Who Was USC's Greatest Football Player?

In the span of several articles, the Top 10 Trojan football player projections were made. We now stand at the final two choices, along with two other honorable mentions, before opening up the process to voting.

As for the ninth spot, tackle Ron Yary is a comfortable fit, the player who opened up so many holes for O.J. Simpson during that 1967 national championship run.

The season culminated with a 14-3 Rose Bowl triumph over Indiana after a regular campaign that featured a 24-7 victory at Notre Dame and a 21-20 win over UCLA in one of the most exciting contests in college grid annals.

Bellflower product Yary was USC’s only Outland Trophy winner. He hit the trifecta of selection to the halls of fame of college football, the NFL, and at USC.

The 10th choice was that rarest of rarities, someone who was a consensus All-American three successive years. Richard “Batman” Wood secured that lofty status from 1972 to 1974. Had freshmen been eligible to play, would Wood have made it four straight?

What Ronnie Lott provided on the defensive side of the ball from bruising pop, Wood achieved through speed, being in the right place at the right time. Like Lott, he was a superb tackler. With Wood masterminding Marv Goux’s Trojans defenses, USC, during Batman’s years, national titles were secured in 1972 and 1974 along with three conference crowns.

Morley Drury and Lynn Swann make deserving honorable mention choices. Drury was from a vastly different era. The transplanted Canadian was the first great tailback of the Trojans tradition as he achieved a rushing record that would not be eclipsed until the days of “Jaguar” Jon Arnett in 1954-1956.

Drury was a tireless ball carrier in the tradition of Coach Howard Jones’ discipline. His devastating junior and senior seasons were 1926 and 1927, the first two of the Jones era.

Lynn Swann came from the San Francisco suburb of Foster City, just a short distance from Palo Also and the home of bitter USC rival Stanford. In fact, Stanford folks never forgot the way that Swann was recruited right under their noses by the always alert recruiter as well as defensive guru Marv Goux.

Swann was an acrobat and tight rope walker in a football uniform. What he could do when it came to jumping into the air and snaring a pass nobody else could hope to catch was the stuff of which living legends were made. He was a mainstay on the receiving end of Mike Rae aerials during that magical 1972 national championship season and in his senior season from Pat Haden.

The brilliant receiver was, like Yary, a trifecta achiever, a hall of fame recipient at the collegiate, NFL, and USC levels. He became one of the NFL’s immortals with the Pittsburgh Steelers as recipient of aerials from fellow NFL Hall of Fame honoree Terry Bradshaw.

So now on to where your participation is invited. I will list the seven USC Heisman Trophy recipients in chronological order and add the incomparable Ronnie Lott as another selection for those who would like a defensive choice. The final choice will be that of somebody else not on the list.

Go ahead and vote for your preference as the greatest USC football player in history. Then come forward and comment on your choice.

This should be interesting; selecting a winner among winners, a champion among champions.