LOS ANGELES — The last time Mark Dye lost a game of ping-pong, he proudly proclaims, was back in 1987, years before his sons were born and his prowess became a point of family contention. Each of the Dye boys, all five of who would go on to play college football, eventually got their swings at the king, spending hour after hour testing each other at their house in Norco.
The competition intensified as the boys grew older. Paddles were thrown. Fights broke out. Still, none of the five boys — not Tony, Jordan, Thierry, Troy nor Travis — nor their younger sister, Jamie, ever managed to beat their dad, he claims.
"They all tried to knock me off of my ping-pong perch," Mark says, with a laugh.
But Mark never had any intention of handing over the crown. In the Dye household, there were no handouts. That tone was set with Mark's sons and daughter early on. If you wanted something, you earned it. Competition was not just encouraged, but rather a way of life. Scores were always kept. Trash was always talked.
For Travis, the youngest of the five Dye boys, that meant learning from an early age how to endure. There was no babying of their baby brother — and no extra protection from parents, either. If anything, Travis took the brunt of the brotherly abuse.
All, of course, out of love, his oldest brother assures.
"Poor Travis, he definitely got the worst of it," says Tony, 32.
As Mark sees it, though, "it made him the fighter he is today."
Under those pretenses one of the Pac-12's most prolific running backs was born, forged by the competitive fire within his family. At USC, Travis has emerged in his first season as one of the unquestioned leaders of a dynamic Trojans offense, capable not only of carrying the load in the rushing attack but leading the way in the locker room.
"I love what he stands for. He's a competitive guy," USC coach Lincoln Riley said. "And I appreciate that he's made it a point to not just come in here and be a good running back and get better as a running back. He's come in here because he wanted to make this place better."
The decision to leave Oregon to be closer to home at USC, his family contends, was one of the toughest of Dye's life. But ever since, they say they've seen a new spark in him, one that's only grown brighter as USC has won six consecutive games to open the season, its best start since 2006.
Along the way, Riley has trusted Dye to be the Trojans' workhorse, the first time he's been handed such a major role outside of injury. His 571 yards rank second among running backs in the conference through six weeks of the season, but with the toughest test of the Trojans' season looming Saturday in Utah, the eternal chip on his shoulder may be his most important contribution to USC's push for a College Football Playoff semifinal bid.
He has his brothers to thank for that, Dye says.
"My older brothers gave me a hard time, every single day of my life," he said. "Now looking back at it, they were just trying to teach me, to get me ready for this."
Of course, it didn't always feel that way. Like when Tony got a spitball stuck under young Travis' eyelid. Or when his brothers squirted mustard in his mouth while he slept, a prank that left Travis forever disgusted by the condiment.
The constant competition between them only ratcheted up the stakes. The boys competed in whatever they could — foosball, air hockey, cornhole, dominoes, chess, you name it. They raced bikes. They raced on foot. Every Thanksgiving, along with playing the annual family Turkey Bowl, they'd race to officially determine which family member was fastest — a race that, until not long ago, had also been dominated by their dad.
At every step, Travis was naturally measured against what his brothers did before him. And by the time he made it to Norco High, his brothers had already left impressive legacies in their wake.
Tony was a standout safety at UCLA, before playing parts of three seasons in the NFL. Thierry played defensive back at Texas Tech. Troy, the closest in age to Travis, was a four-year starter at Oregon and is now in his third season with the Minnesota Vikings.
Tony, who left his NFL pursuit to join Norco's coaching staff and help guide his brother, could sense that expectation weighing on Travis at times.
"I think a big part of his drive and why he was such a great high school football player was that he didn't want to be the one who didn't make it," Tony says.
Instead, Travis became one of the most productive running backs in Inland Empire history, rushing for more than 5,000 career yards, ranking behind only the state's rushing record-holder, Toby Gerhart, in the Norco record books. Still, no matter how many yards or touchdowns Dye seemed to rack up, his recruiting interest remained strangely stagnant.
He garnered just two offers while at Norco, one from New Mexico State, and another from Oregon, which he figured offered only because his brother Troy was still on the team.
The lack of attention was frustrating, even if he's hesitant to admit it. Nonetheless, Dye says, "I took that [Oregon offer] and I ran with it. I'm not going to have too much pride for that."
When he got to Oregon, his brother was sure to check any pride that remained.
"When I came in, Troy was Mr. Perfect," Travis says. "He was never late to anything. He was the standard. Me coming in as a young buck, I was messing up a little bit. That made Troy look bad in a way, and so he put me in my place real quick when I first got there."
It didn't take long for Travis to settle in, and like always, his brother watched over him from afar, while needling him from nearby. Just as he had at Norco, Travis put up prolific numbers as an all-purpose weapon in Oregon's backfield. Last season, he finished second in the Pac-12 in rushing (1,271 yards), while also leading the Ducks in receptions (46).
He might have stayed for a fifth season in Eugene, had Mario Cristobal not picked up and left for Miami. But if he stayed, Dye knew he'd still have a new coaching staff and a new offense to learn. He also had a new family to think about, after proposing to his high school sweetheart, Erin, last December.
Dye agonized over the decision at the time. When he finally decided to leave for USC, he took his Oregon offensive line out to lunch to break the news.
"He's a very team guy," Erin said. "He likes to make his people happy. So he had a lot of guilt."
That guilt would fade upon arriving at USC, where Dye has fit like a glove in Riley's offense. But he's the first to remind his teammates how quickly that success can suddenly screech to a halt. He's seen it all before with his brothers and their respective teams, watched their ups and downs from afar, taking in whatever he could from their decisions.
"I was definitely on the sideline for a very long time, just observing my brothers do everything I'm doing now," Dye said. "It's been a long time coming, getting to the front seat finally. Now that I'm there, I'm not gonna mess it up."
His family has certainly sensed a difference in Travis since his move home. "I just think he's a lot happier," said Erin, whom he married last summer in Las Vegas. The fit at USC, she says, has been a seamless one.
Tony beams with pride talking about how far Travis has come.
"I don't even see him as my kid brother anymore," Tony says.
That is, until the family group text gets going and the trash talk starts flowing again. He might be one of the best running backs in college football — and perhaps the most prolific of the Dye boys to date — but don't get them started on Travis' facial hair.
"People think that Travis gets ripped on for his mustache publicly," Troy says, with a laugh.
"Well, it's an absolute bloodbath in the thread."
