Garrett Still Found a Way to Impact Game as Decoy

They called him “Iron Mike,” “Mighty Mite” and “Matchless Mike.”

Mike Garrett was all of that against Cal in Berkeley’s Strawberry Canyon, 34 years ago today.

USC football Coach John McKay, knowing the Bears would spend an entire practice week devising defenses to stop the 5-foot-9, 190-pound Garrett, decided to use him mostly as a decoy. On most running plays, the fake pitch went first to Garrett in one direction, while the play went the other.

The result was a 35-0 USC win, but Garrett still managed to have arguably his greatest day as a Trojan.

Garrett carried the ball from scrimmage only 11 times (he averaged 29 carries for the season) for 67 yards but returned punts for touchdowns of 87 and 74 yards.

The 87-yard return was spectacular, reducing the crowd of 52,000 to silence.

It was a high punt, one which Garrett probably should have called for a fair catch. But there was no signal, and Garrett suddenly was swarmed by five Cal tacklers. Somehow, he burst from the pack into the clear and simply outran everyone.

“Garrett is a great back, and great backs do things like that,” summed up Cal Coach Ray Willsey.

That season, Garrett became USC’s first Heisman Trophy winner. He also played cornerback for the Trojans and played baseball well enough (he was an outfielder) to be drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Dodgers.

He played professionally with the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers from 1966-1973 and played in the first and fourth Super Bowls.

He has been USC’s athletic director since 1993.

Also on this date: In 1937, Colorado running back Byron “Whizzer” White registered one of his great games in a 17-7 win over Utah at Salt Lake City. In the fourth quarter, he scored on runs of 85 and 57 yards, kicked both conversions and a field goal. White resigned in 1993 from the U.S. Supreme Court. . . . In 1928, Arnold Rothstein, who organized the 1919 World Series fix, died two days after being shot during a card game in New York.