Richard Dunn
Regarded as one of the all-time great USC linemen when he played
tackle under Coach Howard Jones from 1936 to '38, the late Ray George was
a Trojan football player, assistant coach and athletic administrator for
30 years.
And, on May 5, George will be formally inducted into the USC Athletic
Hall of Fame, along with 19 other former Trojan athletes and coaches.
George will be honored posthumously in formal ceremonies at the
Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena.
"My brother (Jack) and I will be driving my mom (Martha) up. It should
be fun," said George's son, Greg, who stood in for his father last
football season during a homecoming halftime celebration for the USC Hall
of Fame's Class of 2001, which includes locals Steve Timmons (volleyball)
and Rick Leach (tennis).
Jack George, a former Newport Harbor High valedictorian, graduated
from the School of Dentistry at USC and Greg George played football for
the Trojans, while the former Martha Folsom, Ray's longtime wife, was
also a USC graduate.
If there's a family that bleeds cardinal and gold, it's the Georges.
"We still have season tickets, and we all go ... my mom, my brother
and my wife (Lynne) and I," said Greg George, the 1966 Corona del Mar
High Athlete of the Year, who added that perhaps his dad's fondest
football highlights would be the joy of watching his son play.
Born in St. Louis, Mo., and a graduate of Loyola High in Los Angeles,
Ray George entered USC as a freshman in 1935.
George did not gain consensus All-American mention for the Trojans,
but was never outplayed in three years of varsity football. In 1938,
George was voted the team's most inspirational player by his peers,
earning the Davis-Teschke Award, the program's oldest award.
George's '38 Trojans upset both top-ranked Notre Dame, 13-0, and
previously unbeaten and unscored-upon Duke, 7-3, in the 1939 Rose Bowl
game.
In 1939, George was the second USC player ever drafted by the NFL,
then after his graduation from USC he played two years of professional
football with the Detroit Lions in '39 and Philadelphia Eagles in 1940.
In '41, George joined the coaching ranks at Porterville High School in
Central California, then entered the service in 1942 and ultimately
attained the rank of lieutenant.
George returned to USC as a line coach from 1946 to '50, then became
head coach at Texas A&M from 1951-53, leading the Aggies to wins over Bud
Wilkinson's Oklahoma Sooners, Red Sanders' UCLA Bruins and Bear Bryant's
