The USC Trojan Marching Band has its own Olympic resume, having performed at the opening ceremony of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles and the Olympic Torch Runs in 1996 and 2002. (USC Photo/Gus Ruelas)
Spirit of Troy to salute USC’s Paris Olympians, Paralympians at halftime Saturday
Sixty-seven Trojans from 27 nations competed in the 2024 Games, winning 15 medals. Another two Trojans took part in the subsequent Paralympics, bringing home two more medals.
Saturday is homecoming for thousands of USC alumni, but it will also be the official homecoming for Trojan athletes who competed at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics during the summer. The Spirit of Troy will honor them on the field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with a special halftime show and presentation during the USC football game against Nebraska.
USC’s Olympic legacy is unparalleled among American universities. Sixty-seven Trojans from 27 nations competed in the 2024 Paris Games, winning 15 medals. Highlighting the haul were seven gold medals, extending the university’s remarkable streak of winning gold at every Summer Olympics since 1912. Overall, the Trojans’ 545 all-time Olympians have won 341 total medals since 1904, more than any other U.S. institution.
After the Olympics ended in August, two Trojans competed in the Paralympics, including current USC track and field athlete Ezra Frech, who won gold medals in the T63 100 meters and T63 high jump.
The Trojan Marching Band — along with the USC Song and Spirit Leaders — will honor these world-class athletes with a halftime show dedicated to the sights and sounds of the XXXIII Olympic Summer Games. Along with the iconic Olympic anthems “Bugler’s Dream” and John Williams’ “Olympic Fanfare and Theme,” the band will perform music from the French electronic duo Daft Punk, the Victor le Manse piece “Parade” from the Games’ opening ceremony, and Jacques Offenbach’s “Galop Infernal” — better known as the music that accompanies the can-can.
Honoring the USC Paris Olympians, Paralympians on the Coliseum field
The Trojan Marching Band will make formations on the field to illustrate the music, including Olympic and Paralympic athletes passing a baton, a weightlifter and the Paris Olympics logo. The band will also form the Eiffel Tower and Louvre pyramid. The Trojan Olympians will then parade on to the field to be honored before the homecoming crowd.
Like USC Athletics, the Trojan Marching Band has its own impressive Olympics resume. The band performed at the opening ceremony of both the 1932 and 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles and the Olympic Torch Runs in 1996 and 2002. Earlier this year, NBC Sports filmed the band at the Coliseum performing a special arrangement of “Bugler’s Dream,” which aired during NBC’s prime-time coverage of the Olympics.
Joining the festivities at halftime will be The Spirit of Troy alumni from the woodwinds sections, silks (tall flags) and Spirit and Yell Leaders, along with members of the 1984 Olympic All-American Marching Band.
This quadrennial halftime tradition is designed this year by Trojan Marching Band field instructor Chris Norton, who previously masterminded the band’s acclaimed Star Wars, Avengers and Louis Zamperini shows. His trip to France this summer to experience the Olympics inspired the show’s design.
“We’re excited to have the opportunity at homecoming to honor our USC Olympians and Paralympians along with alumni members of the USC band that helped open the 1984 Olympics,” Norton said. “We’re bringing the spirit of the Paris Olympics to the Coliseum while looking ahead to LA28.”
The USC game against Nebraska will kick off this Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Coliseum with halftime beginning at approximately 2:45 p.m.
