Hall of Fame: Bill Redding (Orange Coast)

Richard Dunn

In a golden era of USC football, Bill Redding became the only

Trojan to start consecutive Rose Bowl games at opposite positions.

Redding, a former Orange Coast College standout under Coach Dick

Tucker and a 1967 JC All-American middle guard, played that position for

USC his junior year in 1968, when Coach John McKay’s Trojans finished

9-1-1, losing only to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl -- the only loss for

Redding in two years at USC.

On Nov. 2, 1968, Redding provided the Trojans with 20 tackles against

Oregon on his 21st birthday, a 20-13 road victory for the Trojans, who

were led that year by Heisman Trophy-winning running back O.J. Simpson.

“I missed (matching age with tackles) by one,” said Redding, USC’s

Defensive Player of the Game that day.

After earning All-Pacific 8 Conference honors on defense, however,

Redding was switched to offense and started every game at center the

following year.

Instead of taking on the center, Redding was now in the trenches

hiking the ball. “(The Trojans) went with a big four-man front on

defense, all about 6-foot-5 across the front, and they needed a center,”

Redding said. “I went into spring ball going into my senior as a

fifth-string center. I had to earn a (starting) spot.”

At USC, Redding was 6-1, 233 pounds, but was quick and ran 40 yards in

4.6 seconds. His career was capped by a 10-3 win over Michigan in the

Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day 1970.

“I still wear (the ring),” said Redding, who was singled out the next

day in a Daily Pilot game story saying that, if USC had lost, he

“would’ve been a goat” because of a bad punt snap. Funny thing is,

Redding was the center on the team, but not the long snapper.

“The long snapper was Sid Smith. It wasn’t me,” said Redding, who,

perhaps, has reconciliation after nearly 32 years as the latest honoree

in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, entering as an Orange Coast

Pirate.

Redding’s father, Vaughn, once the Costa Mesa Man of the Year, is a

Michigan alumnus, but he rooted for his son and the Trojans in their Rose

Bowl victory over the Wolverines. (Redding’s mother, Helen, is a former

Costa Mesa Woman of the Year.)

Redding grew up on Grosse Ile, Mich., an island of about 2,000 people

on Lake Erie, where he attended high school and played as a two-way

tackle.

His parents moved to Costa Mesa, and, after one year at a prep school

in New Jersey, he followed them out here because “California looked

awfully good.”

Then Orange Coast became one of the first beneficiaries of Vaughn

Redding’s job relocation.

A five-time Player of the Game and team captain for the 6-3 Pirates in

‘67, a squad also featuring running back Frank Weirath, Bill Redding was

OCC’s first All-American in three years.

“I went to Orange Coast as a linebacker, but in the second game my

freshman year (‘66), they moved me to middle guard and that’s where I

stayed (for three years),” said Redding, who also played a little tight

end on offense.

Redding also played baseball at Orange Coast under legendary former

coach Wendell Pickens, whom Redding said “was a great coach and a great

man. He built the Orange Coast program.”

After his football playing career, Redding coached at USC in 1970 and

at Orange Coast in ‘71, before becoming a line coach at the University of

Hawaii for two years. Redding then spent eight years coaching at Punahou

High in Hawaii, then went into private business.

“Now I’m coaching my kids in Little League and Pop Warner,” said

Redding, who lives in Costa Mesa with his wife, Bernie, and two sons,

Matthew, 12, and Ryan, 11.

Redding, 53, has been on the Costa Mesa National Little League Board

of Directors for six years, and, last summer, was the league’s All-Stars

manager.

“It’s kind of a payback,” Redding said of his deep involvement with

Costa Mesa’s youth baseball and football leagues. “I got through the

system and a lot of people helped me. Now it’s my turn to step up and

help the other kids.”

Redding’s advice to parents is “enjoy their kids playing now,” because

very few will ever reach the collegiate or pro levels.