Catching Up With: Danny Rogers

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Always one to promote good will, Danny Rogers is

now at the top of Goodwill Industries of Orange County.

A former USC basketball star -- and the first men’s basketball coach

at UC Irvine -- Rogers quit coaching in the 1960s to enter private

business and later served as executive vice president of the World

Football League.

Rogers, also the former executive director of the Newport Harbor Area

Chamber of Commerce, was hired last year as president and chief executive

officer of Santa Ana-based Goodwill Industries.

“It’s so good to get that feeling that you’re really helping people,”

Rogers said. “That’s the most heartwarming feeling you can have, knowing

you’re really helping somebody.”

An advocate of nonprofit organizations, Rogers completed an 11-year

term last year as a real estate consultant for Ford Motor Land Services

Corp. Friends had encouraged him for years to get on the board of

directors at Goodwill, but the timing was never right.

However, when George Kessinger was promoted from Goodwill Industries

of Orange County to take the helm of Goodwill International in Bethesda,

Md., Rogers decided to apply for the president and CEO seat and landed

the job.

“It’s a fabulous organization. I enjoy it every day,” Rogers said of

Goodwill, which helps people with disabilities and other special needs to

achieve employment by expanding their opportunities through a variety of

resources.

Rogers, who has always been involved in the community, is a former

president of the Harbor Area Boys and Girls Club and was instrumental in

building the Boys and Girls Club facility in Irvine.

A longtime area resident, Rogers fell in love with Newport Beach when

he’d show up for construction work with his father after graduating from

Mark Keppel High in Alhambra in 1952.

“I told myself this is where I’m going to live, and I’ve been true to

that. I’ve loved being here. I’m very fortunate,” he said.

Rogers and his wife, Sheila, have been married 41 years. She’s been a

teacher in the Newport-Mesa School District for 34 years and has been

Teacher of the Year.

In addition to his new job, Rogers has also organized a fund-raising

event -- “An American Tribute” -- to honor an philanthropic individual

whose life exemplifies the American ideal.

The inaugural event, May 23 at the Grove of Anaheim (formerly the Sun

Theater) adjacent to Edison Field, will celebrate Newport Beach resident

and Irrelevant Week founder Paul Salata.

An American Tribute 2002 will raise funds for two of Salata’s favorite

charities -- the American Red Cross Orange County Chapter and Goodwill

Industries of Orange County. Salata started the Orange County Youth

Sports Foundation and is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award

from the NFL Alumni.

Rogers, a longtime friend, got the ball rolling on the event last year

before accepting an offer to become the head at Goodwill Industries in

Orange County.

Throughout his life, Rogers has been involved in other charities,

including serving on boards, or as president, for the Orange County Youth

Sports Foundation, 2nd Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, Orange County

Sports Celebrities and the Harbor Area Boys Club. He also volunteered

with Save Our Youth in Costa Mesa.

As a basketball player, Rogers was a standout at Fullerton College,

which won the state title in 1954 and finished as runner-up in ’53 with

the 6-foot-1 sharpshooting Rogers at the controls.

His stellar USC playing career concluded with several school records,

including the much-ballyhooed single-season scoring record in 1957 with

463 points, topping future Naismith Hall of Famer Bill Sharman’s total of

446.

Rogers, a member of the five-player first-team All-Pacific Coast

Conference who averaged 19.4 points per game in ‘57, still holds the USC

record for the most free throws attempted in a game (26 against Oregon).

His owns a basketball autographed by legendary former UCLA Coach John

Wooden, who wrote: “For Danny Rogers, who delighted in making things

miserable for me in those USC-UCLA games.”

In a memorable game his senior year, Rogers drained six free throws in

the final 45 seconds of a wild PCC contest against UCLA at the Pan

Pacific Auditorium as he finished with 26 points and USC stunned the

Bruins, 84-80.