THE backfield is back at Blair

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The Blair Pair is returning.

Former Blair standouts Kermit Johnson and James McAlister, dubbed ‘the Blair Pair’ when they helped the Vikings to the 1969 Southern Section 4-A Division championship and then went on to play in the same backfield and earn All-American honors at UCLA in the 1970s, are expected to be on hand tonight/Friday for Blair’s homecoming game against South Pasadena at 7 p.m. at Pasadena City Colllege.

Johnson and McAlister will be joined by other former players from that championship season, including former USC All-American Charles Phillips and Blair second-year Coach Lavell ‘Tip’ Sanders. All were part of the best team in the school’s history.

‘I call it going back to the future,’ Blair Athletic Director Gamal Smalley said. ‘Those were glory days.’

The 1969 section championship was won with a 28-27 victory over a Bishop Amat team that included former USC stars Pat Haden, who went on to play quarterback for six seasons for the Los Angeles Rams, and J.K. McKay, another Trojan who played three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

‘That last game, it sticks with us,’ said Sanders, a sophomore at the time while Johnson, McAlister and Phillips were senior standouts. ‘I just want to see the looks on these kids’ faces when they meet these guys. They can see these guys in person, and, hopefully, get motivated themselves.’

The Vikings (6-1, 2-1) are enjoying some success this season, but it has come at long last, a point the former teammates want to drive home with tonight’s gathering of stars. Blair was 2-8, and winless in the Rio Hondo League, last season.

‘I’m glad to see they’re back, doing well again,’ Phillips said.

Blair’s best record of late was a 5-5 mark in 2004, the last time before this season that the Vikings had won a league game, making their recent past a far cry from the old days.

Johnson, now a fire captain in Pasadena, was the first player to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season at UCLA when he gained 1,129 in 1973. He finished 10th in the Heisman Trophy voting that year, and with 2,495 yards in 370 carries in his career, he still ranks 10th among the Bruins’ all-time leading rushers. Johnson spent two seasons in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers.

McAlister, the father of former Pasadena standout and current Baltimore Ravens cornerback Chris McAlister, also was named an All-American in 1973 and finished with 1,492 yards in his career. Also a track and field standout, he set a UCLA long-jump record of 27-0 1/2 before going on to play for the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots.

Phillips, a defensive back and back-up quarterback for Blair, was the driving force behind tonight’s reunion, the former players’ first since 2005. He played with former USC great Anthony Davis, the runner-up in Heisman balloting to Ohio State’s Archie Griffin in 1974.

So it’s no surprise Sanders figures his players can learn a lot from his old friends, all of whom are now in their mid-50s but remain in contact with each other to this day.

‘That’s what I’m trying to get these players to understand, what it takes to win a championship and what they have the potential to do,’ Sanders said. ‘I want them to know that we used to have players, even here, who were that good, too.’

It remains to be seen whether Blair’s current team can live up to the 1969 standard, but with two regular-season games to play, the Vikings are leading the league.

‘The next two weeks, we’ll actually see how much progress we’ve really made,’ Sanders said.

-- Lauren Peterson

-- Image from www.pusd.us