Author: fartheroffthewall

This post is part of a media project called 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 consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.

The most obvious choices for No. 83:

Willie “Flipper” Anderson: UCLA football, Los Angeles Rams
Ted “The Mad Stork” Hendricks: Los Angeles Raiders
Richard “Batman” Wood: USC football

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 83:

Jimmy Gunn: USC football
Cormac Carney: UCLA football
Willie Hall: USC football

The most interesting story for No. 83:
Cormac Carney, UCLA football wide receiver (1980 to 1982) via St. Anthony High in Long Beach
Southern California map pinpoints:
Long Beach, Westwood, Santa Ana

Judging by Cormac Carney’s commitment to competent jurisprudence, a career he took for three decades until his retirement in May of 2024, you’d think the one-time UCLA wide receiver would be satisfied with his dedication to public service.

On one scale, President George W. Bush thought enough of Carney to nominate him as a U.S. federal district judge, receiving unanimous approval by the U.S. Senate. It was a promotion after just two years as a California state superior court judge.

On the other side, Kamala Harris once thought enough of Carney to wonder what the heck he was thinking when he tried to apply the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment to a particular death penalty case that seemed to usurp her role as the California attorney general. California Governor Gavin Newsom thought the same when his bill limiting handgun ownership was squashed by Carney, citing the Second Amendment.

The catch here: Carney had an overarching dream to be a football player. But as he compiled 108 catches for 1,909 yards and eight touchdowns during three seasons as UCLA –leaving the program as a career leader in several categories in the early 1980s — Carney was also a three-time Academic All-American and nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship.

There are notable examples of footballers-turned-adjudicators — Byron “Whizzer” White, the University of Colorado’s first All-American who is not only in the College Football Hall of Fame but served more than 30 years as a U.S. Supreme Court justice; Alan Page, the first African-American to become a Minnesota Supreme Court judge after his NFL Hall of Fame career as a defensive tackle with the Vikings.

Then there was Cormac Carney, a name best suited to describe an overloaded chili dog special on the menu at Barney’s Beanery.

Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray once wrote: “(His name) is like a diesel train. You can’t tell which is the front end. You can’t tell whether it’s coming or going. … Is it a real name? You roll it around on your tongue like an Elizabethan iamb.”

His teammates were apt to call him “Cormac the Magnificent,” riffing off the character that “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson used for his running joke of the fortune teller “Carnac the Magnificent.”

Carney made a name for himself in Westwood and that helped if he was ever full of beans while grilled by the media, or later challenged by an appellant court just for one of his many rulings.

This post is part of a media project called 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 consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.

The most obvious choices for No. 20:

Luc Robitaille, Los Angeles Kings
Don Sutton, Los Angeles Dodgers and California Angels
Mike Garrett, USC football

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 20:
Leon Wood, Cal State Fullerton basketball
Carlos Ruiz, Los Angeles Galaxy

The most interesting story for No. 20:
Darryl Henley, Los Angeles Rams defensive back (1989 to 1994), via Damien High in La Verne and UCLA
Southern California map pinpoints:
Baldwin Villages, Duarte, Ontario, Upland, La Verne, Westwood, Anaheim, Brea, Santa Ana

Reference books on the subject:
“Intercepted: The Rise and Fall of NFL Cornerback Darryl Henley,” by Michael McKnight, 2012

Take the concept of “Twenty Questions” as a way to question just what happened to Darryl Henley, an Inland Empire high school standout who went from a first-team All-American defensive back at UCLA to six seasons with the Los Angeles Rams before he was handed consecutive prison sentences of about 20 years each by the end of the 1990s.

It’s ready made for a true-crime podcaster, but the facts a bit more complicated and nuanced. The defense hasn’t rested.

As Henley was released from prison in March of 2024, serving the bulk of a 41-year, three-month sentence that was to have timed out in 2031, consider how the result of a complicated guilty verdict from a trial he endured for drug trafficking on top of a plea agreement for conspiracy to murder a federal judge has actually played out in the court of public opinion:

This post is part of a media project called 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 consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.

The most obvious choices for No. 14:

Mike Scioscia, Los Angeles Dodgers; Anaheim Angels manager
Gil Hodges, Los Angeles Dodgers
Sam Darnold, USC football
Johan Cruyff, Los Angeles Aztecs
Drew Olson, UCLA football

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 14:

Robbie Rogers: Los Angeles Galaxy
Tom Ramsey: UCLA football
Justin Williams: Los Angeles Kings
Edson Buddle: Los Angeles Galaxy
Sam Perkins: Los Angeles Lakers
Tina Thompson: USC women’s basketball
Rick Adelman: Loyola University men’s basketball
Lou “The Mad Russian” Novikoff: Los Angeles Angels PCL baseball

The most interesting story for No. 14:
Ted Tollner, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo football quarterback (1958 to 1961), USC head football coach (1983 to 1986)
Southern California map pinpoints:
San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles (Coliseum), Anaheim

Author’s note: San Luis Obispo is commonly considered part of Southern California due to its proximity to Los Angeles. Geographically, it falls within the state’s Central Coast region. For our purposes, it works as a SoCal story.

Survive and advance was one way to summarize Ted Tollner’s career as a college and NFL football coach for more than 30 years of his life.

Four of them most notably came when he stepped up and into the legendary lineage of USC’s head man. In his time as the successor to John Robinson between 1984 and ’86, a 26-20-1 record and three bowl appearances, most notable winning the 1985 Rose Bowl in his second season after clinching the Pac-10 title with a 7-1 mark, highlighted his resume before he re-emerged for eight seasons at San Diego State.

Two of his 15 years as an NFL assistant were as the quarterbacks coach for Chuck Knox’s Los Angeles Rams. As the team planted itself in Anaheim, and Jim Everett was Tollner’s main pupil, the teams were hardly spectacular, spurting to 6-10 and 5-11 finishes in 1992 and ’93.

Yet anytime Tollner needed a tolerant reminder that just being on the sidelines and watching a scoreboard clock ticking down was a blessing, even if his left ankle was starting to get a little cranky, he could flash back the time in his life when he was the All-Conference quarterback at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, wearing No. 14.

On a Saturday afternoon, Oct. 29, 1960, Tollner had perhaps his most notable game when he threw for a career-best and school-record 246 yards. It was a bit of an afterthought in that his team list, 50-6 loss, at No. 4 Bowling Green, dropping the Mustangs to 1-5.

That evening, as Tollner and his teammates were wearily boarding a plane to fly back home, something terrible happened.

Their aircraft wrecked on takeoff out of Toledo, Ohio, flipping over and bursting into flames.

It was the first airline crash involving a U.S. sports team.

Of the 22 who died, 16 were Tollner’s teammates. They were in the front of the plane. Tollner was one of 26 survivors, because he agreed to switch seats at the last minute and was sitting in the back.

“Anytime I’m feeling sorry for myself, whether it’s from getting fired or losing a game, (the tragedy) has been my strength,” Tollner would say again and again. “You’re here for whatever reason and getting an opportunity to do something good. I’ve drawn strength from it — for whatever reason you’re spared, so make it a positive thing.”