Reggie Bush was the center of the last Southern California football dynasty. He inspired the players to become Trojans and continued to be adored by USC fans while spending a decade in the NCAA mandated exile from school.
USC welcomed Bush back on Wednesday, 10 years on the day the NCAA denounced the program with sanctions that included the termination of official relations with the only Heisman Trophy winner whose victory was emptied.
“I’ve been dreaming of this day for more than 10 years, and I’m happy to go home!” Bush said in a statement.
Bush played running back at USC from 2003-05, helping the Trojans to a pair of national championships. Five years after he left, Bush and USC were convicted by the NCAA after an investigation determined he and his family received benefits that were not permitted while he was still in school.
USC President Carol Folt wrote in his letter to Bush that all restrictions had been officially removed and he could now “be given privileges and greetings to all Trojan soccer alumni.”
The school also ended disassociation with former basketball star O.J. Mayo, who was also penalized in 2010 for receiving benefits that were not permitted as part of a similar broad investigation of USC athletics.
Bush’s Trojans won the national championships in 2003 and ’04 and had 34 consecutive wins. He ran for 3,169 yards in three seasons, averaging 7.3 yards per carry, and scored 42 goals.
He won the 2005 Heisman, with 1,740 rushing yards and averaging 8.7 yards per carry. But the award was left blank due to NCAA sanctions. He voluntarily returned the statue to the Heisman Trophy Trust before the organization could release it. Bush is the only Heisman winner who is not recognized by the Heisman Trust.
“To say that I don’t want Heisman back will be a lie,” B ush said in an interview on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” on FS1. “One hundred percent I want my Heisman Cup back.”
Heisman spokesman Tim Henning said the trust was aware of USC’s announcement of Bush but had no immediate comment.
NCAA sanctions also caused USC to be removed from the 2004 BCS title, although The Associated Press still recognized the Trojans as national champions for the season.
Bush remains one of the most popular players in USC history. No Trojan player has used Bush’s number 5 since he left.
“He is the reason why many players joined USC,” said Rams recipient Robert Woods, who played for the Trojans from 2010-12. “He is part of the USC tradition. The best USC soccer player, in my opinion. He also needs a statue.”
Bush was drafted second overall by New Orleans Saints in 2006. He told FS1 that although he went on to a productive 11-year NFL career, the way that ended at USC weighed on him.
“It always lags behind my head. “It always sticks in my mind,” Bush said. “That’s the thing that always keeps me up late at night, almost every night. It’s that kind of thing that haunts me too,”
The NCAA determines Bush receives gifts and cash from marketing agents who hope to represent him when he becomes a pro.
Sanctions against USC are some of the most severe that the NCAA has imposed in the last 20 years – even compared to similar cases. Trojans were banned from the postseason for two years and revoked from a total of 30 football scholarships for three seasons.
Athletic director Mike Bohn, who took the job last fall, said Bush was very sorry for what had happened to the program, and that USC owed Bush to bring him back to the fold for everything he had done for school.
“We will stand with Reggie,” Bohn said.
Initially, Bush was banned permanently from joining USC, but a tweak made in 2017 by the NCAA Committee on Violations of his procedure reduced all previous life dissociation sentences to 10 years.
Bush began working for Fox Sports last season as an analyst at the Big Noon football studio show on campus with former USC teammate Matt Leinart. He returned to the Los Angeles Coliseum for the Trojans match for the first time when the Fox program was broadcast from inside the stadium before the Friday night contest between USC and Utah, won by the Trojans.
Bush was not recognized by the school during the match. The amount does not include those displayed in the coliseum end zone along with other USC Heisman winners such as Marcus Allen and O.J. Simpson. But Trojan fans celebrated the return of Bush that night, wearing a No. 5 and shouting “Reg-gie! Reg-gie! “
How and when Bush will be respected by USC has not been solved, Bohn said.
“I know this will be a special day for me when he can walk on campus with his three children, his extraordinary wife and be part of what is happening at USC,” Bohn said.
