USC tailback who won 1979 Heisman Trophy
LOS ANGELES — In the long line of dynamic ball carriers to don the cardinal and gold of USC, none over the past half century have proven quite as prolific as Charles White.
A bruising, battering ram of a tailback, Mr. White barreled his way to one of the most decorated careers, not just in USC history, but the historyof college football.
The Los Angeles native helped lift USC to a national championship in 1978, won the Heisman Trophy in 1979 and set 22 school, Pac-12, NCAA and Rose Bowl records over a storied four-year run that still ranks atop the record books for career rushing yards at USC.
But the reckless abandon with which Mr. White played and the ferociousness for which he’d forever be remembered would also exact a price, one that loomed over the rest of his life.
Mr. White died Jan. 11 from cancer. He was 64. He’d spent the last several years of his life in an assisted living facility, his mind diminishing from the effects of dementia, almost certainly caused by the years of collisions he endured as a player.
It was that physical style that first made Mr. White a star at San Fernando High and caught the attention of John Robinson, the Trojans’ coach.
“He was the toughest player I’ve ever coached,” said Mr. Robinson, who also coached Mr. White with the Rams. “He was really unusual in that regard. He was a great player and just loved playing the game.”
Mr. White would rush for 6,245 yards during his fouryear career at USC, a record that has never been eclipsed at the school and ranks fifth in NCAA history. In his final season, Mr. White rushed for 2,050 yards, the second most by a Trojans running back, on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy, the third up to that time by a USC player.
Mr. White was drafted in the first round by the Cleveland Browns and later went on to lead the NFL in rushing with the Rams during the 1987 season. But his spiral into drug and alcohol addiction had already begun before he embarked on his pro career. It worsened with the Browns, where he entered into several drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs.
Even as he continued to struggle with addiction, Mr. White received a second chance from his former coach, Mr. Robinson, to play with the Rams. But after re-emerging as one of the NFL’s most productive backs, Mr. White washed out of the league after the 1988 season.
“Everybody thought his problems were strictly drug-related, now we find out that it could have been directly related to the traumatic brain injury,” Judi White-Basch, Mr. White’s ex-wife, said in July. “For so many years it didn’t make sense; now it makes sense.”