Anthony Davis

Here I am, wondering why I'm at this pig roast, USC about to slaughter the worst team in the nation, and it's not Stanford, so nothing can go wrong. It's a waste-of-time game, and I'm here only to write about some USC fan who takes delight in being known as "syco." That's when I spot Anthony Davis. Davis is seated at a small table in the middle of tailgaters about 40 yards from Tommy Trojan. He looks as if he's still wearing his Halloween costume, a black and silver suit with a tie and a No.

Anthony Davis knows the importance of location. The former USC All-American tailback considers it almost daily in his career as a real estate developer and commercial contractor. The location of today's enshrinement ceremony at the College Football Hall of Fame -- South Bend, Ind. -- is not lost on Davis. "It's funny how things work out," Davis, 53, said this week. "I can't think of a more appropriate place to go into the Hall of Fame than up the street from Notre Dame."

Reggie White's death provided the wake-up call, Kirby Puckett's the confirmation. Former USC running back Anthony Davis said last month that because of sleep- and weight-related health problems similar to those of White, a pro football Hall of Famer who died in 2004 at 43, he decided last year to undergo gastric bypass surgery. The procedure is scheduled for today at a hospital in La Jolla and will be shown live on the Internet.

USC football fans remember Anthony Davis as a 175-pound running back. Today, Davis is 53, weighs 280 pounds and on March 11 will have gastric bypass surgery at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. Davis says he is in relatively good health, although he suffers from sleep apnea, which is connected to his weight problems. "Reggie White had sleep apnea and was overweight, and when he died, that was a wake-up call for me," Davis said.

Former USC running back Anthony Davis, a unanimous All-American in 1974, will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December, the National Football Foundation announced Wednesday. Davis, 52, is part of a Hall of Fame class of 11 players and two coaches. Davis is the 27th USC player to be voted into the Hall of Fame, which is located in South Bend, Ind. "It's always an honor to me to be acknowledged," Davis said in a telephone interview. "I don't care if I'm 22 or 52."

Anthony Jerome Davis Jr. and his wife, Michell, danced in her mother's Compton living room to the music of Marvin Gaye and Patti LaBelle shortly before the Army sergeant's October deployment to Iraq. It was a happy moment. Michell, 20, was pregnant with the daughter who would be born two weeks after Anthony's departure. Her husband was feeling playful and "silly," laughing and smiling. "When he smiled, his whole face lit up and everybody else couldn't help but smile too," she said.

Something about having a week off agrees with Ryan Killeen. By his own admission, the USC kicker has endured a rough season, making only nine of 18 field-goal attempts. His best game, a three-for-three outing against California, followed a bye week. The same thing happened against Notre Dame on Saturday, the Trojans coming off a bye and Killeen making both his attempts. "I had a lot of time to prepare and get mentally strong," he said. "I had visions of knocking them through all week long."

According to records, USC's 1974 game against Notre Dame drew a Coliseum crowd of 83,552. J.K. McKay, a senior receiver for the Trojans that year, suggested recently that a recount might be in order. "Based on the number of people who say they were at the game, there must have been 2 million there," said McKay, the son of former Trojan coach John McKay. All who were there, though, on Nov.

Anthony Davis predicted a few scoring runs but could not imagine the results. Or the reaction. Not every day. Not after 30 years. In restaurants. In airports. In almost any social or business situation that Davis finds himself, the subject invariably comes up. Six touchdowns in one game. Two on spectacular kick returns. Against Notre Dame.