University Southern California Trojans
Ex-USC Football Player Homer Beatty Dies
March 20, 2000 | Football
March 20, 2000
LOS ANGELES - Homer Beatty, a 3-year USC football letterman who went on to coach three national championship junior college and college teams, died on Thursday (March 16) in Long Beach of natural causes. He was 84.
Beatty, who prepped at Bakersfield High, lettered at halfback for coach Howard Jones at USC in 1934-35-36. He then played with the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the American Football League in the late 1930s and with Santa Ana Army Air Base in 1942.
He then became a football coach, beginning at Porterville High and then Bakersfield High (where he coached future USC and NFL great Frank Gifford) before moving up to the junior college ranks. He led Bakersfield College to a 53-7-3 record from 1953 to 1958, including going 12-0 (capped by a Junior Rose Bowl victory) and winning the J.C. national title in his first year there. He then coached Santa Ana College to a 29-7-1 mark from 1959 to 1962 and won the 1962 J.C. national championship with a 10-0 record and a Junior Rose Bowl victory.
Next, he led Cal State Los Angeles to a 25-2 record from 1963 to 1965, where he won the 1964 NCAA College Division UPI national championship and the 1965 NCAA College Division West Region championship with a win in the Camellia Bowl.
He was inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.
A resident of Long Beach, he is survived by his son, Steven, and three grandchildren, Kristen, Matthew and Lucas.
A funeral service will be held at noon this Thursday (March 23) at Forest Lawn Sunnyside in Long Beach (Cherry Avenue and San Antonio Drive), with a reception immediately following at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the Long Beach Red Cross.
