Brad Green, Millennium Hall of Fame

From his earliest snaps in Pop Warner to the fierce trenches of the

Pac 10, Brad Green could always be found front and center on the

gridiron.

“I never played anything else (except center),” said Green, a former

Estancia High, Orange Coast College and USC standout, who blocked for

Heisman Trophy winner Charles White in the Trojans’ famed Student Body

Right.

“I guess (center) is all I could do. It just seemed like that’s where

they always put me. I know my left from my right.”

Born for the position with his size (6-foot-2, 250 pounds), speed,

quickness and balance, Green could trap and pull, feats usually

accomplished only with smaller centers. “When you have a lot of weight up

in the shoulders, (pulling and trapping are) hard to do,” Estancia

football coach Ken Kiefer once said.

Green, 6-1, 215 in high school, was an All-CIF Southern Section 3-A

selection his senior year with the Eagles, then played two years at

Orange Coast, where he was a member of Coach Dick Tucker’s 1975 JC

national championship team.

According to OCC annals, a year later Green was voted to the JC

All-American team, “but, to be honest with you, that’s news to me,” said

Green, who was Orange Coast’s Most Valuable Player in ‘76, but still

disputes his All-American distinction.

Green, now a nine-year Newport Beach police officer, signed with USC

after being heavily recruited by Cal for two years, and redshirted his

first year with the Trojans in 1977.

In 1978, when USC captured the national championship, Green started

the Trojans’ first four games. But in Week 5, he tore the anterior

cruciate ligament in his right knee against Arizona State and never fully

recovered.

It was Oct. 14, 1978, and the only loss USC would suffer that season

as the host Sun Devils upset the Trojans, 20-7, before 70,138 at the

Fiesta Bowl in Tempe.

“Some idiot center went down (with a torn ACL) and we lost our

continuity, and then lost the game, so that’s my claim to fame,” said

Green, whose replacement was largely responsible for five fumbles at the

exchange with quarterback Paul McDonald. “People lost money on that game,

because they all bet on USC winning.”

The Trojans defeated Alabama in Week 3, 24-14, at Legion Field in

Birmingham, Ala., with Green snapping to McDonald and playing alongside

All-American offensive guards Pat Howell and Brad Budde, while Anthony

Munoz played tackle and would later be named the NFL’s all-time greatest

at that position by Sports Illustrated. (Keith Van Horne was an

All-American for USC the following year with Green, before heading to the

NFL.)

By 1978 season’s end, Green was undergoing a grueling rehabilitation

program while the Trojans were voted a share of the national title by the

coaches. The sportswriters’ poll tabbed Alabama as year-end No. 1. “I

still don’t understand that -- we beat them,” Green said.

In two years (1978-79), the Arizona State upset was USC’s only loss.

In ‘79, Green had lost a step because of the knee injury and,

subsequently, his starting role.

“I learned to play smarter, but I was never quite the same,” said

Green, who played a lot his senior year, and, “had fun, anyway.”

Green’s old Estancia teammate, outside linebacker Larry Hall, started

for UCLA when the White-led Trojans defeated the Bruins in 1978, 17-10,

and ‘79, 49-14. “I’d just think to myself before the snap, ‘Oh, Larry,

here it comes ... Student Body Right,’ and you have no idea,” Green said.

“I remember being on the line and looking over at Larry, knowing this

whole line will be working to pull around the corner, and he didn’t

know.”

There was little anybody could do in those years to slow down USC’s

vaunted attack, which always featured the biggest and best offensive

linemen Coach John Robinson could find.

Cal, Stanford and Arizona State were recruiting Green the heaviest out

of Orange Coast. Bill Walsh (Stanford) and Frank Kush (ASU) came to his

house, but when Green visited the USC football offices and one of the

coaches flashed a Rose Bowl championship ring in his face, he kindly told

the others thanks, but no thanks.

“Two years of recruiting by Cal went down the tubes,” said Green, who,

in the autumn of ‘78, was one of eight Trojans that season to undergo

knee surgery.

Green, whose Estancia teams struggled in 1973 and ‘74, going a

combined 4-13-1, said he was fortunate to get an opportunity to play at

USC. “I got to USC because of a good work ethic, but those guys (Munoz,

Budde and Van Horne) got there because they were incredibly talented.”

Green, however, enjoyed his OCC years the most.

“I never really learned how to pass block, or do anything like that,

until I got to Orange Coast,” he said. “George Mattias was a great coach.

He actually taught me the techniques of pass blocking and that became one

of the better things I did when I got to USC. Those (USC) coaches taught

me nothing new, nothing that I hadn’t already learned from Coach Mattias.

“It was fun playing at USC, but the most fun I ever had was at Orange

Coast.”

Following his USC career, Green had tryouts with the Rams and Houston

Oilers, but his right knee put him in a tough spot. “I couldn’t do the

things I used to do with reckless abandon,” he said.

After college, Green worked in the aerospace business and operated an

athletic club. At age 34, he changed careers and became a cop, following

his dad’s footsteps. “I didn’t really think about (becoming a police

officer) much -- until unemployment moved me in that direction, but I’m

glad for it,” said Green, who worked the last several years as a

detective on the vice squad, and is now back in the car.

“You can’t be one thing forever,” added Green, a member of the Daily

Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating the millennium.

Green, a black belt in kung fu who teaches self-defense at the Golden

West College police academy, lives in Mission Viejo with his wife, Terri,

and three daughters: Kara, 15, Tayler, 10, and Paige, 8.

“It’s just a real honor to be included in this Hall of Fame,” Green

said.