Tag: ncaa

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. 68:
= Keith Van Horn, USC football
= Mike McKeever, USC football
= Frank Cornish, UCLA football
= Ross Stripling, Los Angeles Dodgers

The most obvious choices for No. 86:
= Marlin McKeever, USC football, Los Angeles Rams
= Jack Bighead, Pepperdine football; Los Angeles Rams

The most interesting story for No. 68 and No. 86:
= Mike McKeever, USC football offensive and defensive guard (1957 to 1960)
= Marlin McKeever, USC football offensive and defensive end / fullback / punter (1957 to 1960); Los Angeles Rams tight end / linebacker (1961 to 1966, 1971 to 1972).

Southern California map pinpoints:
South Los Angeles, the Coliseum, Montebello, Long Beach

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You betcha, the way Marlin and Mike McKeever’s lives started made for a nifty ice breaker when Groucho Marx had them on his TV show in March of 1961.

So it was during a blizzard on New Year’s Day 1940, on the plains in Cheyenne, Wyoming, when Marlin arrived first. Mike followed 10 minutes later.

The thing is, their parents were told by the doctor to only expect a girl. Just one at that.

“They already named her — Mary Ann I believe,” Mike told Groucho with a chuckle as he and Marlin, along with their new brides, Judy and Susie, made to NBC Studios in Hollywood for a filming of what was then called “The Groucho Show,” an offshoot of the more famous title “You Bet Your Life.”

Their days as USC All-American football giants had just ended. When the 1960 season ended, they had a double wedding ceremony at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in L.A., just blocks away from the USC campus. Later that month, they were drafted by the Los Angeles Rams.

Groucho Marx took a puff of his cigar, sized up the pair of crew-cut, 6-foot-1 and 225-pounders, and remarked: “Imagine getting all set for a baby girl named Mary Ann and suddenly these two show up.”

Groucho was fascinated with how their parents distinguished the two. Marlin said it was by writing their names in Mercurochrome on their stomachs.

“How do you know they weren’t confused?” Groucho asked. “How do you know they didn’t paint the wrong name?”

Mike spoke up: “I’ve thought about that — it’s pretty depressing so I don’t think about it too much.”

Added Marlin: “He can’t think too much, that’s the problem.”

Suddenly, they were the Smothers Brothers.

As Marlin’s wife Susie listed all the twins’ list of achievements at USC, Groucho had to ask: “Well how do you know all this?”

“I kept a scrapbook,” she replied.

A stuffed duck looking like Grouch dropped down from the ceiling to fanfare. She had said the secret word — book. When George Fenneman doled $50 each to the men, to split the $100 prize, they handed it over to their wives.

They were, after all, Academic All-Americans too.

The background

The McKeevers were most definitely the biggest men on campus at Mount Carmel High in South L.A. from 1953 to ’57.

The all-boys Catholic school took over 70th Street between Hoover and Vermont, just 20 years old at the time. The Carmelite Order that would later found Crespi High in Encino made sports an integral part of its curriculum to attract students.

Continue reading “Nos. 68 and 86: Mike and Marlin McKeever” →

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. 1:
= Rod Dedeaux: USC baseball
= Pee Wee Reese: Los Angeles Dodgers
= James Harden: Los Angeles Clippers
= Jordan Farmar: Taft High School, UCLA basketball, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers
= Dorian Thompson-Robinson: UCLA football
= Mike Williams: USC football

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 1:
= Dot Richardson: UCLA softball
= Jonas Hiller: Anaheim Ducks
= Dusty Dvorak: USC men’s volleyball
= D’Angelo Russell: Los Angeles Lakers

The most interesting story for No. 1:
Rod Dedeaux: USC baseball coach (1950 to 1986) via Hollywood High
Southern California map pinpoints:
Hollywood; downtown Los Angeles (USC); Dodger Stadium

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Rod Dedeaux navigated the seats behind home plate at Rod Dedeaux Field on the USC campus in 2004, while the Trojans’ game against cross-town rival UCLA continued in the background.

He was the show at that moment. Fans came up to greet the then-90-year-old and see if there was any more wisdom to glean. Dedeaux tried to talk over the the music that a dozen school band members nearby created as it pushed through several versions of the school’s fight song as well as “Conquest.”

Once Dedeaux leaned on his cane – an actual Hillerich & Bradby wooden bat with a curved handle attached to the knob end, one of six that he has all filled with autographs — he could speak with more authority.

“I hate it with a passion,” Dedeaux admitted.

Not the cane, or the music, or how he trying to find a way to spend his retirement years. It was the ear-ringing sound — KLIIIINK! – when cowhide met up with an aluminum bat.

Dedeaux was not into heavy metal.

“I believe baseball should be played outdoors, on natural grass, with no DH and with wood bats,” he continued. “Do you agree? Sometimes I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness.”

The guy who wore No. 1 for five decades heading up a Trojans’ baseball program he once played for, as someone who represented a certain status in the college baseball world, Dedeaux said what needed to be said.

“KLINNNK!” went another ground out.

Listen, if John Wooden was practicing wizardry in Westwood for the good of UCLA and the future of college basketball, Dedeaux could resource his own sorcery in South L.A. to give college baseball its own prominent.

He didn’t speak softly as he wielded a big stick.

Some 20 years after Hollywood High School opened at the turn of the 20th Century, the administration decided it needed a fitting nickname for the sports teams that were now forming on campus.

The Sheiks sounded pretty chic.

It came about because of the 1921 popularity of Rudolph Valentino’s silent film, “The Sheik,” which propelled the so-called “Latin Lover” born in Italy to stardom. Valentino’s portrait would not only be apart of a famous mural among school alumni created on the theater arts building near the corner of Hollywood and Highland, but he would also be illustrated as the official mascot on the side of a building overlooking the school’s football field, letting visitors know they were entering “Sheik Territory.”

Valentino, who died just five years after the film’s release at age 31, adding to his mysterious legend, can’t be called the school’s most famous alum because — look it up — he never went there. At this point in time, he may not even be the most famous resident of the nearby Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland were Hollywood High classmates who graduated a year apart in the late 1930s. Other well-known Hollywood alums include Lon Chaney, John Huston, Fay Wray and Carole Lombard. Later came Lana Turner, Jason Robards, John Ritter, Carol Burnett, Ricky and David Nelson and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Rod Dedeaux, Class of ‘31 would eventually take center stage as, perhaps, the greatest athletic figure to ever come out of the school.

He was an All L.A. City High baseball selection in 1930 and ’31, and then a three-year letterman at USC as the starting shortstop from ’33 to ’35, earning All-Coast honors and captain of the team as a senior when it won its first conference title.

Casey Stengel, a local Glendale resident who had just finished his 14-year MLB career and was managing the Toledo Mud Hens at that time, had become Dedeaux’s mentor.

Dedeaux had actually skipped out on his USC graduation a few months earlier to join the Brooklyn Dodgers for workouts. He hit .290 at the Dodgers’ Dayton minor-league affiliate. He was called up, according to his SABR.org bio, as he “had been tapped by a struggling Dodgers organization as a prospect to watch.”

With Stengel as his Brooklyn manager, Dedeaux produced just one hit during the one game he started at shortstop with the Dodgers, in late September closing out the 1935 season. It was a seventh-inning RBI single against Philadelphia Phillies righthander Hal Kelleher at Ebbets Field. The second game of a double header on a Sunday afternoon, it was called after eight innings because of darkness tied at 4-4.

Coaching and playing for teams such as the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars, Los Angeles Angels and San Diego Padres after his MLB dreams diminish left Dedeaux available to USC during World War II, as several Trojans coaches were drafted for the cause.

Dedeaux started out sharing the leadership role with Sam Barry starting in 1942 and the arrangement lasted through 1950. The first of Dedeaux’s 11 national titles is with Barry in 1948. Others followed in ’58, ’61 and ’63 – parallel to the Dodgers’ success not far away at Chavez Ravine.

Dedeaux was already wearing his famous No. 1 jersey. Would it be something of a reminder that he only asked for $1 as an annual salary to coach the program? That would make sense.

“I always say everyone gets paid what they’re worth,” Dedeaux explained the arrangement. “I could cash my check on the bus.”

By investing $500 from his signing bonus with the Brooklyn Dodgers into a Chevy pickup, Dedeaux had already lauched a trucking firm in 1938 called DART – Dedeaux Automotive Repair and Transit. He did the delivery routes between his headquarters in City of Commerce and Albuquerque.

The Dedeaux-Stengel relationship would continue. And it would be so strong, word was that when Stengel was winning World Series titles with the New York Yankees in the 1950s, he tried to coax Dedeaux into leaving USC and join his staff so he could groom him as his successor.

“The Yankees were the pinnacle, my dream team,” Dedeaux once said, “but we had a young family, I was still getting the trucking business off the ground and I had loyalty to the people at USC was a difficult decision, but I just didn’t feel I could uproot everything we had started at that point.”

Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley would also admit that Dedeaux was considered as the Dodgers manager job in the mid-1970s, and eventual Walter Alston successor Tommy Lasorda had tried to bring Dedeaux in as his coach.

By then, Dedeaux was in deep with the Trojans. He ran off six more titles from 1968 to 1974, including five in a row. The ’73 title happened because of a notable come-from-behind win in the semifinals against Minnesota and pitcher Dave Winfield, who took a one hitter into the ninth inning with a 7-0 lead.

“And it was quite a testy feud going on,” Dedeaux recalled about that game. “The Minnesota head coach had been ejected. The assistant coach later blamed himself–those were his words in the papers the next day–because they were kind of rubbing it in. There was kind of a verbal barrage going on.

“They were bunting to score more runs. We were telling ‘em, ‘You’ve got to play nine innings, you’re not playing Manitoba Tech, you’re playing the Trojans.’

“And we scored eight runs on ‘em in the bottom of the ninth, all earned. I can almost remember it blow by blow. Creighton Tevlin got an infield hit with one out. There was a key double by Fred Lynn. Richie Dauer got a big hit.

“Everybody had gone home. The place had been packed. Then as they were listening to the radio and started hearing the Trojans were rallying–we were known for our rallies–they started turning around to get back in the park. They said it was the worst traffic jam in Omaha history. People just left their cars where they were and ran into the ballpark.

“They had always booed us back there. We won pretty consistently. What was unbelievable about that was that we got a standing ovation. That was the first time they’d ever clapped for us.

“There were 5,000 people giving us a standing ovation and we said, ‘Man, history has really been made.’ The next day we came out to play the final game and damn it, they booed us! I said, ‘What happened to those 5,000 people?’”

Dedeaux retired in 1986 as the winningest coach in college baseball with 1,322 victories against just 571 losses and 11 ties, one percentage point short of .700.

The proof of the success were the nearly 200 of players who went to the major leagues, including Hall of Famers Tom Seaver and Randy Johnson. It says so on the one and only Topps baseball card made for him as he recruited to coach the U.S. team that played in the 1984 Olympics at Dodger Stadium as a demonstration sport. One of his key players was Trojans first baseman Mark McGwire as the team won a silver medal.

Not to mention one of Dedeaux’s first USC batboys, Sparky Anderson, became a Hall of Fame manager. In the 1979 MLB All-Star Game, four of Dedeaux’s former players were on the rosters – Fred Lynn, Dave Kingman, Roy Smalley and Steve Kemp.

A 2011 book, “Never Make the Same Mistake Once,” holds together Dedeaux’s quips and strategies as a way of setting goals in life that also related to his business, Dedeaux Properties, which Dedeaux expanded to in 2006 based in Santa Monica.

It is now run by his son, Terry Dedeaux, chairman of the Dart Warehouse Corp., who played at USC, as did Dedeaux’s other son, Justin.

Rod Dedeaux had graduated from USC with a bachelor’s degree in business and was president of his Delta Chi fraternity.

A charter member of the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994, Dedeaux is remembered not just by having his name on the Trojans’ baseball park since its 1974 opening — where a no-hitter by USC’s Russ McQueen was thrown on the day it was christened on the corner of Vermont and Jefferson.

A Dedeaux statue was planted outside the entrance in 2014, eight years after his death at age 91. At the base of it is the phrase, “Hi Tigers” – the nickname Dedeaux would address almost everyone he knew to make up for the likelihood that he couldn’t remember their name.

“If you were to look in Rod’s dictionary,” Ron Fairly once said, “I think you’d find several definitions for the word ‘tiger.’ He could compliment you with the way he said it or he could say it in a way that let you know you’d made a mistake.”

Added Tom House, a Trojans player who became an outstanding pitching coach with Texas: “With Rod, everybody’s Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. I can still remember his sayings: ‘If he was good enough to beat a Trojan, he’d be a Trojan.’ And ‘Move those puppies, Tiger'”

No one forgot Dedeaux’s name.

“The very first name, the unanimous pick, the greatest coach in USC history was Rod Dedeaux,” then USC athletic director and former Trojans quarterback Pat Haden said at the statue ceremony.

Dedeaux enjoyed bringing players from USC’s other sports onto his diamond – Bill Sharman, Mike Garrett, Willie Brown, Anthony Davis, Anthony Munoz, Jack Del Rio and Rodney Peete. At the time of his death, Dedeaux’s grandson, Adam Dedeaux, was a Trojans freshman first baseman and outfielder.

Of course, Dedeaux couldn’t escape Hollywood. He became the  technical director and consultant for “Field of Dreams” and “A League of Their Own,” the later of which involved him judging the talent of actresses who would play roles of Women’s Professional Baseball League players from the 1940s.

When USC announced his passing in a press release, it included some of Dedeaux’s most famous remarks. Such as:

On John Wooden: “I think we have a mutual admiration society. He would send me a personal letter every time we won a championship, and I respected the way his teams played as much as he would let me know how much he respected the way we played. I think character, discipline, attention to details were important to us. Play sloppy and you lose. I never believed what Leo Durocher said about good guys finishing last, and I’m sure Coach Wooden didn’t as well.”

On Casey Stengel: “Many years ago, I figured that Casey had the best brain in baseball. That was long before his success with the Yankees. It was always his philosophy that the ability to teach the game of baseball is the ability to sell it. If you believe that what you’re doing is worthwhile, you’ll succeed … People talked about Stengelese, but I understood every word. Of course, I’d occasionally wonder if there was something wrong with me because I was the only person in our group who did understand.”

On what it takes to be successful: “First, you have to play smart, in baseball and business. If you learn to do things right all the time, it doesn’t matter who you are playing or negotiating with. Secondly, stay loose. When we work, we work hard. But we have fun, too. A little clowning always helps.”

In 2004, Ross Newhan of the Los Angeles Times quoted Tommy Lasorda as saying on the occasion of Dedeaux’s 90^th birthday: “The guy is amazing, one of a kind. No matter where we go, he never stops. He always maintains that enthusiasm. When the great Dodger in the sky finally summons him, they should send his body to the Smithsonian.”

Dedeaux and his wife Helen are buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills. That makes more sense and sensibility.

And that way, he could always keep his roots in Hollywood, perhaps even more famous than some of his silver-screen classmates.

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Who else wore No. 1 in SoCal sports history?
Make a case for:

Jordan Farmar, Taft High guard (2003 to 2004), UCLA basketball guard (2004-05 to 2005-06), Los Angeles Lakers guard (2009-10 and 2013-14), Los Angeles Clippers guard (2014-15):

He put himself on the map scoring 54 points in a game as a high school junior at Taft when he led the school to the L.A. City title as a senior. In scoring more than 2,000 points in just those two seasons, the CIF City Section Player of the Year also made it big at in the McDonald’s High School American game. At UCLA, he became All-Pac 10 averaging 13.3 points in two seasons and leading the Bruins to the 2006 NCAA title game against Florida. Declaring for the NBA draft, his hometown Lakers took him 26th overall and he played on two NBA title teams. Note: He also wore No. 5 for the Lakers from 2006-07 to 2008-09.

Pee Wee Reese, Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop/third baseman (1958):

The Brooklyn Dodgers’ captain, a 10-time NL All Star and eventual Baseball Hall of Famer (voted in 1984, when his No. 1 was retired), made the trip to Los Angeles for one year, a carry-over from 15 previous years in Brooklyn as Jackie Robinson’s cherished teammate. As his new baseball card shows, he wasn’t just playing shortstop, yielding more playing time to Charlie Neal and Don Zimmer, and helping to groom Maury Wills. At 39, Reese hit just .224 in 59 games for the ’58 team. He stayed on in ’59 as a coach, earning a World Series ring, and then got into broadcasting with CBS.

Bill Grabarkewitz, Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop (1969 to 1972), California Angels (1973):

Securing the No. 1 for a short time before it was officially retired, Grabarkewitz said Reese was one of his Brooklyn Dodger favorites growing up and seeing him in the 1956 World Series, and Duke Snider was his first manager in the Dodgers’ organization for the Tri-City (Pasco, Washington) Atoms in the Northwest League. In 1970, Grabarkewitz came up from Triple A five games into the MLB season and hit his first home run — and the team’s first of the season — on April 12 against San Diego and finished with a .429 batting average in April. He was picked as a reserve on the NL All Star team by manager Gil Hodges and he lined a single to left in the 12th inning that led to the legendary Pete Rose-Ray Fosse home-plate collision that gave the NL a 5-4 win. He led the Dodgers in nearly every offensive category—including a team-best 17 homers— but injuries set him back for several seasons. In the 1972 spring training, Grabarkewitz competed with Steve Garvey and Ron Cey for the third base job and its marked the first year in which the franchise put players’ names on uniforms. That gave Grabarkewitz a sense of security: “If the Dodgers go to the expense of putting my name on the back of a uniform, I know darn well they aren’t going to trade me,”  he said. Yet, they did.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson, UCLA football quarterback (2018 to 2021):

The ability to have an extra year because of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed DTR to throw for more than 10,000 yards in five seasons and amass 88 touchdowns (against 36 interceptions) with a lifetime quarterback rating of 145.6. He also ran 471 times for 1,826 yards and 28 touchdowns — accounting for more than 100 TDs in his career. Heavily recruited out of Las Vegas, DTR was a two-time, All-Pac-12 second team member. He posted a UCLA record 564 total yards and accounted for seven touchdowns (five passing and two running) in a 67-63 comeback win over Washington State as a sophomore. He also generated 431 yards of total offense in UCLA’s win over USC that year. UCLA had a 24-24 record with him as a starter and he became a fifth-round pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 2023 NFL Draft.

James Harden, Los Angeles Clippers guard (2023-24 to present):

The Clippers worked their way through a three-team trade in November of 2023 with Philadelphia and Oklahoma City involving a mess of draft picks, to save the L.A. born and former Artesia High of Lakewood standout (who wore No. 13) from his latest crash-and-burn with the Sixers. Who had rescued him a couple seasons earlier from Brooklyn. Who had accepted him from Houston, which made made him an All-Star in his first season with them in as a 23-year-old after Oklahoma City thought he was move valuable as a sixth man. The 10-time All Star who led the NBA three times in 3-pointers attempted and made, securing the 2017-18 MVP Award, being a runner-up three times, and being named on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2022. After the Clippers won their 23rd game over a 30-game stretch, and Harden averaged 16.9 points, 8.4 assists and 4.6 rebounds over that time, he and his beard seem content meshing with Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. “I’m here, home,” he said. “We have an opportunity. I want to be able to keep the core together for a few years and I haven’t had those opportunities the last few years. So things are going well and I’m happy.”

D’Angelo Russell, Los Angeles Lakers guard (2015-’16 to ’16-’17, and 2022-’23 to ’24-’25):

The Lakers second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft out of Ohio State became the youngest player in franchise history to post a 40-point game – against LeBron James and Cleveland in March of 2017. So why was he traded away months later, at age 20? The Lakers apparently weren’t happy with his maturity. So why was he worth bringing back in February 2023, at age 26? The team needed some experienced talent and maybe he was a better fit with James as a teammate. Russell had a career playoff high of 31 points in a Western Conference first-round match up against Memphis in April, ’23. But when the Lakers pulled out a 145-144 double OT win at Golden State on Jan. 27, 2024, secured only after a last-second heave by Steph Curry came up several feet short, Russell, who had a team-high 28 points in the win playing 49 minutes, punted the ball into the stands as it was coming down under the basket. The NBA hit him with a $15,000 fine for that fine move. In December of ’24, the Lakers traded the 28-year-old back to Brooklyn.

Roch Cholowsky, UCLA baseball shortstop (2024 to present): The Gatorade Arizona Baseball Player of the Year in high school gravitated to UCLA when he went undrafted, hit .308 with eight home runs and 33 RBIs as a freshman, and followed that up as a sophomore hitting .367 with 23 homers and 73 RBIs and a conference best .742 slugging percentage with 90 runs scored. His 23 home runs were the most by a Bruin since 2000. In the field, he has committed only seven errors on 297 chances. He was named the Big Ten Conference Player of the Year, its Defensive Player of the Year, was named the Brooks Wallace Award as the NCAA’s top shortstop of 2025, and helped lead UCLA to their first College World Series in 12 years. In the opening game against Murray State, UCLA has runners on first and third with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Cholowsky pulled off a safety squeeze to bring in a run, keeping a rally alive to give UCLA a 6-0 lead in the fifth inning. Bruins coach John Savage said Cholowsky did that on his own. “It’s a baseball play. How can you blame a guy for playing baseball?”

Dot Richardson, UCLA softball shortstop (1982 to 1983): A three-time UCLA MVP and NCAA All-American who helped the Bruins to their first NCAA title in 1982, Richardson became famous for hitting a game-winning home run to secure the U.S. gold medal in the 1996 Olympics. She was also on the 2000 gold medal U.S. team. She was named the NCAA softball player of the decade for the 1980s. The 1983 UCLA All-University Athlete co-winner was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996.

Dusty Dvorak, USC men’s volleyball setter (1977 to 1980): A four-time All American named Most Outstanding Player during the NCAA Tournament of 1980, when the Trojans won the title. He won an Olympic gold medal with the 1984 U.S. team and is in the International Volleyball Hall of Fame.

Brad Friedel, UCLA soccer goalkeeper (1990 to 1993): The first-team All-American in 1991 and ’92 won the Hermann Trophy in ’93 as the top collegiate player, three years after leading the team to an NCAA title. He left UCLA early to pursue an international pro career and ended up as the fourth-most capped goal keeper in U.S. national team history.

Efren Herrera, UCLA football (1971 to 1974): The Mexican-born player from La Puente High kicked a game-winning field goal with 20 seconds left to lift UCLA past two-time defending national champion Nebraska in the opening game of the ’72 season. He led the nation in scoring in’74 (84 points) and left the school as the NCAA leader in career points (368), also making 121 of 127 PATs. He was also a star forward on the UCLA men’s soccer team helping them to back-to-back title games in 1972 and ’73.

Jonas Hiller, Anaheim Ducks goalie (2007-08 to 2013-14): On Jan. 25, 2014, when the Ducks and Los Angeles Kings were required to play one of those outdoor “Stadium Series” games at Dodger Stadium, Hiller ended up pitching a 3-0 shutout with 36 saves. It was one of five shutouts he had that season before he left as a free agent to Calgary.

Zachariah Branch, USC football receiver/kick returner (2023 to present): The first true Trojan freshman to make a first-team All-American came as a result of averaging 31 yards a punt return in ’23, and scoring on both a punt and kickoff return. Quite a feat for a 5-foot-10, 175-pounder who can run a 1.44 second 10-yard split as well as bench press 350 pounds.

Have you heard the story

John Jackson, USC football receiver (1986 to 1989); USC baseball outfielder (1986 to 1989):

Inducted in 1989 into the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athletes wing, Jackson was the team leader in receiving (964) in 1989 and named First Team All-Pac-10. He had 163 career catches for 2,109 yards and 17 touchdowns. A two-time Academic All-American, he had a 3.3 GPA in finance. During his time as a USC game radio commentator, he recovered from a massive stroke and has been back doing the broadcasting work. The Bishop Amat High standout was also drafted by the San Francisco Giants out of USC and played five seasons in the minor leagues and also put in four seasons in the NFL with Phoenix and Chicago.

Mike Williams, USC football receiver (2002 to 2003): Eighth in the 2003 Heisman voting and first-team All-American, he also completed a touchdown pass to Matt Leinart in the 2004 Rose Bowl. After amassing 2,579 yards and 30 touchdowns in his first two years, Williams made a controversial decision to legally challenge the NCAA rule and declare for the NFL Draft. The NCAA did not allow players to declare NFL eligible until their third year out of high school, but Ohio State suspended running back Maurice Clarett filed the original suit to fight against it. They were allowed to go to the NFL, but an appeal over turned it, and the two were not only ineligible for the draft, but also ineligible for NCAA reinstatement, forcing them to sit the entire 2004 season. Detroit made Williams the 10^th overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft. After five seasons playing for four teams, including reuniting with USC coach Pete Carroll in Seattle where he made 23 starts, Williams got into coaching at Brentwood School, Locke High and Van Nuys High.

And shuffling two more cards

Aurelio Rodriguez, California Angels third baseman/shortstop (1968 to 1970): He came up with the team as a 19 year old from Mexico in 1967 wearing No. 12, then also No. 47. By the next year, he had No. 1. Before he was eventually traded to the Washington Senators for Ken McMullen in April of 1970, Rodriguez caused a buzz with his 1969 Topps baseball card when it was discovered that the photo of him wasn’t really of him. It was the Angels’ bat boy, Leonard Garcia, who happened to look like Rodríguez. According to Baseball Hall of Fame research: “For years, the 1969 Rodriguez card became a source of debate, with some in the industry claiming that the young third baseman had pulled a prank on Topps. Yet, there was no such evidence to indicate that Rodriguez had done anything nefarious. It is now generally believed that Topps somehow mixed in a photograph of batboy Garcia with the other photos in the Rodriguez file. Topps chose the Garcia photo, not realizing that he was the batboy, and not the Angels’ third baseman. In actuality, the error was somewhat understandable, because Garcia and Rodriguez did share some common facial traits.” This A-Rod never wore No. 1 again in the following 13 seasons, most notably with Detroit, where he got his first and only Gold Glove Award in 1976.

Joe Koppe, Los Angeles Angels infielder (1961 to 1965): Part of the original Angels roster, Koppe was about as average as possible — he had a 2.7 WAR and a .236 lifetime batting average in 578 games (372 wearing an Angels uniform. As his bio says in “The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book”: “If there’s one thing baseball has never been short of it’s wise guys. When was the last time you saw a left-handed shortstop anyway? (See card on the right). Another funny thing that Joe Koppe did was to change his name from Kopchia (which means schlemiel in Serbo-Croation) to Koppe (which means schmuck in Alsace-Lorraintian) so that nobody, even his relatives, knew whether to call him Kopay, Kopee, Cope or Cop. It didn’t matter all that much, of course, since nobody ever had occasion to mention him by name anyway.”

And here’s something you don’t see every day

Or this:

We also have:

Anthony Peeler, Los Angeles Lakers guard (1992-93 to 1995-96)
Smush Parker: Los Angeles Lakers guard (2005-06 to 2006-07); Los Angeles Clippers guard (2007-08)
Bobby Winkles, California Angels manager (1973 to 1974)
Jamie Storr,  Los Angeles Kings goalie (1995-96 to 2002-03). Also wore No. 31 in 1994-95
Bengie Molina, Anaheim Angels/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2000 to 2005)
Mike Lansford, Los Angeles Rams kicker (1983 to 1990)
Gary Edwards, Los Angeles Kings goalie (1971-72 to 1976-77)
Mario Lessard, Los Angeles Kings goalie (1978-79 to 1983-84)
Jack Campbell, Los Angeles Kings goalie (2016-17 to 2019-20)

Anyone else worth nominating?