Myron Lapka, an All-Pac-10 defensive tackle at USC in the late 1970’s, has passed away. He was 69.
The Chatsworth High School grad was a third-round pick in the 1980 NFL draft and spent two seasons with the Rams. He lettered at USC from 1977-79.
How did Lapka end up at USC? When he was at Chatsworth, the baseball coach made a tape of him and scheduled an appointment to visit USC.
“I’m here with some tape and I’d like to have someone look at it,” Lapka said when he got to Heritage Hall.
After 20 minutes, John McKay started screaming and asked Marv Goux to come into his office.
“Why isn’t he being recruited?” McKay yelled.
“They didn’t recruit the Valley very much,” Lapka said.
McKay came out of the room and told Lapka the USC coaches would be at his house at 5:30 p.m. that day.
Goux laid out all his Rose Bowl and national championship rings on a table at Lapka’s house in Chatsworth.
“I couldn’t sign the paper fast enough,” Lapka said.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
I went to Chatsworth with Myron. I remember seeing him my freshman year at USC and he had built himself up. He was huge! 69 is way too young.
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Myron was a really good player. Very big and athletic. Played on some very good USC teams that were in multiple Rose Bowls. I recall back then Lawry Restaurant sponsored the Beef Bowl a few days before the Rose Bowl game. All you can eat prime rib and the winning team generally won the Rose Bowl game. I recall one report that Myron ate 16 slabs/pounds of prime rib. Quite a character. RIP.
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Nice piece, Plow.
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and he instructed the waiters “no vegetables”…..just the prime rib! He was one of a kind! Grateful to have been part of the Trojan family during that time…it was indeed special!
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R I P MYRON.
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Lapka certainly was at SC at the right time– 1978 National Champions and 1979 a near miss because of a tie with Stanford.
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I couldn’t believe that tie with Stanford, 21-21, after SC led 21-0 at Halftime or something like that. 11-0-1 and lost the NC to undefeated Alabama, which blew out a weak Arkansas team 24-0 in the Sugar Bowl. SC had a great 17-16 win over previously undefeated Ohio State, as you already know, with a young Pete Carroll as Ohio State’s secondary coach.
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If we had a playoff back then =USC National Champion.
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No to mention 1969, 1976, 1979, and 2006
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Ha! Grand, John!
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