Tradition | Future Schedules
Traveler, USC's Mascot
Traveler, the beautiful white horse that appears at all USC home football games with a regal Trojan warrior astride, is one of the most famous college mascots.
Ardefhir Radpour is the current rider of Traveler, having taken over that job for the 1996 season. Tom Nolan and Rick Oas, both USC alums, shared riding duties in 1991 and Nolan took over full-time in 1992 through 1995 (Oas began riding Traveler in 1989). In the 1987 and 1988 seasons, Cass Dabbs, a USC student, shared the riding duties with the late Richard Saukko, Traveler's longtime rider. Saukko, who passed away in March of 1992, rode Traveler from 1961 through 1988 (he missed the 1979 season while recuperating from a back injury).
Saukko was spotted riding in the 1961 Rose Parade by Bob Jani, then USC's director of special events. Jani persuaded Saukko to ride his white horse around the Coliseum during USC games, serving as a mascot. Ever since, whenever USC scores, the band plays "Conquest" and Traveler gallops around the Coliseum.
Saukko started off with Traveler I, half-Arabian, half-Tennessee Walker, and rode him until the end of the 1966 season. Traveler I, who appeared in movies with the late actor Leo Carillo and whose brother was the Lone Ranger's Silver, died in 1975 at 33 years of age. Traveler II, a Tennessee Walker now 33 years old, took over until retiring in the mid-1970s with a leg injury. Twenty-six-year-old Traveler III, a 1,000-pound, 15 1/2 hand- high Arabian who was a professional show horse, was the next horse used. The current Trojan mascot is Traveler IV, Traveler III's 15-year-old Arabian brother who was used frequently in 1988 before taking over fulltime in 1989 (the mother of Traveler IV and the daughter of Traveler III are also used on occasion).
Saukko first appeared on Traveler in the outfit that actor Charlton Heston wore in "Ben Hur." That proved to be too cumbersome, so Saukko crafted his own leather costume in 1962, modeled after the Tommy Trojan statue on the USC campus. But he still sometimes wore Heston's helmet. Interestingly, Saukko was once employed by Jim Crowley, one of Notre Dame's "Four Horsemen."
Legend has it that Heisman Trophy tailback O.J. Simpson decided to come to USC after seeing Traveler on a televised football game. And Trojan faithful swear the horse has an effect on the outcome of games.
"(Former USC coach) John McKay didn't want to admit that the horse had anything to do with his success," said Saukko, "but he'd always give me a wink when he saw me waiting in the Coliseum tunnel."
Added former USC All-American defensive back and assistant coach Nate Shaw: "The horse is one of the greatest inspirational devices USC has. It definitely got the adrenaline going when I was playing and I think it still has an effect on the players. When I was coaching against USC (at Oregon State), we hated to see that horse come down the tunnel because it got USC a little more pumped up."
Traveler not only appears at Trojan home football games, but also at other Trojan events, as well as at grade schools, charity functions and parades (including the past 35 Rose Parades). Traveler has also appeared on screen (including "The Battle of the Gunfighter" and "Snowfire"), on stage (including the last 10 years in the Long Beach Ballet's "Nutcracker Ballet") and in commercials.
Incidentally, Traveler I was not the first equine mascot for Troy. The first appearance of a white horse at a Trojan football game occurred as early as 1927, when Louis Shields began a four-year stint aboard a horse owned by a local banker. In 1948, band director Tommy Walker once had USC colors carried by a Trojan on a palomino. Then, at halftime of the 1954 USC- Pittsburgh game, a costumed Arthur J. Gontier III, then a member of the Trojan Knights spirit group, rode a rented white horse. Bob Caswell and his white horse, Rockazar, took over the following game and performed until retiring in the late 1950s.
Besides these horses, USC once even had a canine mascot. A mutt named George Tirebiter I (famous for chasing cars through the USC campus) first appeared at football games in 1940. He survived a publicized dognapping by UCLA in 1947, but succumbed under the tires of an automobile in 1950. He was succeeded by George II for 3 years and then George III for 5 years.
