Marion McKinley Bovard was the first president of the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. He held office from the school's founding in 1880 until his death in December 1891. At the time of its founding, the city of Los Angeles had only 11,000 people. Bovard oversaw the establishment of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences (1880), School of Music (1884), College of Medicine (1885) and what would become the School of Fine Arts (1887). He was also the president during the creation of the precursor to the Spirit of Troy

Spirit of Troy

The Spirit of Troy, also known as the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band , self-described as "The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe," represents USC at various collegiate sports, broadcast, popular music recording, and national public appearance functions.The...

 and the school's first college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 game in 1888.

Upon his death, the fledgling school was still facing financial hardships that became the focus of his successor, Joseph P. Widney, M.D.