Take a knee and remember these notable college football figures who died in 2022
Take a knee. It’s what we say when we stop to pray. It’s what we say when we need a break.
As we take a knee to remember the men whom college football lost this year, we need 2022 to take a knee. We need 2022 to stop. We need a year in which San Jose State freshman Candam McWright died in a traffic accident to stop. We need a year in which Mississippi State lost freshman offensive lineman Sam Westmoreland and coach Mike Leach to stop. We need a year in which Virginia players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry died after a class field trip to end; three Cavaliers with great promise on and off the field died a violent, tragic death. It has been a season of memories in Knoxville and Fort Worth, in West Lafayette and New Orleans. Here’s hoping that in 2023 the only memories made are of victories and championships.
The death of Mississippi State coach Mike Leach (December 12, age 61) stunned the college football community, in part because we had just seen the Bulldogs upset archrival Ole Miss two-and-a-half weeks earlier, in part because of Leach’s relative youth, and in part because of the realization that no football coach would ever pontificate about pirates or weddings or Geronimo again. Leach will be missed because he sounded like no other football coach ever. Perhaps it took someone who thinks that differently to revolutionize a sport. The Air Raid offense shows no signs of old age. Defenses know what’s coming. In that sense, maybe Leach is old-school. Defenses knew that Woody Hayes’ Ohio State teams would deliver three yards and a cloud of dust. They couldn’t stop that, either.
Vince Dooley (October 28, age 90) began his multitalented career by starring for Auburn in basketball and football, the latter well enough that he played in the 1954 College All-Star Game alongside Johnny Lattner of Notre Dame. Dooley intercepted a pass in a 31-6 loss to the Detroit Lions. Just 10 years later, he coached his first game at Georgia, a 31-3 loss to Alabama. Dooley won 201 games in 25 seasons, led Georgia to the 1980 national championship thanks to a stifling defense and a freshman running back named Herschel Walker, and won six SEC titles. Dooley remained at Georgia as athletic director into the 21st century. He also became a master horticulturist and a published historian. Multitalented career, indeed.
Charley Trippi (October 19, age 100), like many boys in the mid-20th century, played football to escape the coal mines of his native Pennsylvania. He went to Georgia because of the long arm of Atlanta-based Coca-Cola – a former Bulldog who owned the Wilkes-Barre bottler sent Trippi south. Trippi starred in the backfield with Heisman winner Frank Sinkwich on the 1942 Bulldogs team that went to the Rose Bowl. Trippi rushed for more than 100 yards in a 9-0 victory over UCLA. After the war, Trippi led the 1946 Dawgs to an 11-0 record, not good enough to overcome either Notre Dame or Army, which both went undefeated and tied one another, 0-0. I could go on, but it would be easier to tell you that Jim Thorpe, the greatest athlete of the 20th century, called Trippi “the greatest football player I’ve ever seen.”
Frank Beckmann (February 12, age 72) served as the radio voice of Michigan football for 33 seasons; that included 12 Big Ten championships, more than a few legendary players – Anthony Carter, Desmond Howard, a part-time starter named Tom Brady – and one memorable season, the 1997 national championship. From that season came a gem of a call. When cornerback Charles Woodson intercepted a pass in the end zone against archrival Ohio State, Beckmann shouted, “Intercepted by Charles Woodson! Polish off the Heisman. Make room on the mantle. Charles Woodson took it away!”
John Hadl (November 30, age 82) grew up in Lawrence, Kan., where he and his pals figured out how to sneak into Kansas football games at an early age. Hadl turned down a scholarship offer from Bud Wilkinson at the height of the Oklahoma dynasty to stay home and play running back for the Jayhawks. That’s right – the future College Football Hall of Fame quarterback didn’t play that position until his junior season, in 1960. In those one-platoon days, Hadl set school records for punting, returning kickoffs and interception returns. That move to quarterback? He became an All-American. All of which explains the statue of Hadl in front of the Kansas football building. He did pretty much everything a Jayhawk could do.
Lawrence Fan (February 21, age 67) served as San Jose State’s sports information director for more than 42 years. In 2021, the school honored him for working his 500th college football game. The numbers don’t begin to capture his enthusiasm, his passion, his unfailing good nature, which may have been difficult to maintain given San Jose State’s struggles on the field. From 1993 through 2010, the Spartans averaged fewer than four wins a season. Five years ago, when I began working on a piece for ESPN about the 1941 Spartans stranded in Honolulu after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Fan spent the day taking me around campus – to the chapel, to the library. He loved his job. He loved his school.
As a student at Notre Dame, Roger Valdiserri (June 2, age 95) worked for legendary coach Frank Leahy. As a sports information director at his alma mater, Valdiserri became forever linked to the great teams of Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz. It is Valdiserri who changed the pronunciation of quarterback Joe Theismann’s last name to rhyme with a certain trophy (the gimmick didn’t work – Theismann finished second to Jim Plunkett in 1970). It is Valdiserri who declared that USC tailback O.J. Simpson’s initials stood for “Oh, Jesus! There he goes again!” Valdiserri saw Notre Dame, warts and all, which made his love for his school stand out even more.
Linebacker Jim Lynch (July 21, age 76) and defensive lineman Ross Browner (January 4, age 68) played on two Notre Dame national champions back when the Fighting Irish finished No. 1 as a matter of course. Lynch became an integral piece of the resurrection orchestrated by Ara Parseghian that culminated in the 1966 national championship. The Irish finished No. 1 despite a 10-10 tie with Michigan State, a game that Lynch described to author Steve Delsohn as “bone on bone.” Browner started as a freshman on the 1973 Irish team that beat Alabama 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl that remains on the short list of the most thrilling national championship games. As a senior, Browner made 97 tackles, recovered four fumbles and won the 1976 Outland Trophy. They don’t make Notre Dame teams like those anymore.
Marvin Powell (September 30, age 67) grew up in North Carolina, but turned down offers to play ACC basketball to play the offensive line at USC. At 6 feet 5 and 265 pounds, he had the size for both sports; Powell chose football for its militaristic aspects. His father, an Army first sergeant, fought at Normandy, in Korea, and in Vietnam (twice). Powell played so well as a freshman that he earned playing time on the 1974 USC team that shared the national championship with Oklahoma. The next three seasons, Powell made All-Pac-8. The last two seasons, he made All-America. Coach John McKay compared Powell to Ron Yary, who won the 1967 Outland Trophy as a Trojan. To McKay, there could be no higher praise.
In the first game of his junior season in 1971, Ray Guy (November 3, age 72) kicked three field goals to lead Southern Miss to a 16-14 victory over Southeastern Louisiana. In the last game of his freshman season, Guy, who played safety, intercepted three passes in the Golden Eagles’ 35-0 rout of West Texas State. It turns out that Guy could punt some, too. He led the nation as a senior with an average of 46.2 yards per punt. Guy averaged 44.7 yards per punt over his career, which would have been an NCAA record if he had punted enough to meet the minimum. Guy became the first punter taken in the first round of the NFL draft. The annual award to honor the best college punter makes us remember Ray Guy every season.
No one ever wielded the steely-eyed stare as adeptly as Jake Crouthamel (November 6, age 84). The athletic director at Syracuse for 27 years could be as direct as a stiff arm. In 2003, when Boston College ditched the Big East Conference that he helped found for the ACC, Crouthamel said, “I guess handshakes don’t count for much anymore,” in a tone that suggested Clint Eastwood. Crouthamel was known for short-sleeved dress shirts, smoking Winstons and, once you got beyond the stare, being a very smart, stand-up guy. He starred at running back for the 1958 Dartmouth team that won the Ivy League. Crouthamel coached his alma mater (41-20-2, 1971-77) to four Ivy titles before leaving for Syracuse. He’s also the answer to a trivia question – name the first player signed by the Dallas Cowboys.
Washington Huskies star Hugh McElhenny (June 17, age 93) ran by instinct. “He was a free spirit, often goofed off during the week and was called on the carpet,” John Jarstad, the radio voice of the Huskies when McElhenny played, once said. “What he did on Saturdays wasn’t taught. It came straight down from heaven.” McElhenny was so good that he ran for 296 yards and scored five touchdowns in the 1950 Apple Cup. The next year, as a senior, McElhenny was so good that he finished eighth in the Heisman vote on a team that went 3-6-1. He is remembered most on Montlake for a 100-yard punt return against USC in 1951, especially because the coaches told him to let the punt go into the end zone. McElhenny didn’t do what they told him on Saturdays, either.
When Barry Switzer dubs you “as entertaining a person as you’ll ever meet,” that is a high honor. Larry Lacewell (May 17, age 85) had friends all over the sport, mostly because he liked people. Lacewell, like Switzer, grew up in Arkansas; in fact, he grew up in Fordyce, the same town that produced Bear Bryant, a high school teammate of Lacewell’s father. Lacewell began his coaching career as a grad assistant for Bryant at Alabama in 1959. He cemented his legacy as an assistant for Switzer at Oklahoma when he recruited the Selmon brothers (Lucious and the twins, Dewey and Lee Roy) to play for the Sooners. All three became All-Americans. He coached Arkansas State for 11 seasons (69-58-4), and made the FCS playoffs four times, including a championship game loss in 1986.
Gary Moeller (July 11, age 81) coached Illinois for three seasons in the late 1970s and won a total of six games. But no one paused when in 1990 Moeller stepped up from being Michigan’s offensive coordinator to take over for the sainted Bo Schembechler. In five seasons, Moeller went 44-13-3 (.758) and led the Wolverines to three Big Ten championships. In those five seasons, Michigan won only two of 12 games (2-7-3) decided by four or fewer points. The most painful loss came in 1994, his last season, when Michigan lost to Colorado on Kordell Stewart’s 64-yard Hail Mary to Michael Westbrook, a Detroit native. In the spring of 1995, Moeller resigned after an arrest for disorderly conduct. The outpouring of sentiment upon his death indicated how Michigan loved him, in bad times and good.
Before the Immaculate Reception, or the four Super Bowl victories, or a statue in the Pittsburgh airport, there was Franco Harris (December 20, age 72), the Penn State fullback with the hard head. When Harris wasn’t opening holes for All-American halfback Lydell Mitchell, he was showing up on his own timetable. After he reported late to two straight practices before the 1972 Cotton Bowl, Joe Paterno benched his senior star; while Mitchell ran 27 times for 146 yards and a touchdown, Harris got only 11 carries in the Nittany Lions’ 30-6 rout of Texas. Harris got the message, and years after he became an NFL legend, no one loved Paterno more or defended him more vigorously in the Jerry Sandusky scandal.