BOBBY FINK FULL

“I ended up getting lucky and married some gal that sort of straightened me out,” Zampese said. He later took a job in Santa Barbara with the U.S. He was soon driving a truck in Bakersfield, hauling sugar beets instead of footballs. He stopped going to class midway through his senior year. “I had to report to a groundskeeper and do whatever he did.” “We did that to get extra money because you could hardly survive on what the Pacific Coast Conference allowed for scholarships,” Zampese said. His crime was accepting $1.50 an hour to sweep leaves. And when the expanding investigation snared Zampese and his classmates in its net, they were all suspended for their entire senior season of 1957. “It was fourth and 1 on the Notre Dame 38 when Ernie decided to be a hero.”Īlthough the win capped an 8-2 regular season for the Trojans, the PCC - the forerunner of the Pac-12 - banned them from playing in a bowl game.

“Clutch? You bet!” wrote the Los Angeles Times. In the season finale against Notre Dame, he gained 125 yards and broke off a long, dramatic touchdown that clinched a 28-20 victory. An investigation that began at the University of Washington showed that Husky players - as well as those at USC, UCLA and Cal - were being paid by alumni to perform simple jobs.īut Zampese picked up the ball for Arnett and ran with it. His prowess as a running back became crucial after the Pacific Coast Conference suspended Arnett and six other Trojans for the last half of the 1956 season. Zampese’s 85-yard punt against Wisconsin remains USC’s all-time record. The Trojans, however, found him to be as handy as a Swiss Army Knife.ĭuring his junior season of 1956, he nabbed a team-high six pass interceptions and led both punting teams, averaging 9.1 yards per return and 41.2 yards per kick. He had to clear a much higher bar at USC with a backfield that included such future NFL stars as Jon Arnett and C.R. “The epitome of success was to play for the Santa Barbara Dons. The town was much smaller then, and everyone watched the Santa Barbara Dons on Friday nights. “The stadium was on the school grounds in a little bowl. “We had a great tradition at Santa Barbara,” he once said. Zampese was the Big Man on Campus in a time and place that worshiped its high school football stars like no other. The Helms Athletic Foundation honored him as Southern California’s CIF Player of the Year.

During his senior season of high school in 1953, he ran for 19 touchdowns and 869 yards - nearly 10 per carry - and passed for another 14 TDs and 1,008 yards.

BOBBY FINK FULL

He stood just 5-foot-8 and weighed only 160 pounds in full body armor, but he carried a big load on the field. That's what I like to do.” Little Big Man “I like to be in the back with the tapes rolling. “I’ve always been a background guy,” he explained after rejecting an offer to lead the Los Angeles Rams in 1995. And when he did get to the NFL as a coach, he sidestepped every head coaching offer as though it were a bloodthirsty linebacker. Zampese’s own playing career - and fame - was stunted by a college scandal not of his making. The two former NFL stars were among 100 players recently selected for induction into the California High School Football Hall of Fame. Cunningham cut a figure that has overshadowed all Don football players except his own brother, Randall. Sam Bam was seven inches taller and 70 pounds heavier than his predecessor.