SIPA: Many of you probably know that we lost former Basketball star John Rudometkin last Tuesday at age 75. Sadly, another Trojan great, Ted Gossard passed away on March 31st. Ted was a close friend of mine who had a huge impact on my life...won't bore you with the details, but he was the Captain of the 1943 Trojan team and an All-American. From 1932-1942, USC beat ucla a record of 42 TIMES STRAIGHT!!! Ted was on two of those teams, but sadly, as I reminded him once in a while, he was also on the team that lost to them in the 43rd game. After college, he went into the Marines and came out and became a high school teacher and coach. I met him when they opened a new high school, Aviation High School in Redondo Beach. Ted was the Vice Principal when the school first opened and I was a Freshman. He later became Principal and after I graduated from college, he gave me my first teaching job and coaching job. Just an amazing man. He led a full life, that's for sure. Just a note...eight or nine years ago we were talking about how the Galen Center was about to be completed. His wife said they gave them a hard-hat tour and told him that they were going to put plaques up on a wall of all of USC'S basketball All-Americans. They asked him what he thought about that...Ted told them "...you had better hurry up and finish because I'm in my late 80's and I'd like to see it before I kick-off." RIP.
Fight On!
Fight On!
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