In memoriam: Marty King, 60
The All-Pac-10 kicker set USC season records for most punts and punt yards with 1978 championship football team
Marty King, a record-setting All-Pac-10 punter on USC’s 1978 national championship football team, died on Jan. 14 in San Francisco of cardiac disease. He was 60.
King was USC’s top punter in 1977 and 1978, averaging 39.9 and 41.7 yards, respectively. In 1978 when he won All-Pac-10 first team acclaim, he set since-broken USC season records for most punts (70) and punt yards (2,921). The Trojans won the Bluebonnet Bowl in his 1977 junior year and then they captured the Rose Bowl en route to a 12-1 mark and a national title the following season.
King came to USC from West Valley Junior College in Saratoga, near San Jose, where he won 1976 All-Conference first team honors while ranking fifth nationally in punting average (41.9). He attended high school at Bellarmine Prep in San Jose, where he starred in football and baseball.
After USC and a brief stint in the NFL, King served as a police officer for 17 years in various jurisdictions, then attended law school and was an attorney in the Bay Area for 17 years. He also was an adjunct professor at Lincoln Law School of San Jose.
He is survived by his wife, Diane; daughters Denise Fernandes, Amy White and Sarah King; sisters Betsy Kerby and Mary Hawes; brother Tom King; and four grandchildren.
A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Jan. 26 at St. Catherine of Alexandria Catholic Church in Morgan Hill.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations sent to the Lincoln Law School of San Jose, in memory of the Martin King Scholarship.