Sport: Twin Trojan Horses

They were all over, blocking with leg-chopping power, tackling with burly fury. If the play was not made by End Marlin McKeever, it likely was made by his identical twin, Guard Mike McKeever. With the McKeever twins clearing the way, Southern California crunched 80 yds. in the final period to defeat hitherto-unbeaten Washington 22-15, proved itself the finest West Coast team in years.

The power behind Southern Cal’s surge to the top is an oldfashioned, rib-rattling line that clears the way for T-formation backs. On the basic power sweep to the right, glowering End Marlin McKeever cuts down the tackle, and glowering Guard Mike pulls out to lead the interference. “Maybe they’ll stop it the first time,” says Coach Don Clark. “Maybe the second and the third. But sooner or later they make a mistake—and you just watch us go.”

All four Southern Cal opponents this fall have made mistakes and watched the Trojans go, including the Big Ten’s sturdy Ohio State, which gave up a humiliating 301 yds. on the ground, gained only 84 in a 17-0 loss. Alumni are trying to forget that they eyed young (35) Coach Clark with open suspicion when he took over in 1957, promptly won five, lost 14 and tied one in two seasons.

“I kept telling them I was building.” shrugs Clark, winner of a battlefield commission in Europe during World War II and captain of U.S.C.’s 1947 team. “What else could I say?” Clark was true to his word. He went as far away as the famed muscle factories of Pennsylvania to land Tackle Dan Ficca (6 ft. 1 in., 230 lbs.). But Clark’s prize finds were waiting at Mount Carmel High School, right in Southern Cal’s own home town of Los Angeles. As high-school All-Americas, Mike and Marlin McKeever got offers from some 40 colleges, including Notre Dame and Oklahoma. Says Marlin: “We picked U.S.C. because of its high scholastic rating, and because the team was down and we were offered a real challenge.” End Marlin and Guard Mike both made the first string last year as sophomores. Lean-bellied and heavy-thighed, they stand 6 ft. 1 in., weigh 220 lbs., and only their mother can tell them apart for sure.

Off the field, they are finance majors (all Bs and Cs), who fret mildly because they cannot find identical twins to date—”not even unattractive ones.” But on the field, they butt heads with unalloyed pleasure. Drawls Stanford Coach Jack Curtice: “Those boys could go bear hunting with a switch and come back with meat.” Admits Marlin: “We get. sheer pleasure out of football—out of knocking people down. It’s just plain fun.”