Charles White's job these days puts him on the USC sideline at the Los
Angeles Coliseum, only a few feet from where he ran over,
around and through opponents en route to winning the
Heisman Trophy in 1979. As the Trojans' running backs
coach, White may have come full
circle, but the circumnavigation took far longer than it
needed to because of a bad trip White took into drug abuse.
"It's been quite a ride, yet here I am," he says
with a faint laugh. "I'm back at USC and happy to be
alive."
Raised in a San Fernando ghetto north of L.A., White became
a football and track star at San Fernando High and signed
with Southern Cal in '76. Though not particularly big
(5'11", 185 pounds) or fast (4.6 in the 40), White was a
latter-day Hector—the Trojan warrior who was at his best
in the biggest battles. In addition to winning the Heisman,
White helped
USC earn UPI's No. 1 ranking in '78 and remains Southern Cal's
alltime leading rusher (6,245 yards). "Charles was the
toughest, most explosive player I ever coached," his
former
USC mentor and current boss, John Robinson, has said. White's
legs and chest were sheer muscle, and his percentage of
body fat in college was as
low as
1.9%.
White was weak, however, when it came to drugs. A
first-round pick in the 1980 draft by the Cleveland Browns,
he sleepwalked through his first few
NFL seasons, the result of cocaine addiction. The Browns
released White before the '85 season, but
Robinson, who had become the coach of the Los Angeles Rams, offered
him a second shot. During the strike-shortened '87 season,
White led the NFL in rushing and was selected to the Pro
Bowl. A year later he was suspended for 30 days for a
second violation of the
league's substance-abuse policy, returned to the Rams after
missing four games but retired after the season. At that
point, says White, who first entered rehab in '82 and
participated in various follow-up programs, he "was
clean and sober for
good." He took an administrative post in the USC athletic
department, while moonlighting as a celebrity combatant on
American
Gladiators, before hooking up once more with Robinson, who returned
as the Trojans' coach in '93.
"I still get pumped for game days," says White,
who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
earlier this year. "It's the same rush I got when I
was playing." Otherwise, he spends time with his wife,
Judi, and their five children. "I look
back at everything and feel blessed," he says. "It
all worked out after all."
—by L. Jon Wertheim
photograph by Heinz Kluetmeier
Issue date: November 3, 1997
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
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