The specter of his legend still looms over USC. His electrifying run from 2003 to 2005 remains an essential thread in the fabric of Trojans football and college football writ large, impossible to untangle from the rich histories of either. Recruits who barely witnessed his supremacy still whisper his name, still mimic his style.
But since June 2010, on the campus where he once captivated a generation, Reggie Bush has been a ghost. It was then that the NCAA imposed harsh sanctions against USC, stripping away its 2004 national title and forcing the school to permanently disassociate from its star running back.
Any mention of Bush at USC was erased, every image scrubbed, all records tagged with an asterisk after a years-long NCAA investigation revealed he and his family accepted improper benefits from two would-be sports marketers.
Bush returned his 2005 Heisman Trophy as part of the fallout, the only player ever to do so. The replica trophy that once sat triumphantly in Heritage Hall now gathers dust with the Heisman Trust. The No. 5 jersey that once adorned the peristyle end of the Coliseum is gone too; and no Trojan has worn the number since.
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