BASKETBALL, FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Southern California Produced Two Legends

San Fernando High School is a little more than 10 miles from Hart High School in Newhall.

And it’s a testament to Southern California that the Class of 1955 produced two athletes at these schools who became prominent national figures: Denny Crum at San Fernando and Joe Kapp at Hart.

Kapp passed away Monday and Crum on Tuesday and I wanted to show some of their high school days.

Joe Kapp as quarteback at Hart High in 1954

Kapp was a wide receiver at Hart his junior year and moved to quarterback as a senior. He also played basketball and was a pitcher/first baseman on the baseball team. Kapp averaged 13.8 points per game his senior year in basketball and was All-CIF. He was not All-CIF in football, ironically.

From there, he went to Cal, the CFL and the NFL. Kapp was an All-American at Cal and is the only quarterback to ever lead his team to the Rose Bowl, Super Bowl (Minnesota Vikings) and Grey Cup (Calgary Stampeders).

Joe Kapp (center) playing for Hart in 1955.

From a USC perspective, there was an incident in 1958 when Trojans’ lineman Mike McKeever drew 15-yard penalty for a late hit with his elbows on Kapp. The penalty set up a Cal touchdown (The Golden Bears won, 14-12, and went on to the Rose Bowl).

Hart has become known for its quarterbacks the past 30 years, such as Matt Moore and Kyle Boller, but none have matched Kapp’s accomplishments.

Denny Crum as a senior at San Fernando.

Crum averaged 12.8 points per game in his league games at San Fernando his senior season and was first team All-Valley League. He then went to Pierce College in Woodland Hills and UCLA.

But it was his career as a coach that made Crum famous. After being a UCLA assistant from 1967-71, he became the head coach at Louisville (1971-2001). The Cardinals won NCAA titles in 1980 and 1986. Crum’s teams made the Final Four six times (1972, 1975, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1986). He retired with a record of 675–295, a 69.6 winning percentage.

Crum spent the rest of his life in Louisville. I wonder how many Louisville fans even know Crum grew up in San Fernando.

Denny Crum (13) shoots in a game for San Fernando.
  • I admit I expected Drew Peterson to be on this list of players invited to the NBA Draft Combine. I also wonder if he would have made it a year ago when he shot 41 percent on 3-pointers vs. 36 percent his senior season.

25 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Southern California Produced Two Legends”

  1. Four UCLA BB players from UCLA invited to the NBA Combine.

    Zero, One and Done, bozo BB players invited.

    #Tanks Enfield.

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    1. hi john, kann u teech mee how 2 spelll, Cuz da people say I sound lik a FUCC-TARD? Missus say u kan use her peenus for ur oral exam .. ok ?

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      1. You’re starting to sound like slo troll, the blog dunce…..EAT BIDEN SLEEP BIDEN SHIT BIDEN…..24/7……MANIC DEPRESSIVE……SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION

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      3. wow!….Scott, you truly are desperate for clicks…..

        (first, explain where the missing 50 million went from trumps inauguration account)

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      4. Get off your high horse, Fake Gabby! It’s totally normal to funnel payments from foreign adversaries into fake corporations [which don’t even pretend to have anything to sell] &, then, bounce the payments around 9 different countries and 12 different banks. Nothing to see here.
        #BidenIsWise&Good…
        #…WhileTrumpWasDestroying”TheAmericanExperiment”

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      5. I see now why Trump has over 500 shell companies….thanks for speaking on it. I heard Jarred, Ivanka, Beavis, and Butthead are masters at what you speak of…..thanks again!

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      6. We Democrats must make up imaginary crimes and hire dingbats from the 90s to cry rape about our opponents while our president has been running influence peddling scams for decades.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. you truly are morally bankrupt if turning an eye to sexual assault is how we should live…

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      8. Gabby — Honestly? America is losing ground on so many fronts —banking, border, energy —and we’re supposed to get vexed over a non specific civil suit [no date alleged] which could never be brought in a criminal courtroom for 5th amendment reasons?
        #You’reBatterThanThat

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      9. You keep crying about issues related to Biden. Here’s a thought, try pointing the finger at the GOP for not offering any common sense ideas to counter your Biden-related grievances. You control the house, yet we get crickets from your party. Where is legislation to address these issues you speak of?

        The GOP is more focused on witch hunts related to Biden and his family and making sure the “debt ceiling” is a focus of Biden’s demise related to a government shutdown. But when Trump added 25% to the national debt in four years it was perfectly fine. You can’t bitch about issues the GOP neglects.

        Also, GOP is a total mess. The face of the party is now guilty of sexual assault. Moral character matters to most people I know. Is it not important to you? Suburban women are running from Trump. DeSantis thinks culture wars are his path to a primary victory(too funny). GOP wants to ban books but not weapons killing children. Your party has a major messaging problem.

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      10. All true. The GOP is a mess. [They may succeed in trimming some fat from the federal budget —but let’s face it — they could give a flying shit about preventing corporate corruption or helping the little guy. Never have, never will].
        But I was talking about the decades old CIVIL ‘sex harassment’ case against Trump. With all that’s going on, Gabby, who gives a shit? REALLY who gives a shit? It’s just a red herring financed by a Trump hater. Don’t let it take your eye off the ball.

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      11. Politics aside, my disdain for Trump started decades ago. Here’s one example(link below) of why millions around the world despise this man. The guy has been rather lucky dodging one bullet after another. But a 79-year-old woman hit the bullseye.

        I think more women will surface with sexual assault claims against trump……Weinstein and Cosby got it in the end, and so will trump.

        https://time.com/5597843/central-park-five-trump-history/

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    5. ‘The Peckerwood’ made sure Crum was nowhere near bel-air tech when the sainted one bowed out in 1975. Better to be deemed the ‘sole genius’ but he steered the NCAA at Tarkanian while always declining to play against him.

      “My conscience is clear…..go blame Nellie that’s what I’ve always done!”

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  3. Scooter,

    You forgot to mention that Joe Kapp also won the most important football game of all time, the guards against the prisoners in the movie called the, “Longest Yard”. He also was the coach when Cal ran through the Stanford Injuns band. I know he designed that play. May he RIP.

    Denny Crum did have my respect until I had read that he went to ugly. He was just before the cheating at ugly but he is still one of Johnny Cheetin’ Wooden’s boys, the most prolific cheater of all time. May God have mercy on his soul.

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  4. Scooter,

    did you see the SC baseball game from last night when USC hit two grandslams in the game? Incredible.

    Also, Onewaysc,

    I was incorrect about the Angels having a winning season last year. They have not had one since 2015.

    Liked by 2 people

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      1. So Cal,

        SC wins, and that helps going into the ASU series. SC needs to take this series to get a better ranking for the pac 12 playoffs.

        Sc needs to recruit pitching. Agassi got hit and some of the reilevers. However, the bats are keeping SC in the hunt.

        Liked by 2 people

  5. Interesting headline USC produced two (count them, two) legends. I think that number is skewed a bit USC has 14 members of the NFL hall of fame, 119 alumnus of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts have won Oscars, USC has 153 gold medalists in the Olympic Games. USC has produced 5 Nobel Laureate members. So it’s about time they produced a couple of legends.
    As for the NBA Combine, it is nice to be invited, but not necessary to attend in order to be drafted. Many players get drafted or tryout without ever seeing the combine.
    Finally I missed the “Blowhard” story yesterday, I presume it was written to lure tweedledumobama into a lewd post about Lincoln and Alex sitting in a tree. I may find time to look later.

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  6. Kapp was a walk-on for Cal’s mens basketball team. His size limited his mobility but that’s not what Newell used him for….he had a storied reputation of being a reliable ‘enforcer’ whenever an opponent’s stars needed to step back a bit.

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