The next USC football season will be the first USC football season following the death of Charles White this past January. White died on Jan. 11, 2023, less than 10 days after the 2022 USC season ended.
There will be tributes to Charles White at USC home games this season. The school and the 2023 team will remember White, a central part of USC’s glory days in the late 1970s. Another towering figure from those golden times was and is Anthony Munoz.
USC has had many great offensive linemen and many great running backs. If one was to associate one lineman with one running back in USC history, a few different pairings emerge: Ron Yary blocking for O.J. Simpson in 1967; Bruce Matthews blocking for Marcus Allen in 1981; and Munoz blocking for Charles White in the 1979 season.
One of the greatest drives in USC football history involved Munoz and White. It was their last shared game together as Trojans, and boy did they make the moment count. Munoz shrugged off an injury-riddled 1979 regular season to play in the 1980 Rose Bowl for No. 3 USC against No. 1 and unbeaten Ohio State. This would be Munoz’s last game before turning pro as a Cincinnati Bengal. This would be the final game of White’s epic 1979 Heisman Trophy-winning season at USC.
The Trojans, down 16-10 with nearly five minutes left in the fourth quarter, got the ball at their own 17. White ran for a combined 60 yards on the first two plays of that drive. He got a breather on the next two plays, which moved the ball from the Ohio State 23 to the 12. White then returned to the field and gained the last 12 yards of the drive, scoring from one yard out with just over 1:30 left.
White gained 72 of the 83 yards on the touchdown drive which tied the game at 16. The extra point gave USC a 17-16 lead. The Trojans stopped Ohio State’s offense. White came in and gained 16 more yards to finish with 247 yards in the last game he ever played for the Trojans, with Munoz blocking for him.
Charles White created incredible memories for USC fans, and Anthony Munoz created the running lanes White used to great effect. Two men are impossible to separate in the long and storied history of Trojan football. Anthony Munoz has a special place not only in the story of USC, but in the career of the late, great Charles White, whose memory will be treasured forever … and will be honored this coming season at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Anthony Munoz will appear on this Sunday’s edition of Trojan Conquest Live at The Voice of College Football. Watch the show on YouTube on Sunday, June 4, at 8 p.m. Eastern time and 5 p.m. Pacific on the USC channel at The Voice of College Football. Co-hosts Tim Prangley and Rick Anaya will talk to Munoz for an hour. It’s a program you won’t want to miss.
Follow Tim Prangley on Twitter, where he will tweet out the YouTube link to his special Anthony Munoz interview before the show goes live on Sunday evening.
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