The Ben Malcolmson Story

Embedded reporting is a technique well known on the battle field, but a lot of people don't realize how useful it is on the playing field. George Plimpton helped pioneer the practice in the 1960s. Recently we saw Spencer Hall go through football training camp and Stefan Fatsis try to kick in the NFL. Former USC tailback Petros Papadakis even hosts a TV gameshow with a similar premise called Pros vs. Joes.

None of those efforts match the one by Ben Malcolmson.

As part of a story for the Daily Trojan in 2006, Malcolmson tried out for the USC football team -- and made it. You can still hear the excitement in his voice when he talks about it today. "[As a reporter] it's so cool witnessing the Trojans and the greatness that the team has gone through over the past few years -- but it takes on a whole new dimension when you become a part of it."

Two years later, Malcolmson is still embedded with the football team -- now as a staff member. One of his responsibilities is running a popular website and blog at USCRipsIt.com, where fans can get a look deep inside USC football.

You can learn more about Malcolmson's journey this weekend on the season finale of Amazing Sports Stories on FSN West. The half-hour program will air on Sunday at 8:30 p.m.

It was tough for him to name a single highlight from his walk-on days, but one opportunity stood out. "Getting that one play in the Notre Dame game was incredible and something I'll never forget," he recalled. "It still gives me goosebumps today just talking about it."

So a guy walks onto a legendary football team and gets into a big game ... but against Notre Dame. Sounds like a familiar movie with a twist.

"I like Rudy a lot." Then Malcolmson laughed, "but it's hard to support that considering it's a Notre Dame film!"

Comments

[mike]

Ben has always been a personal inspiration to me. That’s why I’d really want everyone to know what this story is really about.

http://rightscore.blogspot.com/2008/07/ben-malcolmson-truth-behind-inspiration.html