Winner Claims Its Stakes

By J.A. Adande

Nov. 30, 2002 12 AM PT

His is the lowest of USC’s four Heisman Trophy winners’ profiles.

Mike Garrett stays in the news as USC’s athletic director, Marcus Allen can be seen on CBS and soon will be seen at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and O.J. Simpson ... well, you know.

If Charles White’s image is on screen these days, most likely it’s his reflection on his computer monitor in the USC Administrative Information Services office.

Let the glory go elsewhere.

“I know what I’ve done and people know what I’ve done,” said White, the 1979 Heisman winner for a season of 2,050 yards rushing and 19 touchdowns. “I’m not caught up in living in back in the day. Football’s been good to me. God has blessed me to accomplish the things that I’ve accomplished. What I’ve accomplished is going to live with me for the rest of my life. I did some good things.

“If other people get the [attention], that’s fine with me. I’m happy with my life.”

Besides, memories can be unreliable. Ask White what he remembers about the 1978 SC-Notre Dame game, when White scored a touchdown and the Trojans held off a Joe Montana-led comeback to win, 27-25, their 10th victory on their way to a national championship. Doesn’t ring a bell.

“I don’t even recall,” he said. “Man, it’s been so long ago.”

It’s the 1977 game, when Notre Dame beat USC, 49-19, in South Bend that sticks with him.

“They talk about the gold dome and everything,” White said. “You’re kind of blown away by it. Come game day, they’re out there practicing. They’ve got their regular jersey on. You think it’s going to be a typical ballgame. Right before the game they come out with the green jerseys and the dark cloud rolls in.

“I swear, they brought this big wooden horse out. Leprechauns jumping out everywhere. I was like, ‘What is this?’ ”

It was one of those moments that makes the rivalry so special. This week, finally, it feels as if those days are back. Both teams will be in the top 10 when they meet in the Coliseum today. Major bowl bids are at stake. Three quarters of the country will be able to watch on television. The legacy of the four Heismans versus the legacy of the Four Horsemen.

“I think it’s great for college football,” White said. “College football’s been missing something like this for a long time. It’s awesome, from my perspective, to sit back and say, ‘This is what college football should be like.’ ”

White’s career peaked in college. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, but gained only 942 yards in 276 carries during his five years there. He spent the last four years of his career in Los Angeles, and had a resurgence in 1987 when he was reunited with college coach John Robinson and rushed for a league-leading 1,374 yards.

White, 44, is at the stage where he can analyze his life with objectivity.

That phantom touchdown against Michigan in the 1979 Rose Bowl?

“It was clearly a fumble,” he says.

His problems with drugs early in his NFL career?

“Dumbness and stupidness and immaturity.”

He quit because he didn’t want to set a bad example for his children. He has five of them now, between the ages of 17 and 21. Those college-age kids are his primary motivation to work: One more year and he’ll have the 15 years at USC required to get a tuition break for his children. He might not need it for his son Ashton, a running back at Santa Margarita High who is being recruited by Pete Carroll.

That would be the most literal application yet of Carroll’s return to the “family” concept that has made the ex-football players so happy.

“Pete is trying to bring back the heritage and the tradition of guys coming back, which is a great plus for the young guys, I’m sure,” White said. “For the old guys too.”

White coached the running backs for Robinson during Robinson’s second go-round at USC from 1993-1997. He said Robinson had begun to bring back former players as well.

“Until ... he got the hammer,” White said.

“I was kind of wishing [Garrett] would have [given Robinson] one more year. We were just starting to get the type of players that we were going to get this program back to where it should have been.”

Most of Robinson’s staff was cut loose, which meant USC’s first Heisman winner fired USC’s third Heisman winner.

“That’s business,” White said. “John had told us before we got the job, ‘You’ve got to be prepared to get fired too.’ ”

After a decade of working in the USC athletic department and on the sidelines, White looked around the Web-dominated landscape and decided he had better get tech savvy.

“This is the way society’s going,” White said. “I might as well get caught up in it and learn as much as I can. Whatever job I get into, I’m going to be computer literate.”

So now he monitors the school’s computer systems to make sure they’re functioning properly.

And now that he’s online, he might use e-mail to send in his Heisman ballot. As a former winner, he gets a vote every year, and he’s already made his selection.

Even though it might slide him down even more on the list of USC’s most famous award winners, he’s going for Carson Palmer.

“I think he’s Heisman-worthy,” White said.

White, don’t forget, would know.

J.A. Adande can be reached at: [email protected].