Andrew Marincovich experienced the full tapestry of the USC-UCLA football rivalry, attending both schools and playing right guard for the Trojans’ 1944 Rose Bowl champions.
Spending New Year’s Day in Pasadena was a prelude to a far more exhilarating red, white and blue endeavor.
“Five months later,” Marincovich, 95, recalled this week, “I was in the South Pacific as the commanding officer of a gunboat.”
Marincovich helped lead a U.S. Navy fleet that allowed the Marines to land ashore at Iwo Jima, firing rockets to clear the way for servicemen who captured the island from the Japanese Imperial Army in 1945.