This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage. Pick a number and highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.
The most obvious choices for No. 18:
= Yoshinobu Yamamoto: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Roman Gabriel: Los Angeles Rams
= Bill Russell: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Dave Taylor: Los Angeles Kings
= Cade McNown: UCLA football
= J.J. Stokes: UCLA football
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 18:
= Jack Robinson: UCLA basketball
= Darryl Strawberry: Crenshaw High baseball
= Rudy Bukich: USC football
The most interesting story for No. 18:
Roman Gabriel: Los Angeles Rams quarterback (1962 to 1972)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Los Angeles Coliseum; Pomona
His name was as biblically angelic as it was blockbuster Hollywood.
A leading man, if not for a Cecil B. DeMille gladiator film, at least a spotlight performer of the high-polished and glamorous NFL team that took the stage in Los Angeles on the floor of the Coliseum.
Roman Gabriel commanded his offensive forces, attacking Lions or Bears, Vikings or Giants. Celebrities gathered with the commoners to admire. He even had teammates known as the Fearsome Foursome to help enforce the gameplan.
One wonders if actors in the show business world might have pushed their agents to make it up a name like his and try to register it the Screen Actors Guild before he did. Too late. Gabriel eventually did.
Ask any kid who grew up in Southern California in the 1960s and ’70s and gazed upon Sports Illustrated covers and ate Roman Meal bread in hopes of growing big and strong might have subliminal thought this was a product he must be associated with. As he became the Rams’ leading man on a team most known for promoting its high-profile defense, it was only after years of playing bit roles that it finally happened to steer him toward and MVP season and fame — before he was shipped off cross country.
In 1962, the quarterback from North Carolina State wearing No. 18 was the No. 1 overall choice by the new-ish American Football League’s Oakland Raiders — two years into their existence, coming off a 2-12 mark. He was also the NFL’s No. 2 overall pick, which the Los Angeles Rams secured in a deal with the New York Giants by way of Minnesota. Ernie Davis, the Heisman winning running back from Syracuse, went No. 1 to Washington. The Rams not only secured Gabriel, who was ninth in the Heisman voting, but also having the No. 3 overall pick, they were also able to scoop up Utah State defensive tackle Merlin Olsen (10th in the Heisman voting) with their .
Gabriel had played at the L.A. Coliseum twice before the NFL draft. In his sophomore year, his Wolfpack lost to UCLA, 21-12, in November of 1959. In a return visit in October of 1960, Gabriel matched up against UCLA’s Billy Kilmer, the Bruins snuck away with a 7-0 win.
In his 11 seasons he spent in Los Angeles, plus five more in Philadelphia, Gabriel made three Pro Bowls and was the 1969 NFL Most Valuable Players Award, having finished runner-up for the honors to Johnny Unitas in ’67.
At the time, it didn’t seem such a big deal that Roman Ildonzo Gabriel Jr., was also the first NFL quarterback of Filipino-American descent.
Gabriel, from a small city in North Carolina named Wilmington, said he found L.A. “a lot for me to swallow. For a few years I was pretty wild, out every night and waking up in a different place every morning. I finally realized that kind of life wasn’t getting me anywhere.”
His first four years with the Rams were even more frustrating. If he was such a high draft pick, why was he angling for playing time in amongst Zeke Bratkowski, Terry Baker and Bill Munson? Yet, when given a chance to start 23 times in that stretch, Gabriel at least posted .500 record (11-11-1). The others combined for 4-27-2. In 1965, with Harland Svare as the head coach for a 4-10 team that missed the playoffs, Gabriel engineered impressive wins over the eventual NFL-champion Green Bay Packers (21-10 in Week 11) as well as knocking off the 11-3 Cleveland Browns (42-7 in Week 13) for two of those season’s victories.
The pivotal point in Gabriel’s L.A. run would come with George Allen as the new head coach in 1966. Gabriel was ready to cash in on an AFL offer with the Raiders — a $300,000 deal for three years, plus a $100,000 signing bonus. Gabriel already signed a deal to join Oakland and had a $32,000 payment made to him. It all was far more than the $22,500 he was making with the Rams.
Allen told Gabriel to send the check back. Gabriel did when Allen promised him a $32,000 salary for the 1967 season, and a $100,000 bonus when he retires. Gabriel believed him, but even more, was content with the starting job with the Rams officially.
After a 8-6 finish in ’66, Gabriel and the Rams found a groove with two division titles in 1967 (11-1-2) and ’69 (11-3) under Allen. Gabriel was also emerging as a fantastic short-yardage runner, piling up 28 rushing touchdowns – most in franchise history by a quarterback. His 22 rushing TDs from 1966 to 1972 were more than any of the team’s running backs.
His primary receiver for ’67 and ’68 was Bernie Casey, who would only play in L.A. during that short window before going on to become a Hollywood actor, painter and poet. The most famous Gabriel-to-Casey connection was a 1967 game-winner with less than 30 seconds left in the Rams’ 27-24 comeback victory in the next-to-last regular season game against Green Bay, which kept their divisional hopes alive. The next week, Gabriel was 18 of 22 passing for three TDs in a 34-10 win over the Baltimore Colts at the Coliseum. Gabriel’s first Pro Bowl season saw him throw for 2,779 yards and 25 touchdowns in ’67. But in the playoffs, the Packers eliminated the Rams, 28-7.
Finishing second in the NFL’s Coastal Division in ’68, the ’69 season started with an 11-game win streak, longest in franchise history. Gabriel’s MVP season saw him throw for 2,549 yards, 24 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. He also ran for five touchdowns and 156 yards, tops for any quarterback. Again, a heart-breaking playoff loss to Minnesota ended that season.
In Week 13 of the 1970 season, the Rams made their first Monday Night Football appearance in the Coliseum. It was ABC’s first season for this prime-time TV package — but the game was blacked out in L.A., and it had a 9 p.m. kickoff. Despite throwing for 334 yards, Gabriel rallied the Rams from a 21-6 deficit, scoring 17 in the fourth quarter, but they lost 28-23 to Detroit, leaving them just behind the Lions in the NFC wildcard spot with one game left.
That may have been Gabriel’s NFL script — always close, but just not enough — even if during that run, the Rams were 41-14-4 with Gabriel running the offense from ’67 to ’70.
Allen was gone by 1971, and knee injuries limited Gabriel. The Rams lost to Allen’s Washington Redskins 31-24 in a key Monday night game where an interception thrown by Gabriel and returned for a touchdown killed the Rams’ chances.
During a 6-7-1 season in ’72 with coach Tommy Prothro, Gabriel’s consecutive games played streak of 89 over eight seasons finally ended. The Rams decided to not only swap out their head coach (for Chuck Knox) but also their quarterback (for John Hadl and James Harris).
That resulted in Gabriel sent to Philadelphia in a deal that included Harold Jackson, who’d become their top receiver for four of the next five seasons. The trade also got the Rams former Pro Bowl running back Tony Baker, a 1974 first-round pick (which turned out to be running back John Cappelletti, 13th overall) and a first-round pick in 1975 (future All-Pro lineman Dennis Harrah). Before the trade, Gabriel considered a $100,000 offer from the Las Vegas Casinos of the fledgling Southwestern Football League.
Gabriel switched to No. 5 in Philadelphia, won the league’s Comeback Player of the Year, overcame knee and arm issues, and threw for a league-best 3,219 yards and 23 touchdowns (with high marks of 270 completions in 460 attempts). All were career highs even though the Eagles went 5-8-1. He retired in 1977 wearing No. 18 his last two seasons.
The Rams’ franchise, going back to 1937 in Cleveland, has had more than 40 quarterbacks play in 10-or-more games — including Pro Football Hall of Famers like Norm Van Brocklin, Bob Waterfield and Kurt Warner. Gabriel still has the career leader for touchdown passes (154), passes attempted (3,313), and wins by a starting quarterback (74, against 39 losses and six ties. Jim Everett (1986-1993) next closest in wins at 46.
Of those 74 wins, only Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton had more in the NFL during that time period.
Gabriel also played more games at quarterback – 130 – than anyone in franchise history. More than Everett (107 from 1986 to ’93) or Van Brocklin (104 from 1949 to ’57) or Warner (53 from 1998 to ’03). Or Joe Namath (four, in 1977).
Gabriel’s 1,146 career rushing yards are the most by any Rams quarterback. It also ranks No. 38 on the franchise list.
Gabriel was one of the few QBs of his era with a positive TD-to-INT ration (201 to 149).
Is it a lack of post-season success that has kept Gabriel from just missing year after year with Hall of Fame voters? Throwing for more than 29,000 yards in his career overall, and leading his teams to 86 wins doesn’t seem enough.
At the very least, would the Rams be interested in retiring No. 18 for him?
The legacy
Like any athlete in and around L.A., Gabriel was ready for his closeup when it came to see what he could do in TV and film – even while he was still an active player, since Jim Brown made it look so easy.
He played an exotic headhunter on an 1966 episode of “Gillian’s Island.” He was a prison guard in the 1968 flick “Skidoo,” with Jackie Gleason, made by Otto Preminger.
He played a Native American named “Blue Boy” in “The Undefeated,” a 1969 flick with John Wayne and Rock Hudson. It was lazy typecasting, but it presented opportunity likely not well fleshed out.
Gabriel also has the distinction of becoming the head football coach at Cal Poly Pomona for the programn’s last two years of existence, 1980 to ’82, going 8-24.
The lede to an 1983 New York Times story about Gabriel trying to catch on as a coach in the upstart USFL began: “Roman Gabriel could throw a football 70 yards into a receiver’s lap while three defensive linemen clutched at his body, a body that Vince Lombardi once described as ‘’a big telephone pole.’”
Gabriel was also involved in pro baseball, as president of minor league teams in Charlotte, N.C., and Gastonia, N.C., near his hometown.
When Gabriel died in 2024 at age 83, the New York Times featured him in a No. 5 Eagles jersey. But many never forgot what he did in L.A.
“Here’s one for you,” Gabriel once said. “In Baseball Weekly, there was an article where this dad had named his sons after me. Roman Slaybaugh and Gabriel Slaybaugh. Roman was No. 18, the quarterback, and Gabriel was No. 81, the receiver. They both graduated from the University of Indiana and played football there several years ago.”
Their Wikipedia page says the Slaybaugh twins are now male models in Paris.
Model citizens. Like Roman Gabriel.
Who else wore No. 18 in SoCal sports history? Make a case for:
Jack Robinson, UCLA basketball (1939-40 to 1940-41):
UCLA basketball coach Wilbur Johns once said of Westwood’s multi-sport star with a deadly outside shot and quick hands: “His timing was perfect, his rhythm was unmatched, he had the valuable faculty of being able to relax at the proper time.” Robinson’s arrival as a junior in 1939 came when the team hadn’t won a Pacific Coast Conference game in more than two years. Robinson’s game-winning shot against Cal broke a 30-game conference losing streak and helped them go 5-19 in the PCC that season.
As a senior, Robinson won his second of back-to-back PCC Southern Division scoring titles. He averaged 12.4 and 11.1 points game in his two All-PCC Southern Division seasons. Robinson accounted for nearly 40 percent of his team’s points during that time. Just a couple years later, George Mikan would be doing the same for his DePaul teams. Could Robinson have launched his abilities into an NBA career? He was probably too far ahead of his time, in a league not yet mature enough to allow him to make a living. In the 1946-47 National Basketball League’s season, Robinson joined the Los Angeles Red Devils for their Nov. 8 season opener. Three other future pro basketball players were on the roster — guard Irv Noren, forward George Crowe and guard Ziggy Marcell. Robinson played his last game for the Red Devils in mid-January after Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey asked him to just focus on baseball and his pending MLB career.
Dave Taylor, Los Angeles Kings forward (1977-78 to 1993-94):
His 17 seasons with the franchise and having played in 1111 games (which had been the franchise leader until Anze Kopitor, Dustin Brown and Drew Doughty passed him up in recent years) will be included in our upcoming posting about the team’s Triple Crown line (with Marcel Dionne and Charlie Simmer). It is fitting that Taylor is the franchise all-time leader in plus/minus (+186, and nearly 80 better than runner-up Dionne) because of his stoic contribution to the team’s success. He ranks currently third all-time in goals (431), fourth in assists (638) and fourth in points (1,069). He’s also fourth in game-winning goals (47) and third in power-play goals (123) to go with eight hat tricks. The Kings made No. 18 the third never they ever retired, in 1994, and it’s hanging from the rafters. He was also the Kings’ general manager starting in 1997 (just three years after his retirement) and kept it through 2006 — responsible for drafting Kopitar, Brown and Jonathan Quick. His 290-261-74-31 record as a GM makes him the winningest in team history.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher (2024 to present):
The Most Valuable Player of the 2025 World Series was celebrated in a New York Times story that read: “Gangster. Gutsy. Greatness. Yoshinobu Yamamoto authors a World Series for the ages.” In the Dodgers’ seven-game win over Toronto, securing a title repeat, Yamamoto threw a complete game win during Game 2, kept the team from elimination by going six strong innings in Game 6, and then pitched the final eight outs of an 11-inning Game 7 to earn his third victory against the Blue Jays in a week’s time. He threw 34 pitches in Game 7, 96 the night before in Game 6, 105 in Game 2, and then few in the bullpen near the end of the Game 3, 18-inning marathon. “I don’t think you’ll ever see somebody do what Yama did tonight,” said Clayton Kershaw. “That was probably the most gutsy, ballsy thing any guy’s ever done, you know?” To go with a 3-0, Yamamoto also had a 1.02 ERA (in 17 ⅔ innings) with 2 earned runs, 2 walks and 15 strikeouts. He actually faced two “Golden Pitch” scenarios, the extremely rare circumstance in which any pitch could win or lose the World Series for either team.
On top of that was a complete-game, Game 2 victory in the NL Championship Series against Milwaukee, the first complete game in the playoffs since 2017. In that game, Yamamoto did not allow an opponent to bat with a runner in scoring position.
The Dodgers didn’t have anyone throw a complete game in the regular season in 2025 otherwise.
The Dodgers made Yamamoto the highest-paid pitcher in baseball when they signed him for 12 years and $325 million in December 2023. He was 75-30 with a 1.72 ERA in Japan, all through age 25. He also decided to sport a number that had been worn by previous Dodgers’ Japanese pitchers Hiroki Kuroda (2008 to 2011) and Kenta Maeda (2016 to 2019).
Yamamoto said during his first media gathering that he once visited Dodger Stadium at age 19 and saw Maeda pitch for the Dodgers in a 2017 NL playoff game — and that left an impression front and center as he moved forward in his career. The New York Yankees tried to sign him by already having a No. 18 pinstripe jersey waiting for him during their meeting. The Yomiuri Giants’ championship dynasty of the 1960s and ’70s was noted by the fact that uniform No. 18 was given to the ace of their pitching staff, and ever since, on teams all over Japan, wearing that number conveys an implicit stature and respect on a pitcher for what it signifies.
Bill Russell, Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop (1969 to 1986), coach (1987 to 1991 and 1994 to 1996) and manager (1996 to 1998):
No one in the Dodgers franchise history wore any number for as long as Russell did – 18 years as a player, seven years as a coach and nearly three seasons as a manager. Only Zack Wheat played more games as a Dodger – and that Hall of Famer played at a time when players did not wear numbers. Russell also played more games with the team since their move to L.A. The three-time NL All Star played all 2,181 games with the Dodgers (15 more than Pee Wee Reese), was on four pennants and one World Series win. And about as nondescript as possible in the legendary infield of Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey. Two notable playoff moments: In Game 3 of the 1977 NLCS against Philadelphia, Russell’s ninth-inning single to center field capped a three-run comeback, all with two outs, to create a 6-5 win. And in the 10th inning of Game 4 in the 1978 NLCS, also against the Phillies, Russell’s single dropped in front of center fielder Garry Maddox (whose rare error allowed Dusty Baker to prolong the inning) and resulted in a walk-off win and a repeat trip to the World Series.
Cade McNown, UCLA football quarterback (1995 to 1998):
Voted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2020, the bio for his 2009 UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame induction points out he started 44 of his 47 games as the Bruins’ QB between 1995 and 1998, including the final 43 straight. During his senior season, McNown was a consensus 1st Team All-American, third in the Heisman Trophy balloting (eighth the previous year), won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and was a finalist for the Davey O’Brien Award. In his award-winning senior season McNown set single season UCLA records for passing yards (3,470), TD passes (25), and total offense (3,652). McNown also set single game records in those same three categories (513, 5, 515) in a 49-45 loss at Miami. About that loss at Miami … when UCLA was ranked No. 2 and needed the win to play in the national title game … it came the week after UCLA crushed USC for the eighth-straight time … but that game ended strange with a McNown naked bootleg and 23-yard run … and USC thought he was rubbing it in … and then UCLA lost to Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl as their consolation prize … and UCLA never has seemed to be back on track since then … Want more evidence? Holy Toledo, read more here. And then there’s his Playboy lifestyle during his time with the Chicago Bears that perhaps was some karmic payback to those still not sending him Christmas cards … He’s lately put his BA in history degree to some use in the financial world.
Rudy Bukich, USC football quarterback (1950 to 1952), Los Angeles Rams quarterback (1953 to 1956): A transfer from the University of Iowa, Bukich found himself named the 1953 Rose Bowl MVP during a game when he came off the bench for the injured Jim Sears (a broken leg in the first quarter) and drove the Trojans down the field, completing a 22-yard touchdown pass to Al Carmichael for their only score in a 7-0 win over Wisconsin. “The coaches were down on Rudy,” Carmichael said once. “He was very outspoken, kind of a rebel, and he had left the team back in October. He had come back a week later, but that sort of got him off on the wrong foot. Four days before the game, one of the coaches said to him, ‘Rudy, you’re not on offense anymore. You’re on defense.’ They didn’t like his personality and his makeup. I don’t think he would have gotten in the game at all if Sears hadn’t been hurt.” Inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 2014, “Rudy the Rifle” was a second-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Rams in ’53. He took two years off with the U.S. Army before returning to the Rams in ’56, later to play in the NFL with Washington, Chicago and Pittsburgh.
J.J. Stokes, UCLA football receiver (1991 to 1994): Seventh in the Heisman voting as a junior — and the only underclassmen in the Top 10 — it acknowledged his leading the nation with 17 touchdown receptions and more than 1,000 yards, his senior year was derailed a bit by a season-opening injury but he was the 10th overall pick in the 1995 NFL draft by San Francisco. Stokes still holds UCLA school records for receiving TDs in a season and in a career (28), receiving yards in a game (263 vs. USC in 1992) and receptions in a game (14 in the 1994 Rose Bowl vs. Wisconsin). He was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.
Sasha Vujacic, Los Angeles Lakers guard (2004-05 to 2010-11), Los Angeles Clippers guard (2013-14): Nicknamed “The Machine,” the 3-point specialist off the bench from Slovenia (he set the team record with a 43.7 percent range in 2007-08) was the Lakers’ 2004 pick near the end of the first round from a team in the Italian league. He was on two of the Lakers’ title teams and in three Finals. He hit two Game 7 free throws to seal their 2010 win over Boston. His only 10-day contract appearance with the Clippers (two games in ’13-14) came between four seasons when he was playing in Turkey and Spain. His only other claim to fame: Once engaged to tennis star Maria Sharapova.
Have you also heard this story:
Darryl Strawberry, Crenshaw High School outfielder (1977 to 1980):
Michael Sokolove’s 2004 book, “The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw.” Strawberry was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1980 MLB draft by the New York Mets and his 1979 Crenshaw team was considered one of the most talented in high school baseball history – even though it lost the L.A. City title game to Granada Hills and John Elway. A SABR.org bio notes that when Strawberry entered Crenshaw High for the 10th grade, he was already 6-feet-3. “He was long and lean and covered with sinewy muscle, not the type created by hours in a weight room or supplements, but the real thing.” When Strawberry made a homecoming to L.A. for three roller-coaster seasons (an NL All Star in 1991 at age 29, and two more seasons of injuries and alcohol/drug abuse in ’92 and ’93), he wore No. 44, since No. 18 was taken by coach Bill Russell, who by then was managing the team’s Triple-A affiliate. Here’s more of our story on Strawberry talking about growing up in Harvard Park in South L.A. We also caught up with him in 2021 to talk about his new biography.
We also have:
Jun Endo, NWSL Angel City FC forward (2022 -), played for Japan in 2023 Women’s World Cup
R. Jay Soward, USC football receiver (1998 to 2001)
J.T. Daniel, USC football quarterback (2018 to 2019)
Bill Rigney, Los Angeles Angels manager (1961 to 1969)
Bob Berry, Los Angeles Kings left wing (1970-71 to 1976-77), who became the team’s head coach from 1978-79 to 1980-81 during the Triple Crown line era.
Kurt Rambis, Los Angeles Lakers forward (1993-94 to 1994-95): He wore No. 31 in seven seasons as a Lakers from 1981-82 through 1987-88, and came back at age 35 and 36, By then, Sam Bowie had glomed on No. 31 during Rambis’ seven-year absence in Charlotte, Phoenix and Sacramento.
Anyone else worth nominating?
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