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Catching Up With...
Gary Beban, Heisman Trophy Winner
Posted: Tuesday December 22, 1998 11:54 AM
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Frank Mullins |
Four years after he carried off the 1967 Heisman Trophy, Gary (the Great One)
Beban turned his back on football for good. The former UCLA quarterback had
thrown one pass in three seasons with the Washington Redskins and then been
released. When the Denver Broncos asked him to try out at free safety in '71, he
declined, telling them, "If you want to be a lawyer and you don't pass the
bar exam, do you become a bailiff just to get in the
courtroom?"
Beban's NFL experience was a letdown after his triumphs as a Bruin. Between 1965
and '67 he led UCLA to a 23-5-2 record, threw for 23 touchdowns and rushed for
35 more, and amassed 5,358 total yards, fourth highest in UCLA history. The apex
of his college career came in the fabled '67 showdown between the No. 1 Bruins
and O.J. Simpson's No. 2 USC Trojans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. "The
stadium was already three-quarters full three hours before the game,"
Beban, 52, says. At stake were L.A. bragging rights, the Pac-8 title, a Rose
Bowl bid, a possible national title and the Heisman. The two stars lived up to
their billings. Beban threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns. Simpson responded
by rushing for 177 and two scores, the last a 64-yard run with 10:38 left that
gave the Trojans a 21-20 victory on their way to the national crown. Beban's
redemption arrived two weeks later, when he became the first (and still the
only) Bruin to win the Heisman.
David Walberg | |
Beban's success in business has erased his NFL disappointments. The year he hung
up his cleats, he joined a real estate service company in L.A., and he has been
with the firm ever since, moving up the ladder as the business has merged and
grown. In 1975 he was transferred to Chicago, and in '87 he was named president
of the company, which had become known as CB Richard Ellis. Now he's an
executive managing director of the billion-dollar firm's global corporate
advisory group. Beban lives with Kathy, his wife of 30 years, in Northbrook,
Ill., where they raised their two sons, Paul, 28, and Mark,
23.
There is no trace of bitterness in Beban's voice when he talks about his failure
as a pro. "I did the best that I possibly could," he says, "and
there were other things I wanted to accomplish in my life. Not making it
motivated me to get back on a winning track in my next
career."
—Luis Fernando
Llosa
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