"Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits." — Tommy Edison
Author: fartheroffthewall
Tom Hoffarth is a sports journalist in Los Angeles, born and raised (reared is the correct phrase, but it just sounds wrong) and specializing in the sports media business. A USC graduate from the School of Journalism (it still exists, somewhat) in 1984, he is also available for service at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhoffarth/
Jackie Slater: Los Angeles Rams George Achica: USC football, Los Angeles Express Art Shell: Los Angeles Raiders Roger Brown: Los Angeles Rams Gene Lipscomb: Los Angeles Rams
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 78:
Grenny Lansdell, USC football Alex Laferriere, Los Angeles Kings
The most interesting story for No. 78: Jackie Slater: Los Angeles Rams right tackle (1976 to 1995) Southern California map pinpoints: Los Angeles Coliseum, Anaheim Stadium
Jackie Slater, whose job it was to prevent quarterbacks sacks, could actually play a pretty mean tenor sax.
By which, we mean, he could pretend well for a camera.
If only one person came out with some dignity left after a herd of Los Angeles Rams were talked into recording a 1985 music video “Let’s Ram It!” it was the 6-foot-4, 284-pounder who introduces himself at the top of it as “Big Bad Jackie.”
I’m Big Bad Jackie and I’m starting us off The Rams getting down so nobody’s soft And don’t you worry cuz the Rams are rappin’ When game time comes we’ll get back to zappin’ We can’t sing and our dance is not pretty But we’ll do our best for the team and the city So get on your feet and clap your hands Let’s Ram it right now with the L.A. Rams
This by no means defines the career of a Pro Football Hall of Famer who played one of the most demanding positions for 20 straight years — the first 19 in L.A. before its move to St. Louis, where he called it over.
But let the record show, Slater made this record. And broke many others.
Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings Gary Beban, UCLA football Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers Frank Gifford, USC football Hideo Nomo, Los Angeles Dodgers Rodney Peete, USC football Rick Monday, Los Angeles Dodgers Jim Plunkett, Los Angeles Raiders Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 16:
Brice Taylor, USC football Willie Wood, USC football Jarred Goff, Los Angeles Rams Garrett Anderson, California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Lisa Fernandez, UCLA softball Paul McDonald, USC football
The most interesting story for No. 16: Rick Monday, Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder (1978 to 1984), Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster (1985 to 1988, 1993 to present) Southern California map pinpoints: Santa Monica, Dodger Stadium
On the 60th anniversary of Dodger Stadium in 2022, the Dodgers’ Top 60 countdown of the greatest moments in the ballpark’s history focused on event that played out on a Sunday afternoon, April 25, 1976. It planted its flag in the No. 5 spot.
Rick Monday, patrolling center field for the visiting Chicago Cubs and wearing No. 7 (a tribute to his baseball idol, Mickey Mantle) had three hits and an RBI in a contest the Dodgers won, 5-4, in 10 innings.
It was his defense that mattered. A play-by-play account of the game’s bottom of the fourth inning offered by Retrosheet.org might not do it justice, but there it is for the record:
By more than one patriotic group of onlookers, it still is referred to as baseball’s “greatest play.”
Monday ran in, took his glove off his right hand, and swooped in to snatch an American flag away from a man and his son as they knelt in the outfield grass. They already doused the cloth with lighter fluid and were unsuccessful in lighting a match their first try. A glimpse of it captured by Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographer Jim Roark was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Monday continues to accept lifetime achievement recognition for it, decades later.
A colorized version of the Jim Roark/Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photo.
The late Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray referred to it as “the most famous picture of its kind since the flag-raising at Iwo Jima.” It was “Francis Scott Key, Betsy Ross, Verdun and Iwo Jima—all wrapped up on one fleeting instant of patriotism,” added The Sporting News. It called Monday’s run a resemblance of “Paul Revere at full gallop.”
Vin Scully sized up the moment for the Dodgers’ radio audience as Ted Sizemore was at bat with a 1-0 count:
“Outside, ball one … and wait a minute … We’re not sure what he’s doing out there … It looks like he’s going to burn a flag … and Rick Monday runs and takes it away from him! (Crowd cheers) … I think the guy was going to set fire to the American flag! Can you imagine that? … Monday, when he realized what he was going to do, raced over and took the flag away from him.”
That’s where Scully took our breath away.
Dodgers publicity director Fred Claire’s quick thinking led to him having scoreboard operator Jeff Fellingzer type in a message with the lighted block letters.
As Monday continued his run, slowing down after it appeared he was clear of the situation, he headed toward the Dodgers’ dugout and handed the flag to Dodgers pitcher Doug Rau, who had come out on the field. Monday then said he recalled seeing Dodgers third base coach Tommy Lasorda run past him the other way toward the perpetrators and “called these guys every name in the longshoreman’s encyclopedia.”
When reporters met with him after the game, Monday was still agitated: “If he’s going to burn a flag, he better do it in front of somebody who doesn’t appreciate it. I’ve visited enough veterans hospitals and seen enough guys with their legs blown off defending the flag.”
Monday had served in the Marine Corps reserves for the first six years of his MLB career. He said he had lost friends in Vietnam, a war that had just ended in 1976, the country’s bicentennial year.
This was a confluence of emotions, as the country’s convoluted ideas of patriotism, politics, and protests had spilled onto a baseball field.
“Now we’ve got three great patriots — George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Rick Monday,” said Cubs teammate Jose Cardinal as mentioned in the game’s SABR recap.
President Gerald R. Ford called Monday after the game and issued a Presidential Commendation for “Service To Others.” Two weeks later, when the Dodgers went to Chicago’s Wrigley Field for a series, Dodgers general manager Al Campanis presented Monday with the actual flag.
The Dodgers gave fans posters of the Roark photo a year later, on its anniversary in 1977, which was helpful as the Dodgers made a trade with the Cubs to get Monday on their roster.
Although few followed up to investigate whatever purpose there was for these two to come onto the field, the stories get kind of foggy. An Associated Press story reported shortly thereafter that the 37-year-old father served three days in jail in lieu of a $50 fine, pleading guilty to trespassing. The 11-year-old son was not arrested.
“The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment entwined four unlikely and disparate individuals: a Major League Baseball outfielder who instantaneously became a national hero; a photojournalist whose career was made, seemingly for life, with a single shot; and a father-son duo who faced so much mockery and castigation that they have chosen to remain anonymous.”
The story is revisited even more every April 25, and Monday never tires of discussing it.
“It’s freedom of speech, but the flag itself, I look at it from a positive standpoint,” Monday said in 2016. “I heard today from one of the moms who lost their son. It’s like Barbaralee (Monday’s wife) says, ‘We drape the caskets of our fallen warriors with the flag, and it’s presented to the family with the words, from a grateful nation.’”
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Monday said in 2020. “But I knew what they were doing was wrong.”
“It brings you to tears, to be honest,” Monday admitted in 2013 about the stories he’s heard from veterans since then.
“You know what’s really kind of strange is I get letters every week, some from people who were not even born at the time,” Monday said in 2023. “And twice today, here at the ballpark, I’ve already had people say, ‘Thanks for doing something for the flag.’ ”
An artist who does mock ups of a retro comic book covers created something that puts the event more into a pop culture history vein. It has been commemorated on posters, coins, pennants, U.S. postage collectables and a Dodger Stadium bobblehead giveaway. The Hall of Fame itself has a T-shirt available as well as limited-edition bats, pins and photo.
The fact Monday is a home-grown SoCal product with a baseball life aside from this event worthy of attention makes his biography worthy of a deeper dive. He’s far more than just a flag-rescurer.
The Dodgers scouts coveted Monday when he was at Santa Monica High in the mid-60s, and scout Tommy Lasorda was all about to sign him to a $20,000 bonus when Monday made good on a promise to his mother that he would attend college first. That’s the starting point. Currently Monday has contributed years as a Dodgers’ radio and TV broadcaster to the modern-fan narrative, going past his 80th birthday.
The other notable moments on Monday’s professional resume:
= The first player taken overall in the first Major League Baseball official draft, in 1965, by the Kansas City Athletics, out of Arizona State. The 19-year-old led the Sun Devils to the College World Series title.
= A dramatic ninth-inning home run off Montreal’s Steve Rogers during the National League Championship Series that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 win and sent them into the 1981 World Series. It is still called “Blue Monday” throughout Canada.
= Two All-Star selections, including 1978 with the Dodgers, a year after he was traded by the Cubs to L.A. in an exchange that included Bill Buckner. Monday came to the Dodgers hoping to keep wearing No. 7, but catcher Steve Yeager had it. Monday went with 1 plus 6 = 16.
= A total of 241 homers during a 19-year career, eight of them with the Dodgers, as well as 775 RBIs. He had a single-season best of 32 homers for the Cubs as their lead-off hitter in that 1976 season.
= A 30-plus year career as a Dodgers TV and radio broadcaster, brought on in 1993 after the death of Don Drysdale, after Monday had done four years of broadcasting for the San Diego Padres.
But saving that flag from peril …
While it is most often secure in a safe deposit box, it has been taken out occasionally for fundraising events, especially to help the U.S. military veterans and their families.
The Baseball Hall of Fame displayed the flag in Cooperstown in 2026, keeping it there from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend, as a way to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary. It has never previously been exhibited in one public location for as many days.
Monday was also at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown on May 23 for the Hall of Fame Military Classic, a seven-inning legends game.
Rick Monday put on his No. 7 again during an exhibition game at Cooperstown, N.Y.
“I didn’t do anything that people I know would not have done had they been geographically close enough to do something about it,” Monday has said. “I’m proud to say that all of my friends would have done the same thing. I think it’s about respect. I respect this country and what that flag represents.
“It’s only a piece of cloth, but, boy, it represents a lot of lives and freedoms that we have available to us because of the people who stepped up and sacrificed. All I did that afternoon was step up. I’m not a hero. I’m just a guy who acted upon what I thought was right. I’m happy I was close enough to do something about it.”
A story posted in 2025 about Jim Marshall, who, at 90, was the oldest living member of the New York Mets, there was mention that Marshall had been manager of the Chicago Cubs that day Monday saved the flag. Marshall said Monday was his favorite player to manage.
“He was such a great, young kid,” said Marshall. “I was there the day he grabbed the American flag when those kids were about to burn it. That was the greatest play of his career. I told Rick, ‘You owe me money, man. I put you in the lineup so you could do that, now you have a lifetime job with the Dodgers!’ So now he gives me $1 every time he sees me.”
Maybe it’s time for another revision, 20 years later.
Flag that for the “to-do” list.
On the boardwalk at Dodger Stadium that runs next to the roofline of the outfield pavilions, a plaque commemorating Monday’s April 25, 1976 rescue is depicted on a “Legendary Dodger Moments” series — even thought he was playing for the Cubs, calling him a “future Dodger legend.”
Postscript:
Mark Langill, the Dodgers’ team historian, does a far better job of telling this story in an April, 2026 piece for the Dodgers’ fan magazine, given out the night of the 50th anniversary:
Who else wore No. 16 in SoCal sports history? Make a case for:
Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings center (1975-76 to 1986-87):
Best known: The Little Beaver — a nickname that stuck to the Hockey Hall of Famer because his 5-foot-9 stature — needed fewer than 1,000 games (921) to set a franchise record for career points with 1,307, which lasted for some 40 years before Anze Kopitar eventually passed him at 1,316 during his 1,521-game run. Dionne also stands second in goals (550, seven behind leader Luc Rotaille) and assists (757, more than 100 behind Kopitar).
The Kings pulled the trigger before the 1975 season to get the 23-year-old just coming off his All-Star selection in Detroit in a multi-player deal involving Dan Maloney and Terry Harper. Dionne made three All Star teams right away, but his was elevated more when he was combined with Dave Taylor and Charlie Simmer on the famed “Triple Crown Line,” which stayed together from 1979 to 1984. (Interestingly, before that happened, Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke had been talking to Boston legend Bobby Orr about coming to Los Angeles to join Dionne after the 1976 season, and they appeared to have it locked up — until Orr decided to go to the Chicago Blackhawks on a five-year, $3 million deal instead. Chronic knee issue held Orr to just 26 more games over three seasons with the Blackhawks before retiring at age 30). Kings coach Bob Berry put Dionne in the middle with second-year right winger Taylor and career minor-leaguer Simmer on either side. Taylor was the play maker, Dionne was the scorer and Simmer pulled the puck out of the corners. Perhaps by no coincidence, after the Triple Crown Line’s first season together, Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Kings, Lakers and the Forum from Cooke for $67.5 million. The Triple Crown Line dominated the NHL in its first season, scoring 146 goals and 182 assists, good for 328 points and Dionne was also awarded the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer — two more goals than rookie Wayne Gretzky. By ’80-’81, the line did better: 161 goals, 191 assists and 352 points, and, for the 1981 All Star Game played at the Forum in Inglewood, the three were voted in as a unit. He is listed at No. 20 in “The Hockey 100” book of 2026 with the quip: “He is probably the greatest NHL player to never win a Stanley Cup. … (but) let’s learn to appreciate greatness — to really celebrate it — without any asterisks. No, he never did win a Stanley Cup. Never even made it out of the second round, in fact. So what. Ring or no ring, Marcel Dionne was one of the greatest of them all.” Not well remembered:Dionne remains the Kings’ all-time leader in hat tricks (24, 10 more than second-place Bernie Nichols and Luc Robitaille), shots taken (3,848), goals created (507.5), goals per game (0.60), even-strength goals (369), total goals on-ice for (1,723), power play goals on-ice for (670) and offensive points share of 101.0 (the only one in triple digits, ahead of Robitalle’s 98.7).
Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers center/forward (2007-08 to 2013-14):
Best known: His seven seasons with the Lakers as Kobe Bryant’s running mate brought him three All-Star selections and two NBA titles, encouraging the team to retire his number in 2023, the same year he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The 7-footer from Barcelona who was the NBA Rookie of the Year with Memphis in 2002 came to L.A. in a deal that upset many league owners — the Lakers were able to unload Kwame Brown, Javaris Criterion and Aaron McKie, but also sent along his brother, future All Star Marc Gasol. In the first game Gasol played with Bryant, he caught a pass and scored, leading Bryant to yell to coach Phil Jackson: “We’ve got a big man that can catch and finish! We’re going to the Finals!” They did for the next three seasons. Gasol averaged 17.7 points and 9.9 rebounds in his seven seasons with the Lakers before leaving to Chicago. Not well known: Gasol wore No. 16 because rookies in Spain were given that number (or No. 17), as he was in his first season with F.C. Barcelona. He said he had so much success, he wanted to keep it.
Hideo Nomo, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher(1995 to 1998):
Best known: The “Nomomania” that happened in Los Angeles upon the arrival of “The Tornado” during the ’95 post-strike delay generated a Japanese fan following that had not been seen before in Major League Baseball. The ’95 NL Rookie of the Year and league strike-out leader with his baffling forkball and deceptive windup was also the starting NL pitcher in the All Star game, striking out three of the six he faced. A no-hitter at Coors Field in Denver added to his legend. After stops in New York, Milwaukee, Detroit and Boston, Nomo returned to L.A. (wearing No. 10, as catcher Paul LoDuca had No. 16, the magical number for Japanese players) and had back-to-back 16-win seasons before undergoing shoulder surgery. In honor of Nomo and the Japanese history of pitchers, Yusei Kikuchi made the 2025 Opening Day start with No. 16, having worn it with Houston and Toronto previously.
Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher (2019 to present):
Best known: His 11th inning solo home run in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series at Toronto provided the winning margin as the Dodgers clinched the championship. A three-time NL All Star, Smith was a first-round draft pick by the Dodgers out of Louisville. He went 2-for-4 in his MLB debut on May 27, 2019 and a month later, he hit a walk-off homer against Colorado. He served mostly as a DH in the Dodgers’ 2020 World Series run and became the full-time starting catcher in 2021. He signed a 10-year, $140 million contract extension in 2024 as he became the fourth catcher in franchise history to hit more than 100 career homers. Smith set a World Series record for most innings caught — 73 — as he handled every inning of the Dodgers’ 2025 run, including the 18 inning Game 3 victory and 11 in the Game 7.
Gary Beban, UCLA football quarterback (1965 to 1967):
Best known: In ESPN’s 2020 list of the 150 greatest college football players in the game’s first 150 years, Beban managed to get in at No. 146 as still the only Bruin to win a Heisman.
The blurb reads: “Beban may be the classic example of the bromide: All he could do was beat you. He was not big (6-0, 191), didn’t have a particularly strong arm, and beat no one with his legs. But Bruins coach Tommy Prothro made two comments about Beban that defined his worth: ‘He has no weaknesses.’ And: ‘The more pressure, the better he is.’ As a three-year starter, Beban went 24-5-2, including an upset of national champion Michigan State in the 1966 Rose Bowl, 14-12. Beban and No. 1 UCLA lost to O.J. Simpson and No. 3 USC, 21-20, in 1967. Beban threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns, and he beat Simpson for the 1967 Heisman.” That ’67 season, by the way, showed Beban throwing for 1,359 yards and eight TDs, and UCLA finishing 7-2-1. But since he was fourth in the Heisman voting in ’66, Beban seemed to have the best qualifications, considering his career stats: 33 TDs, 3,940 of passing yards and 5,197 of total offense.
Not well known: If UCLA fans were to draw up a list of the Top 5 quarterbacks in its history, Beban might be somewhat forgotten. Since Beban’s time, only a few UCLA players have ever finished in the Top 3 in the Heisman voting: Quarterbacks Troy Aikman (1988) and Cade McNown (1998) were third. Prior to Beban, only Bruins running back Paul Cameron had made it into the Top 3 (in 1953). Quarterback Billy Kilmer was fifth in the 1960 voting and Donn Moomaw finished fourth in 1952. A second-round pick by the Los Angeles Rams in 1968 — 30th overall — Beban’s rights were traded to Washington and only got into five pro games, also wearing No. 16 for the Redskins) as a backup to future Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen.
Frank Gifford, USC football running back, quarterback, defensive backer and kicker (1949 to 1951):
Best known: As a senior, the Santa Monica-born Gifford ran for 841 yards on 195 carries and seven touchdowns, completed 32 of 61 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns, made 11 receptions, had three interceptions, kicked 26 PATs and two field goals. Gifford benefited from incoming coach Jess Hill switching from the T-formation to a combination of the winged T and the single wing. His first action was as a sophomore safety, recording two interceptions in a 42-20 season opening win against Navy at the Coliseum. He was also USC’s placekicker, making 25 of 31 PATs that season. A 22-yard field goal that season against Cal was USC’s first field goal made since the 1935 season, 14 years earlier. He led USC in scoring and interceptions in 1950. Before he graduated, Gifford married his college sweetheart, USC homecoming queen Maxine Ewart, in early 1952, and they had three children. As a first-round pick by the NFL’s New York Giants — becoming a league MVP, an eight-time Pro Bowl pick and having his No. 16 retired by the franchise — he parlayed that into a longtime career as a TV broadcaster on “Monday Night Football.” Gifford was inducted into the inaugural USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994, after he made the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in ’77 and the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2012. Not well known: Gifford wrote in his 2008 biography that he was given No. 16 by coach Jeff Cravath because USC initially recruited him as a quarterback after he spent a year at Bakersfield Junior College, trying to get his grades up as his dad provided for the family working in the oilfields.
Rodney Peete, USC football quarterback (1985 to 1988):
Best known: The three-year starter was a dual-threat Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year and as a senior combined to win the Johnny Unitas Award and Pop Warner Award — and finish second in the Heisman voting behind Oklahoma State’s record-breaking running back Barry Sanders. At a school known for its running game success, Peete finished as the all-time leading passer with 8,225 yards and 54 touchdowns, as well as 12 more rushing.
Paul McDonald, USC football quarterback (1976 to 1979):
Best known: The 1979 All-American out of Bishop Amat High quarterbacked USC’s 1978 national champions and was 23-1-1 as a starter, including a pair of Rose Bowl wins. He threw for 4,138 yards with 37 touchdowns in his career but also found success handing off to eventual Heisman Trophy winners Charles White and Marcus Allen (while himself finishing sixth in the 1979 Heisman voting as a senior with 153 completions in 240 passes for 1,989 yards and 17 TDs. After his playing career, he worked as a game analyst on the radio for 15 seasons. He was part of the Class of 2027 for the USC Athletic Hall of Fame.
Jarred Goff, Los Angeles Rams quarterback (2016 to 2020):
Best known: Rams head coach Jeff Fisher was so convinced the team needed the 6-foot-4, 217-pounder out of Cal they gave Tennessee their first-round pick, two second-round picks and a third-round pick, plus their ’17 first- and third-round picks, so they could take Goff No. 1 overall. Goff then signed a four-year, $27.9 million guaranteed contract. Four noteworthy moments in his Rams career: On Nov. 19, 2018, he threw for 413 yards and four touchdowns as the Rams outlasted Kansas City, 54-51, at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the highest-scoring Monday Night Football ever. Goff guided the team to a Super Bowl in the 2018 season, ending with a 13-3 loss to New England. His contract option was picked up and extended to $134 million, with $110 million guaranteed, then an NFL record. In a Week 4 loss to Tampa Bay in 2019, Goff threw for a career-high 517 yards (completing a career-high 45 passes on 68 attempts with two TDs and three picks). But by the 2021 draft, the team changed course and traded him to Detroit in a deal (with a ’22 and ’23 first-round pick) for veteran QB Matthew Stafford. Not well known: Goff wore No. 16 as a tribute to his idol, Joe Montana.
Jim Plunkett, Los Angeles Raiders quarterback (1982 to 1986):
A two-panel Nike billboard by Nike in 1985 spanning the 605 Freeway near Irwindale shows Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett, right, completing a pass to tight end Todd Christensen on the other side of the road. The Raiders had just started floating the idea about moving from the L.A. Coliseum to a new home in the San Gabriel Valley area of Irwindale. (Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photo/Mike Mullen/Los Angeles Public Library Digital Collection).
Best known: The last five seasons Plunkett’s 15-year NFL career were in L.A., coming over with the Raiders after having spent three seasons previously in Oakland. In 1982 and ’83, he led the team to eight fourth-quarter comebacks, as well as eight game-winning drives. His record as a starter was 27-12. He arrived in L.A. after leading the Raiders to a Super Bowl XV title on Jan. 25, 1981.
Garrett Anderson, California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder (1994 to 2008):
April 16, 2026
Best known: The 15 seasons he spent in three different variations of the Angels’ franchise existence speaks to the fact of his longevity at an odd time in the team’s identity crisis. The Kennedy High of Granada Hills standout was picked by the team in the fourth round in 1990 and five years later was second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting (.321 in 106 games, 16 HR, 69 RBIs). The three-time AL All Star was MVP of the 2003 game when hit a two-run homer and a double in the eighth during a 3-for-4 night to lead to an AL comeback win. Anderson led the league in doubles with 56 in their World Series title year of 2002 and 49 the next season. He also won two Silver Slugger Award. He finished his 17-season career wearing No. 9 for the Dodgers in 2010. Voted into the Angels Hall of Fame in 2016, he remains the franchise career leader in games, hits, RBIs and at-bats, and third in overall average. With his death at age 53 in the spring of 2026, he was remembered by columnist Mark Whicker: “He didn’t really mind being misunderstood. For one thing it gave him room to take care of business. There was no way he’d be a team spokesman. Too presumptuous. But the closer people got to him, the more they heard his incongruously throaty laugh and heard his wide range of opinions. He was a cheery skeptic about the analytics “revolution” and never abandoned his method of swinging hard at the first thing he liked, yet striking out only 13.3 percent of the time. Fifty-one percent of his batted balls went up the middle, just like the coaches tell you.” Not well remembered: Anderson is the first in MLB history to win a World Series title, a Home Run Derby and All-Star Game MVP in the span of a year (actually, nine months).
Best known: Out of St. Joseph’s High in Long Beach, where she pitched 12 perfect games, 37 no-hitters and 69 shutouts, Fernandez became a three-time winner of softball’s Honda Award at UCLA and also was the first in her sport to also win the Broderick Cup in 1993, given to the most outstanding collegiate female athlete in all sports. A four-time, first-team All-American, Fernandez led the Bruins to national titles in ’90 and ’92, plus runner-up finishes in ’91 and ’93. The Pac-10 Player of the Year in each of her final three years, she posted a 93-7 record with a 0.22 earned run average, 784 strike outs and 74 shutouts. She also has three Summer Olympic gold medals, from 1996 in Atlanta (the sport’s first appearance), 2000 in Sydney and 2004 in Athens. A rare pitcher/hitter, Fernandez has the distinction of holding four individual Olympic records: most strikeouts in a game (25), fewest runs allowed, highest batting average in Olympic play (.545) and most doubles (3). In 2022, Fernandez was promoted to the UCLA Associated Head Coach spot and has had nearly 30 years as a member of the UCLA coaching staff. She was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003 with her No. 16 retired in 1995.
Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder (2006 to 2017): A two-time NL All Star with a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger in his 12 seasons, Ethier’s top offensive year in 2009 saw him hit 31 homers, 42 doubles, drive in 106, score 92 times and play in 160 games, finishing sixth in NL MVP voting. In Game 7 of the 2017 World Series against the Astros, he drove in the only run for the team in a 5-1 series-ending loss with a sixth-inning single. In doing so, he set a then-Dodgers franchise record by appearing in 51 career post-season contests. Ethier came to the Dodgers from Oakland in a December, 2005 trade for Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez and was the first Dodger to have 30 doubles in seven straight seasons.
Have you heard this story:
Brice Taylor, USC football fullback/offensive guard (1924 to 1926):
Best known: The Trojans’ first All-American player and its first African-American player was a descendant of African slaves and a Shawnee Indian chief, orphaned at age 5. Born without a left hand, he enrolled at USC as Gus Henderson’s starting fullback. When Howard Jones took over the next season, Taylor moved to the defensive line and was also its kicker. He played in all but four minutes of USC’s 11 games in 1924. Taylor was also a sprinter and hurdler at USC and picked to be on the U.S. Olympic track team in 1924. After he coached Southern University, a historically black college in Louisiana, where he started the Bayou Classic game with in-state rival Grambling State, Taylor circled back to become the coach at Jefferson High in L.A. as well as the associate pastor at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was honored as the L.A. City Teacher of the Year in 1969 and L.A. Mayor Sam Yorty appointed him to the Mayor’s Community Advisory Board in ’65. Not well known: Inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995, Taylor has a plaque honoring his career at the Coliseum’s Memorial Court of Honor. The Brice Taylor Award is given annual to USC alums for outstanding civic service.
Willie Wood, USC football quarterback/safety (1957 to 1959):
Best known: The first Black quarterback in the history of the Pacific Coast Conference (which became the AAWU, which became the Pac-8), Wood threw for 772 yards and seven TDs versus eight interceptions, and also ran for two touchdowns. When he was not picked in the 1960 NFL Draft, Wood wrote a letter to Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi to ask for a tryout. The team signed him, switched him to safety, and he made it onto five NFL Championship teams (including the first two Super Bowls), was a five-time All-Pro first team and four time second team. He led the NFL in interceptions in 1962 with nine and, after 12 seasons, was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Not well known: After starring in Washington D.C. and coming West to play as a junior college All-American at Coalinga Junior College, Wood went to USC under first-year head coach Don Clark.
The 1962 National League Rookie of the Year for the Chicago Cubs as a Gold Glove winning second baseman rests today in Colton’s Montecito Cemetery, having perished in a private plane crash in February of 1964 at age 22.
The front of a special Topps baseball card issued in 1964 after Hubbs’ death.
His funeral at Colton High’s Whitmer Auditorium drew some 2,000, including Cubs teammates and pallbearers Ron Santo and Ernie Banks. Wearing No. 16 for the Cubs — he came up as a 19-year-old wearing No. 33 for 10 games in the ’61 season — Hubbs played just two full seasons out. The number was never retired, but held out of circulation for nearly a decade. Hubbs was already a local legend a 12 year-old in the 1954 Little League World Series as the shortstop on the Colton team that made it to the championship game where it lost to Schenectady, N.Y. He hit a home run in the game with a broken toe. At Colton High he was All-CIF in football, basketball and baseball and was was a high jumper on the track team. The 1959 Los Angeles Examiner “Best All-Around Athlete in Southern California” was recruited to play basketball for John Wooden at UCLA as well as play quarterback at Notre Dame. A member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Hubbs was considering going to BYU or USC when he was signed to a $50,000 bonus to join the Cubs.
The back of a special Topps baseball card issued in 1964 after Hubbs’ death.
As a rookie in ’62 he set an MLB record with 78 consecutive games/418 chances without an error — his glove remains on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Riverside-born athlete who was All-American in football and basketball is remembered with the Ken Hubbs Award from the family foundation for the top high school male and female athlete in San Bernardino, celebrating its 60th year in 2024. Notable winners have been Football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott (1977) and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels (2019). The L.A. Times’ Jim Murray wrote: “Kenneth Douglass Hubbs was more than just another baseball player. He was the kind of athlete all games need. A devout Mormon, a cheerful leader, a picture-book player, blond-haired, healthy, generous with his time for young boys; he was the kind of youth in short supply in these selfish times.”
We also have:
Rocky Colavito, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder (1968) Paul LoDuca, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher (1998 to 2004) Holly McPeak, UCLA women’s volleyball setter (1990) Eddie Joyal, Los Angeles Kings center (1967-68 to 1971-72)
Orel Hershiser, Los Angeles Dodgers Junior Seau, USC football Willie McGinnest, USC football Chris Clayborne, USC football Kiki Vandeweghe, UCLA basketball Gary Cunningham, UCLA basketball
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 55:
Jack Robinson, Pasadena City College football Tom Fears, Los Angeles Rams Maxie Baughan, Los Angeles Rams
The most interesting story for No. 55: Gavin Smith, UCLA basketball forward (1973-74 to 1975-76) Southern California map pinpoints: Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Westwood, Hollywood, Calabasas, West Hills, Porter Ranch, Palmdale
Season 2, Episode 4 of “Homicide: Los Angeles,” the Dick Wolf-created Netflix documentary, is called “A Hollywood Affair.” It aired in July of 2024.
The synopsis: “When a Hollywood studio executive goes missing, a tumultuous affair comes to light, leading investigators to suspect foul play.”
The synopsis: “A philandering film executive, Gavin Smith, goes missing. Is he seeking a new life or has he upset a dangerous rival?”
Surely, host Keith Morison can make this seem even more supernatural.
What else ya got, gumshoe?
Season 5, Episode 9 of “The Perfect Murder,” another made-for-TV series that recreates crime scenes with actors. The title is “Jump Shot.” It aired in September of 2018.
The synopsis: “Hollywood ‘golden boy’ Gavin Smith — a 20th Century Fox executive and former star UCLA basketball player — disappears one night in May, 2012. His family and detectives search tirelessly for answers, but a group of heartless and selfish characters will hold fast to their secrets.“
Now the plot thickens. Maybe even into a pasty batter.
Yet, what’s truth and what’s fiction?
In the pantheon of UCLA’s storied basketball, was Gavin Smith really a “star” player with the Bruins’ program? Only if it helps draws in viewers. And how you define player at various points in his evolution.
Gavin Smith was 57 when he died. Or, rather, when he was murdered. And buried. And found two years later.
Let’s investigate all this further.
The background
As a group of former UCLA basketball players honor coach John Wooden in 2003, Gavin Smith stands just to Wooden’s left, holding his left hand.
Van Nuys News columnist Bernie Milligan wrote in 1973 about this 6-foot-6, 190-pound hot shot at Van Nuys High was, “according to most who see him play, the greatest thing to come along in basketball since Elgin Baylor.”
Gavin Smith, who by then was included in a Washington Post story that identified him as of the top 15 basketball players in the country, grew up in Sherman Oaks without playing organized basketball until he was 13. So when he sprouted up in height and average 27 points and 16 rebounds a game in his senior year at Van Nuys to win Mid-Valley League MVP, wearing No. 33, the days that he was remembered as a baseball pitching prospect for the school that created Don Drysdale was long gone.
As Smith told Milligan: “I was a scatter arm and never knew exactly where the ball was going.”
To further prove his athleticism, Smith won the league championship in the long jump and finished sixth in the L.A. City final.
When the Los Angeles Times posted a March 20, 1973 story announcing the L.A. All-City basketball team — Crenshaw’s Marques Johnson was named Player of the Year — it noted that Smith had been “called by one college coach the ‘best white player in the country’.” That quote came from Washington State head coach George Raveling, who had been actively recruiting him. Raveling could get away with saying such a thing that these days might raise eyebrows.
A month later, after returning from the Dapper Dan Classic high school all-star game in Pittsburgh, Smith, who had been a second-team Parade Magazine All-American, gave Raveling his answer — he decided to bank on John Wooden and UCLA.
Wooden’s assistant, Frank Arnold, got him to join a recruiting class that included the same Marques Johnson, plus Richard Washington and Jim Spillane. UCLA fans were told that Smith would remind them of former Bruins star Keith Erickson, both in looks and how he played.
From the UCLA 1973-74 basketball media guide.
UCLA, coming off seven straight NCAA titles, had a 1973-74 roster with seniors Bill Walton, Keith Wilkes and Tommy Curtis, plus juniors David Meyers and Pete Trgovich. Smith could likely have been a starter anywhere else with freshmen eligible now.
“The main reason I chose UCLA was that if I play there, I’ll be playing against the best players and that’s why they win championships,” said Smith. “The players are so good that if you don’t do the job they can have someone else who can.”
As a freshman, Smith practiced with the varsity team and got into seven games, scoring nine points with five rebounds. In nine of the Bruins’ 18 JV games, he averaged 15.7 points, third best on the team, and seven rebounds a contest.
As a sophomore, Wooden had Smith come off the bench in 17 games. As he scored 60 points with 18 rebounds, a key contribution was in an 82-75 win at Pauley Pavilion in December of ’74 against rival Notre Dame. Smith his two long jump shots over the Irish’s 2-1-2 zone during a 10-point run that got UCLA back in the game.
“I was extremely pleased with Gavin,” said Wooden afterward. “Gavin played under control, dribbled well and made a few good shots.”
The Bruins won the 1975 NCAA title that season, the last for Wooden as he retired. Smith didn’t play in that 92-85 championship win over Kentucky.
UCLA’s 1974-75 NCAA title team. Gavin Smith (55), second from left, front row.
Now Smith went into his junior year finally declaring a major — political science — and trying to declare a reason new head coach Gene Bartow should give him more playing time.
Smith still couldn’t break into the starting lineup, stuck now between a shooting guard and a small forward depending on the opponent. He played in 30 games for a Bruins’ team that won the Pac-8 at 12-2, and finished fifth in the final AP poll at 27-5. Smith scored 179 points (6.0 a game) to go with 55 rebounds (1.8 a game) and 22 assists (0.7 a game). During a stretch of games in January and February of ’76, there were some double-digit point production. The Pauley Pavilion crowd picked up on it and often chanted “Shoot, Gavin, shoot!”
UCLA’s season ended with a bitter loss in the NCAA national semifinals to Indiana, 65-51. Smith managed six points in nine minutes with three personal fouls in that game, but in a follow up in the Los Angeles Times, he wasn’t shy about complaining about his limited playing time, benched after his fast-break layup cut Indiana’s lead to six points with six minutes left.
“I could understand it if I were throwing up bricks,” said Smith. “But I wasn’t. I don’t understand why I’m not in there when others are cold.” He also pointed out teammates were playing with a lack of intensity. “We should have had the attitude that we’re the defending champs and Indiana had to beat us. I didn’t have much to do with anything but when I’m in a game I’m fired up and I’ll even scream at some of our dudes.”
The Daily Breeze: March 7, 1976.
In those days, there was a third-place game, and UCLA handily defeated Rutgers, 106-92. Smith had eight points (3 of 9 shooting) and six rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.
It would be his last game for the Bruins.
On that ’75-’76 roster, nine UCLA players would go into the NBA. Marques Johnson, of course, as eventual winner of the Wooden Award, was coming back for his senior year. David Greenwood now starting on the front line with Richard Washington. Bartow had Palisades High’s Kiki VanDeWeghe and Redondo High’s Gig Sims as new big men on their way in for the ’76-’77 season. Guard play would be split between senior Jim Spillane, junior Raymond Towsend and sophomores Brad Holland and Roy Hamilton.
Smith was caught in between. By July, 1976, his fate was sealed. UCLA declared him scholastically ineligible. The story wasn’t clear how that happened, but it did. and he was free to go.
When Smith’s transferred out to the University of Hawaii, one of his original three schools of interest coming out of high school, VanDeWeghe would get his Bruins’ No. 55 jersey.
Given not just a starting role but a starring one on the island, Smith averaged 23.4 points a game for the Rainbow Warriors, a program that had started just seven seasons earlier and was still an independent.
Just before Smith arrived, at the end of the ’75-’76 season, former graduate assistant Rick Pitino had his first head-coach experience on an interim basis, at age 24. But something was amiss. As Hawaii hired Larry Little as its new coach, he brought in Smith, and the program finished 9-18 in ’76-’77, just as it was hit an NCAA sanction related to Pitino recruiting violations and player benefits.
Smith set four Hawaii program records — most points in a single season (608), best scoring average (23.4), plus most field goals and most field goal attempts (252 of 571), all before the 3-point line came into effect. Those marks that still stand. He had a season-best 37 points with 13 rebounds in an 18-point loss to Oregon State. He also led Hawaii in rebounds (6.5 a game).
He was on the West team for the Aloha Classic college All-Star game, teammates again with Johnson and Spillane.
Not all was smooth sailing in Hawaii for Smith, known for wearing his hair long held with a bandana and bringing his dog to practice. He was suspended one game when he and some teammates broke a curfew. He was also on shaky ground when the school’s second semester started and he hadn’t registered for classes, was thought to be ineligible, but Little scrambled to get him enrolled again.
In a March, 1977 story for the Los Angeles Times, reporter Earl Gustkey caught up with Smith as Hawaii faced Long Beach State at the Long Beach Arena. In that February 24 game, Smith missed his first seven shots, including three air balls, was 2-for-12 at halftime as his team trailed by 21, and ended up with just 12 points in a 110-79 loss before fouling out as well as getting a technical foul. A few games later, in a 40-point loss at UNLV, Smith had 18 points but fouled out with 14 minutes left.
“Geez, I was horrendous,” said Smith, back to wearing the No. 33 from Van Nuys High, talking about that loss in Long Beach.
Smith then explained how his situation at UCLA ended:
“I had a long talk with coach Bartow and he told me it’d be very difficult to keep me out of the starting lineup this year, but it wasn’t a guarantee. I was fed up and a little perturbed. I mean, I’m no average ball player and I’d sat for three years.
“After three years, after all the mental and physical exertion from my body, I’d gotten zero in return in terms of playing time. I just became unhappy with the situation. So after my talk with Bartow, I just left.
“A lot of people think I flunked out of UCLA, but I didn’t. I just left. I didn’t even both to drop my classes. I’d met a lady from Santa Rosa, so I went up there with her.”
Women can do that to you.
The aftermath
Gavin Smith, left, wife Lisa, center, and sons Dylan, Austin and Evan.
A 2024 issue of People magazine did a whole big to-do about the life and times of Gavin Smith. It’s probably most appropriate we allow that magazine to pick up the story from here with its collated research:
After playing, it seemed almost natural that Smith pursue a career in the entertainment industry — his mother was an assistant movie producer, as well as a script supervisor and got him involved in the business at an early age.
The stereotypical California sun-tanned, tall and handsome figure first came in as a stuntman. He hurt his back. The meds he used caught up with him.
Smith’s IMDb.com resume also notes small acting roles in three film and TV spots — a bartender in “Cobb, a bodyguard in “Glitz,” and a role in “Swingin’ in the Painter’s Room” — an 11-minute black-and-white film where Smith is ID’d as “Guy with Fur Hat.”
As an aspiring actor, Smith was also the stereotypical part-time waiter scrambling for a paycheck. That’s where he first met his eventual wife, Lisa Dobson.
“I just thought he was charming and I was thrilled when he asked me for my number,” Dobson said on Dateline in 2017. “He was a wonderful husband. He was a gentleman … He made me feel like a princess.”
Smith found work in 20th Century Fox and somehow worked his way up to the head of film distribution. His top projects included the original “Star Wars” trilogy, “Titanic” and “Avatar,” as a liaison between the studio and theaters. He also got involved in the creative process, working from the studio’s Calabasas office.
Smith and Dobson had three sons: Evan, Austin and Dylan. While Smith worked in the film industry, Lisa raised the kids. Evan, born in 1990, would grow to a 6-foot-7 forward at Calabasas High, averaging 17.7 points and 9.3 rebounds as a senior, making the CIF-SS Division III first team. Wearing No. 22, he went to play at USC from 2009-10 to 2010-11, getting into just 11 games as a freshman and sophomore for coach Kevin O’Neill before an injury derailed him.
According to friends who spoke to The Daily Beast in 2012, the couple’s relationship had been on the rocks. Smith had substance abuse issues as well as financial problems as they bought a house during the 2008 financial crisis and were underwater with bills.
“They were not separated. They were just going through normal stuff couples go through,” Evan told E! News in 2012.
Dobson turned to religion for comfort. Smith turned to the company of Chandrika Cade, a married woman he met during a 2008 stay in rehab center. When Smith’s family found out about his affair, Smith insisted he would call things off — but his promise was only temporary.
“I was the love of Gavin’s life,” Dobson said. “He adored me. Our family was exactly what he wanted to have. He just got lost.”
Then, in May, 2012, Smith officially did get lost. He disappeared.
The L.A. Sheriff’s Department reported that Smith was last seen in the Agoura Hills/Oak Park area in a black Mercedes with the California license plate 6EKT004. The family asked publicly for anyone’s help in the search.
As it turned out, on the evening of his disappearance, Smith secretly met up again with Chandrika Cade. This time, her husband, convicted drug dealer John Creech, tracked them down.
Creech, who found out about the affair in 2010, killed Smith with his bare hands.
Smith’s body wasn’t discovered until more than two years later.
As more and more information came out, it was revealed that Evan and one of his brothers had actually approached Creech to apologize for their father’s actions, begging for Creech not to retaliate. Creech told the boys that they saved their father’s life with that visit.
Evan then told his father that he had to “be better” if he wanted to continue to be a part of their family unit. Learning later his father had continued the affair, Evan says he was “crushed.”
In the days before his 2012 disappearance, Smith attended the CinemaCon movie convention in Las Vegas. He went back to the San Fernando Valley, but opted to stay with a nearby family friend in Oak Park on the night of May 1 instead of his West Hills home.
Smith and the friend watched television together before she retired to bed, expecting him to do the same later in the evening.
“They had already gone to bed,” Dobson told ABC. “So, he was still downstairs watching TV when our friend went to bed. And he was going to be coming up to bed shortly.”
But, at around 10 p.m., Smith left in his black Mercedes, wearing purple workout pants that belonged to Evan and he intended to wear to bed. He left most of his belongings behind. According to phone records acquired by police, Smith’s last GPS signal came from Sylmar at 4:30 a.m. on May 2, about 30 minutes from his home.
That morning, his family sensed something was wrong because Smith was supposed to pick up Austin for school. When that didn’t happen, and he didn’t make it to work, Dobson filed a missing person report. Flyers went out. A hotline was established. A $20,000 reward was offered. An episode of “America’s Most Wanted” even did a segment on the case.
At that point, the LAPD started to investigate Creech and Cade, going to their Canoga Park home, seizing cell phones and computers as well as their SUV.
In February of 2013, L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies found Smith’s Mercedes in a Simi Valley storage facility, led to that unit after Creech’s vehicle was found during a drug bust. After inspection, the evidence led to the belief that was where Smith was murdered. Creech was now the person of interest, as he was already serving two years of an eight-year sentence in L.A. County Men’s Central Jail on drug charges.
On Oct. 26, 2014, Smith’s remains were discovered in a shallow grave by a group of hikers in Palmdale, going into Angeles National Forest, 70 miles away from the home where he disappeared.
In January 2015, the district attorney officially filed murder charges against Creech. A grand jury indicted him. In the months that followed, hundreds of pages of court transcripts were made public through the Los Angeles Times.
Testimony from Cade revealed she met up with Smith late in the night when he disappeared. Her husband tracked her location and snuck up on the pair. Cade said Creech immediately began beating Smith and threatened to harm her as well. After pleading for her husband to stop, she fled the scene and returned home in her own vehicle.
Creech then beat Smith to death. The county coroner said Smith’s skull had been crushed on both sides.
Creech decided to store Smith’s Mercedes in a friend’s garage in Porter Ranch, then went to the desert to bury Smith’s body. Creech and several accomplices kept Smith’s death a secret for years as the investigation was underway.
Prosecutors described Smith’s murder as “an act of almost stunning brutality — almost indescribable violence.” Creech’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Irene Nuñez, called her client’s actions self-defense, that he feared for Cade’s safety, found the two in Smith’s car, and Smith began to attack him. He also alleged Smith chased him with a weapon — never found — causing Creech to fight back.
When Creech took the stand, he took “full accountability” for not contacting authorities to help find Smith, per NBC News.
Cade also testified that Creech was covered in blood when he came home later that morning of Smith’s disappearance. She said her husband told her Smith was dead, and they burned their clothes in the home’s fireplace.
At the end of the trial, the jury was presented with several options including first- and second-degree murder. Instead, they found Creech guilty of voluntary manslaughter after an hour of deliberation.
In July 2017, Creech was sentenced to the maximum 11 years in prison. His accomplices were not charged. Cade was not charged. They were given plea deals. In 2019, Creech’s conviction was upheld by a state appeals court.
Detective John O’Brien was disappointed in the verdict, suggesting that the jury had been biassed against Smith because of his infidelity.
“My opinion is that they didn’t like the fact that Gavin and Chandrika had an affair,” he said. “I think the jury felt that he went back even after he had been warned, so in a way he kind of got what was coming to him. I don’t even understand that logic, because there’s no right to kill somebody.”
Gavin Smith’s friends continued to remember him as a “larger-than-life” personality devoted to his sons and hoping to repair his relationship with his wife. Following his death, they worried his memory had been tainted by the sensational circumstances of the murder case.
“He wasn’t some adulterer having flings here and there… that just wasn’t him,” Smith’s brother Greg said. “Unfortunately this liaison cost him his life. Smiling, always happy, he was bigger than life. I loved him and I miss him, but he’ll always be here. Always.”
Makes you wonder: If Gavin Smith had been shown the script for this story, would he have believed it?
Instead, it gets retold now by those who can still milk it for all its details. Over and over again.
Who else wore No. 55 in SoCal sports history? Make a case for:
Orel Hershiser, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher (1983 to 1994, 2000):
Best known: The facts and figures of the 1988 season, confirming Orel Hershiser winning the Cy Young Award, World Series MVP, NLCS MVP, broke the MLB record for consecutive scoreless innings at 59 (which meant going 10 innings in a 1-0 win in his last start to do it of the regular season), a Gold Glove, finishing sixth in the MVP voting and doing whatever was necessary to pitch the Dodgers to the World Series title as a heavy underdog to both the New York Mets in the NLCS and the Oakland A’s in the finale secures a fate that he never have to buy a drink in Southern California for as long as he lives.
His decision to then become a broadcaster and mesh into the Dodgers’ SportsNet L.A. broadcast team has not only kept him visible, but some still congratulate him for his induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame for still having his “world record,” as he told us in 2013.
Some of his memorabilia may be on displayed in Cooperstown, but there is no plaque. He had just 11 percent of the votes in his first year of eligibility of 2006. Voters in the Veterans Committees in 2017 and ’19 didn’t generate enough interest. The Bill James’ “Hall of Fame Monitor” has him with a score of 91, when 100 is the passing threshold. Hershiser’s 56.0 career WAR, and 40.1 seven-year peak is comparable to Hall of Famers such as Catfish Hunter and Dazzy Vance during his career trajectory. Having led the National League in innings pitched for three straight seasons (1987 to 1989) with 33 complete games in that span and posting ERAs of 3.06, 2.26 and 2.31 were his peak. A 204-150 record and 3.48 ERA in an 18-year career over more than 3,000 innings included a comeback from revolutionary shoulder surgery by Dr. Frank Jobe. That led to Hershiser’s No. 55 put into the Dodgers’ “Legends” status in 2023, and eventually having it somewhat retired in the “Ring of Honor.” Not well remembered: The Dodgers’ 17th round pick in 1979 out of Bowling Green left as a free agent to play with Cleveland, San Francisco and the Mets, but he returned to the Dodgers in 2000 at age 41. He lasted until June 27, showing up for 24 innings, amassing a 1-5 mark and 13.14 ERA in six starts.
Best remembered: Out of Palisades High, the 6-foot-8, 220 pounder got his basketball DNA from his father, Ernie “Doc” Vandeweghe, a shooting guard for six seasons with the NBA’s New York Knicks (1949 to 1956) before starting a well-known medical practice in Southern California. Four years as a Bruin produced a UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame induction in 1994. The All-American and NCAA post-graduate scholarship award winner lead the Bruins to a national championship appearance his senior year (losing to Louisville) and losing in the West Regional final in his senior year (with an AP No. 2 ranking). He averaged 14.2 points (11th in the Pac-10) and 19.5 points a game (second in the conference) his final two seasons at UCLA, plus 6.3 and 6.8 rebounds. That led to a first-round draft choice of Dallas in 1980, but a holdout led to a trade to Denver. Not well remembered: The last of his 13-season NBA career came with the Clippers, starting three of his 41 games for a 41-41 team under coach Larry Brown. In 2013, Kiki Vanderweghe change the spelling of his last name to VanDeWeghe, to honor as it was spelled in its original Belgium by his departed grandfather and namesake as Ernest M. VanDeWeghe III.
Gary Cunningham, UCLA basketball forward (1959-60 to 1961-62):
UCLA’s Gary Cunningham (55) featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in action against USC.
Best known: The 6-foot-6 sharpshooter at Inglewood High became a three-year starter was on the Bruins’ first Final Four appearance team in the ’62 tournament. His value to the program came as John Wooden’s assisant coach from 1965 to ’75 on six national title teams, including a run as the freshman team coach that featured all the top incoming players such as Lew Alcindor. He then became UCLA’s head coach from 1977 to ’79, compiling a 50-8 record with a No. 2 ranking in the final polls both seasons. He has the greatest winning percentage as a UCLA coach at .862. He retired in 2008 after 13 years as the athletic director at UC Santa Barbara. Not well remembered: His 2001 UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame induction notes that Cunningham was not only the ’62 team’s co-captain, he was also winner of the Ducky Drake Award for best spirit, inspiration and team contribution and a three-time winner of the Ace Calkins Award as Bruin free-throw champion.
Mike Lainer, UCLA men’s basketball center (1991-92 to 1992-93):
At 7-foot-7, Lainer was the tallest player in the NCAA at the time he was onto coach Jim Harrick’s UCLA roster for two seasons, after transferring from Hardin-Simmons. He only played in 19 games for the Bruins, and wasn’t drafted by the NBA. Along with his twin brother Jim, they were in the Guinness Book of records as the tallest identical twins in the world. Mike appeared in the 2014 B-horror film “It Follows” labeled just as “Giant Man,” which got him and his brother interviewed by GQ magazine. Mike Lanier died at age 48 in Michigan.
The USC “Club 55” tradition:
USC linebacker Jim Snow (55, right) moves in on Purdue quarterback Bob Griese during the Jan. 2, 1967 Rose Bowl. Purdue won, 14-13.
Junior Seau, USC football linebacker (1987 to 1989):
Best known: Tiaina Baul “Junior” Seau Jr., seems to have started a tradition of having the No. 55 bestowed upon the Trojans’ most influential linebacker. Because of academic restrictions, Seau played only two seasons for the Trojans. In 1989, he had 19 sacks and 27 tackles for loss and was named a unanimous All-American and the Pac-10 defensive player of the year.His two years produced 107 tackles and 33 tackles for a loss. Seau died on May, 2012 of a self-inflicted gun wound to his chest. He was 43. Studies by the National Institute of Health showed Seau had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) brain disease cause by repetitive head trauma. Not well known: In ESPN’s 2020 list of the 150 greatest college football players in the game’s first 150 years, Seau ranked No. 105. His bio noted that while at USC: The Trojans went 19-4-1, won back-to-back conference titles and played in two Rose Bowls in his two seasons. After bypassing his senior season, Seau was the fifth pick of the 1990 NFL draft and played 20 seasons as a pro, and 12-time Pro Bowl player and a member of the NFL’s 100th Anniversary Team. He wore No. 55 throughout his professional career and had it retired by San Diego, which took him No. 5 overall in the 1990 draft. In 2015, he became the first player of Polynesian and Samoan descent to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The family of Junior Seau — including his mother Luisa, and his four children — were given a framed No. 55 jersey during a brief ceremony between the first and second quarters of USC’s game against Hawaii on Sept. 1, 2012. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
The USC football jersey No. 55 for sale at the campus store.
Best known: McGinest was All-Pac-10 Conference three straight years and had All-American status. During his senior year, he was a Lombardi Award finalist. Starting every game at weak-side defensive end, McGinest finished at USC with 193 tackles (134 solos), 29 sacks (171 yards), 48 tackles for loss (238 yards), and 26 passes batted away. The fourth overall pick of the 1994 draft by the New England Patriots, McGinest had a 15-year NFL career with two Pro Bowls and three Super Bowl titles. Not well remembered: Out of Long Beach Poly High, McGinest had all-state honors in football and basketball.
Best known: The only USC player to ever win the Butkus Award for the nation’s top linebacker in 1998 was given No. 55 by Trojans head coach John Robinson after he committed from Riverside North High, where he also wore that number. “We told him he had to wear 55 because he was going to be great player,” Robinson said. “He didn’t think it was great at the time. Once he got in it and recognized it was special, he liked it.” The Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year in ’98 led USC in tackles with 107 (77 solo), interceptions (six, returning two for touchdowns) and in pass deflections (16). Not well remembered: The No. 9 overall pick in the 1999 draft by Detroit went on to become the head football coach at Calabasas High in 2018 and was on the USC staff in 2020 as a quality control analyst.
Keith Rivers, USC football linebacker (2004 to 2007):
Best known: Born in Riverside, Rivers decided to go to USC over many other offers to be the latest No. 55. He started out on USC’s ’04 national title team as a freshman and had 215 tackles in his 49-game career, leading to the No. 9 overall pick of Cincinnati in the 2008 NFL draft. Rivers once said of honoring Seau by wearing No. 55: “It started with him and lived through all of the 55s that carry the torch.” Not well remembered: USC linebacker coach Ken Norton Jr., gave Rivers the nickname “The Shark” for his aggressive play.
Have you heard this story:
Jack Robinson, Pasadena Junior College football running back (1938):
A statue sits outside the Rose Bowl depicting Robinson’s days at the junior college and sporting the No. 55. It commemorates the 13 games he played at the Rose Bowl — four when he attended John Muir High School and nine during his time attending Pasadena Junior College (today known as Pasadena City College). In one notable game against Caltech, Robinson scored a Rose Bowl-record touchdown with a 104-yard kickoff return. That record, which still stands, is likely the inspiration for the statue’s stance.
A 1948 Rams post includes Tom Fears (top left),
Tom Fears, UCLA end (1946 to ’47); Los Angeles Rams right and left end/defensive end (1948 to 1956):
Best known: The first Mexican-American voted into the Pro Football Hall of Famer and ever drafted by an NFL team in 1945 came from Guadalajara to an Hispanic mother and American father. Fears was a standout at L.A.’s Manual Arts High and joined his friend, Toby Freedman, from Beverly Hills High, to enroll at Santa Clara University. Drafted for military service for World War II, he had three years of service and played football at the Colorado Springs platoon. An 11th-round draft pick of the Cleveland Rams in ’45, Fears went to UCLA instead, wearing No. 50 for two seasons as an All-American for the Bruins. But when the Rams’ franchise moved to Los Angeles in ’47, Fears joined them in ’48 for a $6,000 contract and $500 bonus. He led the NFL with 51 receptions despite starting just one of the 12 games. He’d lead the NFL again with 77 catches (a league record) and nine touchdowns in ’49 (to go with 1,013 yards) and, in his only Pro Bowl season, was tops with 84 catches (breaking his own league record) with 1,116 yards and 93 yards a game. In 1952, Fears switched to No. 80 and would keep that the last five years of his career, lasting all nine years in L.A.
Fears died at age 76 in 2000 in Palm Desert as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, and included into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989. Fears was also a Rams’ coach under former teammate Bob Waterfield in the 1950s and the first Latino head coach in the NFL when he took over the expansion New Orleans Saints in 1967. Not well remembered: Fears was named president of the All-Sports Council of Southern California and spent a year coaching at San Bernardino JC and Chapman College. He was director of player personnel for the USFL’s Los Angeles Express in its first year.
Michael Lorenzen, Cal State Fullerton baseball pitcher / outfielder (2011 to 2013):
Between the time Lorenzen was born in Anaheim and then played Major League Baseball in Anaheim, the 6-foot-3 right-hander was one of the most talented players in Cal State Fullerton baseball history. The Cincinnati Reds picking him No. 38th overall in the 2013 MLB Draft was a reflection of Lorenzen being named a Golden Spikes finalist, John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year finalist and Baseball America first-team as the Titans’ starting center fielder as well as their closer out of the bullpen. Lorenzen had 35 saves in 42 appearances to go with a 5-0 record on the mound in his Fullerton career. At the plate, he hit .335 with a Big West-leading 54 RBIs and a .515 slugging percentage and team-best seven homers. As a sophomore, he was first-team All-American as a utility player, starting 57 games in center field and finishing 20 games on the mound without allowing a run in 18 of them, getting 16 saves in 17 chances. As a freshman, he led the team in batting with a .343 average. This was after an All-CIF Southern Section status at Fullerton High. His only season with the hometown Angels (wearing No. 25) came in 2022 when he went 8-6 with a 4.24 ERA, starting 18 games but sat most of the second half with a strained right shoulder. The next season, he made the AL All Star team as a member of the Detroit Tigers, but he was dealt to Philadelphia prior to the trade deadline. In his first home start for the Phillies, he threw a 7-0 no-hitter against Washington. The interesting sidebar to that: He was wearing modified Vans skateboard shoes instead of traditional baseball cleats. His Vans UltraRange Exos with custom spikes were send to the Baseball Hall of Fame. “I did a lot of skateboarding growing up in Orange County so as I was progressing in my career, I really started to live out my roots.” Lorenzen had skated at a Vans skate park near Angel Stadium growing up. Prior to the 2019 season, Lorenzen worked on his outfield play trying to become a two-way MLB player. On Sept. 4, 2019, he was the second player in MLB history to hit a home run, earn the victory as a pitcher and also play in the field in the same game when Cincinnati defeated Philadelphia, 8-5. He came into the game as a relief pitcher in the top of the seventh with the game tied. The Reds went ahead in the bottom of the seventh. He also pitched the top of the eighth. He hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth and moved to center field for the ninth inning as teammate Raisel Iglesias got the save. The only other player to do that: Babe Ruth in 1921. Lorenzen was able to pile up 133 at bats in 363 games for Cincinnati from 2015 to 2021, hitting seven homers and sporting a .233 average. His best year was in 2018 when he hit in 55 games — 9 for 31 with four homers, 10 RBIs and a .290 average at the plate, while pitching in 45 games (three starts), 10 games finished one save in 81 innings with 54 strike outs. In March of 2026, as a pitcher for Team Italy, Lorenzen posted 4 2/3 shutout innings in a start against Team USA and left with a 5-0 lead, setting the table for a stunning 8-6 upset in Pool play. Even US Weekly took notice. What more could the Fullerton City Council do for him but give him a key to the city in 2024.
Maxie Baughan, Los Angeles Rams linebacker (1966 to 1970):
Best known: A Pro Bowl pick in four seasons and first-team All-Pro three times during his five seasons with the Rams, Baughan pulled in 11 interceptions total with the franchise. He came to Los Angeles in a trade to play for head coach George Allen, starting his first season with the organization. Baughan was chosen to be the Rams’ defensive captain and was in charge of signal calling. After an injury-plagued 1970 season, in which he played in only 10 games, Baughan retired from the NFL. But his contractual rights were traded in 1971 to Washington — where Allen had just gone off to work. That deal included Baughan going with Jack Pardee, Myron Pottios, Diron Talbert, John Wilbur, Jeff Jordan and a 1971 fifth-round pick to the Redskins for Marlin McKeever, first- and third-round picks in 1971 (which turned out to be Isiah Robertson and Dave Elmendorf), plus five-more draft picks. After two years as a defensive coordinator at his alma mater, Georgia Tech, Baughan was coaxed by Allen to become a player-coach with his Redskins in 1974 at age 36 for one last season. He was up for Pro Football Hall of Fame considerations in 2025.
Nolan Ryan: California Angels Maury Wills: Los Angeles Dodgers Rogie Vachon: Los Angeles Kings Bo Kimble: USC, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles Clippers Steve Bilko: Los Angeles Angels PCL Nneka Ogwumike: Los Angeles Sparks Dave Roberts: Los Angeles Dodgers Lawrence McCutcheon: Los Angeles Rams Tracy Murray: UCLA basketball
The most obvious choices for No. 44:
Jerry West: Los Angeles Lakers Reggie Jackson: California Angels Darryl Strawberry: Los Angeles Dodgers Gaston Green: UCLA football Hank Gathers: USC, Loyola Marymount basketball Cynthia Cooper: USC women’s basketball
The most interesting stories for Nos. 30 and 44: Bo Kimble:USC basketball guard (1985-86), Loyola Marymount basketball guard (1987-88 to 1989-90), Los Angeles Clippers guard (1990-91 to 1991-92) Hank Gathers: USC basketball forward (1985-86), Loyola Marymount basketball forward (1987-88 to 1989-90). Southern California map pinpoints: Westchester, Long Beach Sports Arena, L.A. Sports Arena
Bo Kimble shot from the hip launching into a 2015 essay for The Players Tribune with this revelation:
There was a time when all I wanted was to be wherever Hank Gathers wasn’t.
In this 49-year-old version of Kimble, at a point when it was 25 years removed when he last saw Gathers alive, he was just being honest.
When they first met as 13 year olds and played high school ball together at Dobbins Tech in Philadelphia, eventually winning a Public League City title in 1985, “it was hard for us to share” the basketball, Kimble explained.
Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble pose in 1990 with their high school jackets. (Peter Reade Miller/NBAE via Getty Images)
But when USC showed an interest in the 6-foot-7 forward Gathers, and assistant coach David Spencer came all the way East to convince him to leave home and travel 3,000 miles to be part of a roster with some highly-recruited freshman for head coach Stan Morrison, the 6-foot-5 swingman Kimble thought it over as well. He also liked Spencer. He decided to follow Gathers.
It was a good fit.
The Trojans finished last in the Pac-10 during their freshman season, yet “Hank and I didn’t want to leave … We loved USC,” Kimble continued. But when USC had decided to replace Morrison, as well as Spencer, with a new voice — tried-and-true Philadelphia-native George Raveling — Kimble and Gathers did their due diligence.
A bit farther West of USC’s downtown campus was Loyola Marymount University in Westchester, and a another Philly native, Paul Westhead, was performing his magic act.
A player revolt had exiled Westhead from the head coaching job with the Los Angeles Lakers just 18 months after he guided them to an NBA championship in 1980. College was where he was a better fit as a teacher, including a nine-year run at LaSalle in Philadelphia that led to two NCAA Tournament appearances.
Professor Westhead was back in the college game experimenting with this insanely unique style of play — time-is-of-the essence, maximize-the-shot-clock, go-go-go basketball. The recruits at this otherwise docile Catholic university near the ocean were buying into it.
For Kimble and Gathers, this was another very good fit.
Even though they wanted separate housing, separate classes, and separate friends. In preseason pick up games, they even wanted to be on separate teams, neither one allowing the other to win.
But during the games that counted at LMU, they counted on either other. They were inseparable.
“Running the floor coast-to-coast, lots of touches, lots of shots — it was a dream offense,” Kimble said about this calculated full-court press that forced turnovers, fast breaking off rebounds on prescribed routes, shooting the ball somewhere, somehow within seven seconds of gaining possession, and simply wearing the opponents down.
As good a fit it was for Gathers and Kimble, it gave the opponents fits.
In their sophomore season, as LMU averaged an NCAA-record 110.3 points a contest, Kimble and Gathers accounted for 45 points a game. They made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. As juniors, Gathers somehow led the NCAA with both a 32.7 points per game average (with 1,015 points) and 13.7 rebounds a game, many of them on the offensive end, leading to put-back baskets. Again, LMU recorded a record 112.5 points a game. But the team didn’t make it past the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
As seniors, Kimble and Gathers stepped it up and increased the tempo, their bodies used to this rigor. With teammate Jeff Fryer deadly from 3-point land, LMU cranked it up to a ridiculous 122.4 points a 40-minute game at a time when most teams were fortunate to break 60.
Hank Gathers during a layup drill before a 1990 game. (Mike Powell/Getty Images)
Kimble became the WCC Player of the Year with a nation-leading 35.5 points a game average and a school record 1,131 points – again, the only player in the country scoring more than 1,000 points.
“I never wanted to lead the nation in scoring until Hank did it,” Kimble said. “We made each other better.”
Gathers’ 29.0 points a game was sixth-best in the country. He had a conference-best 10.8 rebounds a game. Both were consensus second-team All-Americans.
“From high school to USC to Loyola Marymount, Hank and I continued to thrive together. Everything seemed perfect,” Kimble went on with his story.
March Madness was coming in like a lion — a roaring group of Lions. Westhead’s team had secured another WCC regular-season conference title, held a Top 20 ranking since New Year’s Day and was building up to the 1990 NCAA Tournament for Gathers’ and Kimble’s final college season.
“When I watch a game on television, and see a team meandering up the floor on offense, then meandering down on defense, it’s only playing half the game,” Westhead was quoted during that ’90 season. “I think you should play a full game. Time is precious.”
Westhead, Kimble, Gathers, their teammates, and the rest of the college basketball would would soon understand those last three words on a much more profound level.
Tim Brown, Los Angeles Raiders Dick “Night Train” Lane, Los Angeles Rams Ron Jessie, Los Angeles Rams
The no-so obvious choices for No. 81:
Don Hardy, USC football Mike Williams, Los Angeles Chargers
The most interesting story for No. 81 Dick “Night Train” Lane, Los Angeles Rams right defensive halfback (1952 to 1953) Southern California map pinpoints: Los Angeles Coliseum, Redlands
On a summer day in 1952, the 24-year-old Army veteran named Richard Lane worked up the courage to walk into the Los Angeles Rams’ offices at 7813 Beverly Boulevard, right across the street from the new CBS Television City, where Gilmore Stadium once sat near the famous Farmer’s Market complex.
Under his arm was a scrapbook of all the stories and photos that documented the football he had played in his lifetime — high school, junior college, U.S. Army military base.
At the very least, someone working for the defending NFL champs could find a job for him. Maybe even give him a tryout.
The idea struck him since he passed by the team’s headquarters every day when he rode the bus to his job at an aircraft plant. He had moved to Southern California looking for work, and the best he could find was lifting heavy, oily sheets of metal out of a bin and placing them on a press. He took that job because it had the description of a “filer,” thinking it would mean an office clerk.
Lane had filed away the idea that the Rams, a team very proactive in finding talented African-American players since their move to L.A. in the late ’40s and having recruited former UCLA star Kenny Washington, would be his best chance for a pro career.
Darned if it didn’t work.
Even though the train left the station too early for SoCal Rams fans to fully appreciate what Dick “Night Train” Lane could accomplish before he created a Pro Football Hall of Fame, it all started on his bold move to make a case for himself. He had survived this far against far greater odds.
The African-American stars of the 1953 Los Angeles Rams: Dick “Night Train” Lane, Deacon Dan Towler, Tank Younger, Woodley Lewis and Hank Thompson (Getty Images)Continue reading “No. 81: Dick “Night Train” Lane”→
