Flash of Personal Revenge While at Roman Colosseum

When I planned a trip to Rome to celebrate my wife's and my 30th wedding anniversary I knew that we would see a week's worth of amazing sites, sculptures, and paintings. As it turned out, it was essentially a fantastic week-long history lesson.

Just like in the old Rocky & Bowinkle show, turning Mr. Peabody's "Wayback Machine" to 1974-75-76, our Iowa Hawkeye football team was subjected to one of the nation's toughest non-conference schedules. Our head coach, the late Bob Commings, a former starting guard on the Hawk's 1959 Rose bowl team, dubbed us "The Chosen Children" because of the brutal schedule. In 1974 we played USC, UCLA, and Penn State. All three had legendary great college coaches--John McKay, Terry Donahue, and, of course, Joe Paterno, just a middle-aged guy then. We actually upset UCLA in Iowa City that year, lost in a competitive game to the Nittany Lions, but got whacked in L.A. by the Trojans, 41-3.

USC came to us in 1975, and we hung tough, even had a shot to win before falling 23-16. Then in 1976, after upsetting Penn St. in Beaver Stadium 7-6, we traveled west again only to be throttled again by the Trojans, 55-0. The total score of the two games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was a combined 96-3. USC was "Tailback U." at the time, continuing the incredible tradition started by O.J. Simpson and Mike Garrett just a few years earlier. During this three-year span defenses were trying to find a way to stop Anthony Davis and Ricky Bell, and were having little to no luck. Ask Notre Dame, who saw Davis reach pay-dirt five times in one game against the Irish.

Aside from being embarrassed some 35 years ago, I didn't think that those two visits to the L.A. Coliseum bothered me that much. I do remember the 55-0 shellacking was on my birthday in '76, so not much celebrating on the flight home. But other than that, life went on.

Until I got to Rome.

Unbeknown to me, for the last three and a-half decades there must have been a very slow but steady simmer in the deep recesses of my mind and soul which continued to develop into a violent rolling boil. The end result of me being quietly perturbed for such a long period of my adult life because of the embarrassment suffered at the hands and feet of the USC Trojans, culminated in the complete loss of control during my trip to THE COLOSSEUM--the original structure in Rome which was completed in the year 80 AD under Emperor Titus.

You can see in the action photo above, I have over-taken one of the soldiers who was clothed in an outfit similar to the USC band outside The Colosseum. I was waiting for the crowd to signal either thumbs down or throat slash, just like crowds did in Ancient Roman times, so I could put an end to my personal rage and this soldier's life, too. But, as she has for 30 years, my wife settled my emotions, which allowed me to gather myself and put together a few lucid thoughts. Thus, the life of the solider actor, who poses with tourists from around the globe daily outside what was known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, lives another day to take more photos with more tourists.

In total, 96-3 for two visits to LA's Coliseum...I can still see vivid images of the USC Trojan solider on that big white horse, Traveler, gently galloping around the track in the Coliseum with sword held high. Now in mid-life all I can do to put some of the demons to rest is take this silly picture with a fake Roman solider, in a Trojan look-alike suit, and try to laugh it off.