Danny Rogers, Millennium Hall of Fame

Richard Dunn

Long removed from the court, former USC basketball star Danny

Rogers was listening to a Trojans game on the radio one day in 1994 and

heard his name.

Pete Arbogast, the USC broadcaster, was talking about Harold Minor, the

former All-American and No. 1 draft choice of the Miami Heat. “Minor

needs to make one free throw to tie the school (single-season) record set

by Danny Rogers in 1957,” Arbogast said on the air.

Moments later, Minor went to the line again to break Rogers’ mark of 195

free throws ... and made it. “We got a new record, and that’s the last

you’ll hear of Danny Rogers,” Arbogast said.

Rogers, however, got the last laugh. No matter how many announcers

unintentionally dispose of the past, Rogers will forever be linked to USC

basketball lore.

Even if his one remaining school record is broken -- his 43-year-old

standard for the most free-throw attempts in a game (26 against Oregon)

-- Rogers will always have the distinction of being a UCLA killer.

In 1957, the season Rogers averaged 19.4 points per game in the Pacific

Coast Conference, he provided the USC faithful with a heroic effort down

the stretch as the Trojans upset UCLA and snapped the Bruins’ 18-game

winning streak.

A hard-driving, 6-foot-1 guard, Rogers made six free throws in the last

45 seconds of the much-ballyhooed PCC contest at the Pan Pacific

Auditorium, as he finished with 26 points in the Trojans’ stunning 84-80

victory.

Rogers’ feat was mentioned last year in the Los Angeles Times’ Countdown

to 2000 series, a day-by-day recap of some of the most important sports

moments of the 20th century. For the Trojans’ basketball archives,

they’ll never hear the end of Rogers.

“Arbogast was wrong ... it wasn’t the last time they’d heard of me,”

Rogers said.

A part of the five-member All-PCC squad in ‘57, Rogers never met a key he

couldn’t penetrate or a lane he couldn’t fill. He “would run an opponent

over if he were in the way on a basketball court,” a Los Angeles

Herald-Examiner reporter once wrote of Rogers, the year he served as

UCI’s first basketball coach (1966).

Rogers, a longtime Newport Beach resident who fell in love with the area

and insisted on living here after graduating from Mark Keppel High in

Alhambra, broke future Naismith Hall of Famer Bill Sharman’s

single-season scoring record at USC.

Rogers, who rewrote the Trojans’ record book in ‘57, scored 463 points

his senior year, topping Sharman’s total (446) in the last game of the

season against Cal.

“I got fouled a lot and made a lot of three-point plays,” Rogers said. “I

went to the basket really hard ... I guess I was a good actor. But the

game is very different now. It is officiated very differently. The game

is played a lot higher now.”

Rogers, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, was a

JC standout at Fullerton College, leading the Hornets to a state

runner-up finish in 1953 and state title in ’54. Rogers was twice an

all-state tournament selection and captured state tournament MVP honors

in ’54.

After his outstanding USC career, Rogers played several years in the

Amateur Athletic Union, including on championship teams with Denny

Fitzpatrick (Newport Harbor, Orange Coast College and Cal).

Rogers completed his graduate studies at USC and joined the faculty at

Newport Harbor High, where he coached the Sailors’ Bee basketball teams

to Sunset League championships in 1960 and ‘61, compiling a 35-12 record

in two years.

“Those were good years, and we had a lot of fun,” said Rogers, who also

taught English.

Then, USC head coach Forrest Twogood persuaded Rogers to join the

Trojans’ coaching staff, and, for the next four years, Rogers served as

the program’s freshman basketball coach and only varsity assistant coach.

Rogers also handled recruiting and, one year, helped lure Paul Westphal

to USC.

But when UCI announced it was opening in 1965 and needed a basketball

coach, Rogers, who desired to be closer to Newport Beach, took on the

challenge after being hired by former Anteater Athletic Director Wayne

Crawford. Rogers recruited players, as well as regular students, to UCI.

Rogers left in 1967, after a 30-22 record in two years as UCI’s coach,

and entered the business field. Among his endeavors, Rogers worked for

Gary Davidson in the World Hockey Association, World Football League and

World TeamTennis. He served as general manager of the WFL’s franchise in

Hawaii, before the league folded.

Later, Rogers became manager of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of

Commerce and, in 1978, oversaw the completion of the chamber’s building

on Jamboree Road.

After five years with the chamber, Rogers entered the real estate

business and was a founding partner of Lee & Associates in Newport, one

of the largest independently owned real estate organizations in the West

Coast.

For the last nine years, Rogers has been a real estate consultant for

Ford Motor Land Services Corp.

Rogers and his wife of 40 years on Aug. 20, Sheila, have four grown

children: John, Joe, Pete and Tracy.

Additionally, Rogers has been heavily involved in the community,

including serving as Chairman of the Board for the Second Harvest Food

Bank of Orange County, president of the Harbor Area Boys Club, president

of the Orange County Sports Celebrities and a volunteer for Save Our

Youth in Costa Mesa.