Gwynn Wilson Dies at 95; Set USC-Notre Dame Series

Gwynn Wilson, the man who arranged one of college football’s most celebrated intersectional rivalries--the USC-Notre Dame series--has died of natural causes in his Rancho Palos Verdes home at 95.

Wilson also played instrumental roles in bringing the 1932 Summer Olympics to Los Angeles and opening Santa Anita Park in 1934, both at a time when the nation was suffering through the Depression.

But Wilson was best known for persuading Notre Dame’s coach, Knute Rockne, to agree to the USC-Notre Dame series, which started in 1926. The series’ 63rd meeting is scheduled for Nov. 28 at the Coliseum.

Wilson, USC’s student body president and captain of the track and field team in the early 1920s, became the school’s graduate manager, a forerunner to the modern-day athletic director. In that capacity, Wilson and his wife, Marion, took a train to Lincoln, Neb., where Rockne’s Ramblers were playing Nebraska in the final game between the schools on Thanksgiving Day, 1925.

Wilson was there to propose a home-and-home series with Notre Dame, with USC replacing Nebraska. The series was not arranged until Marion Wilson sold Rockne’s wife, Bonnie, on Southern California’s virtues.

The series received national attention, with Rockne coaching against Howard Jones of USC.

Wilson spent nine years at USC, where the student union is named for him, before taking a job as general manager of the 1932 Olympics. Wilson retired in 1960 from Santa Anita, where he had served as general manager.

Wilson is survived by two children, Joyce Wilson Nelson and James DeVoin; four grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

The family will hold a private service. The USC Alumni Scholarship Fund will accept contributions in Wilson’s name.