Men's Basketball | July 29, 2020
Former USC basketball All-Conference guard Danny Rogers, who became UC Irvine's first men's basketball coach, died on July 7 in Costa Mesa, Calif. He was 85.
Rogers lettered at USC in 1956 and 1957. As a record-setting senior in 1957, he was USC's captain and MVP and earned All-Conference first team honors when he averaged a team-high 16.5 points. His 446 total points in 1957 broke the USC season standard held by Bill Sharman seven years earlier.
In 1957, Rogers also set since broken USC season records for free throws made and attempted (195-of-266), marks that stood for 35 years until Harold Miner broke them in 1992 but both still ranking as the most ever by a Trojan senior. He also set a then-USC game record by sinking 19 free throws against Oregon in 1957 on a still-standing school record 26 attempts. That performance came one week after he first set the school free throws made mark by hitting 16 versus UCLA (on 18 tries), including nailing six free throws in the final 45 seconds of USC's 4-point victory to snap the Bruins' 18-game winning streak.
Rogers came to USC after leading Fullerton (Calif.) College to the junior college runner-up spot in 1953 and the school's first state title in 1954. He twice made the juco All-State team and was the state tournament's MVP in 1954. While at Fullerton, he lettered in five sports (basketball, cross country, track, tennis, baseball).
He prepped at Mark Keppel High in Alhambra, Calif.
After playing at USC, he competed for several years on Amateur Athletic Union teams, including several that won championships. He also served in the U.S. Army.
Rogers took graduate classes at USC and became a teacher at Newport Harbor High in Newport Beach, Calif., where he coached the Bee basketball teams to league titles in 1960 and 1961.
He then became an assistant varsity coach and head freshman coach at USC for 4 seasons (1962-65). During his time there, the Trojans posted a 20-win season in 1963 and finished third in the conference three times.
He was UC Irvine's inaugural head coach, guiding the Anteaters to identical 15-11 records in the 1966 and 1967 seasons.
Rogers then became an executive in the World Football League, World Hockey Association and World TeamTennis. He served as general manager of the WFL's franchise in Hawaii before the league folded.
He then was the executive director of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce, a founding partner of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate in Newport Beach, a real estate consultant for Ford Motor Land Services Corporation and president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Orange County.
He was involved in numerous charitable organizations, including the Harbor Area Boys and Girls Club, Boys and Girls Club in Irvine, Orange County Youth Sports Foundation, 2nd Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, Orange County Sports Celebrities and Save Our Youth in Costa Mesa.
He is an inductee in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame and the Fullerton College Hall of Fame.
He was predeceased by his wife, Sheila, in 2018. They had four children, sons John, Joe and Pete and daughter Tracy, and seven grandchildren.
A private Mass was held for Rogers on July 20. A celebration of life will be planned once the COVID-19 pandemic allows.
