, a junior majoring in political science and the activities director for the Knights, said it was “cowardly” for a UCLA student to strike after the Knights were tired from a week of 24-hour surveillance over the statue.
“What can you expect from a school like UCLA?” Cull said. “They’re not known for being respectful or honorable. And so, of course, they will go after the game is over and after everyone else whose job it was to guard it for a week is asleep.”
Tommy wasn’t the only campus statue that came face-to-face with hostile actors this rivalry week. Across campus, would-be assailants threatened Hecuba — the Queen of Troy and USC Village — with an attempted spray paint offensive Friday.
Tommy has seen his fair share of tragedy. Last November, an enemy splattered the warrior with eggs one day before the Knights began their watch for the week. The Knights responded this year by moving their start time from Sunday night to Sunday afternoon, but it wasn’t enough to guard against the most recent attack.
“Alas, it is a rivalry game,” said Hudi Potash, a senior majoring in public policy and a Trojan Knight. “It’s not like I was shocked; I wasn’t like, ‘Wow, no one’s ever done this before.’”
Ryan Alimento, a graduate student studying green technologies and a Trojan Knight, said unidentified passersby approached Tommy earlier this week to snap selfies with the legend. They left after the Knights politely asked them to.
Facilities Planning and Management will clean Tommy up and remove the duct tape in which he is wrapped.
