Good Luck, Guile Guide Paul Cleary : Hall of Fame: Being in the right place at the right time and a dogged work ethic helped former USC football star become a college All-American.

Virtually everything Paul Cleary has accomplished in life--from his academic and athletic success at USC to his success in the construction business--has been the result of his dogged work ethic.

Cleary, 68, never thought he was gifted in mind or body. He was not a great scholar, he says, but he got good grades. He wasn’t a superb athlete but was able to outwork and outsmart many opponents.

“I’ve never been spectacular,” Cleary said. “Basically, if you give me a job, I’ll do it the best I can, give you 110%. If you knock me down, I’ll get up. And if you knock me down again, I’ll get up again and learn from it.”

But for a self-admitted “regular guy,” for someone who had little handed to him but has accomplished much in life, Cleary has had an incredible string of good fortune through the years.

When he was 5, he stepped on a rusty nail and contracted lockjaw, in which the jaws become firmly locked together. With no antibiotics to fight the disease during the 1920s, most infected youngsters died.

Cleary survived.

During World War II, Cleary spent more than two years bouncing around U.S. Army bases before finally being sent into combat. Cleary was assigned to a group that was to invade Japan--in early August, 1945.

A few days before his unit arrived, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, prompting a Japanese surrender.

Cleary never had to fire his rifle.

Cleary wasn’t on any preseason All-American teams in 1947. But he seemed to play his best games when the right people were watching, eliciting glowing reviews from prominent coaches and sportswriters and earning All-American honors.

“I probably got more recognition in less time than anyone who has ever played the game,” Cleary said.

After his playing career, Cleary kicked around in a few odd jobs until 1952, when a friend helped him get an entry level position at the R.J. Noble Co. in Orange, an asphalt paving business that opened in 1950.

It was like landing in a gold mine. In nine years, Cleary worked his way up from scaleman (weighing trucks), to foreman’s assistant, to on-site superintendent, to company president.

The company, meanwhile, reaped the benefits of the local building boom--yes, there have been a few roads and parking lots built in Orange County since 1952--to become one of the area’s most successful asphalt paving contractors, as Cleary’s spacious house in Three Arch Bay, overlooking the ocean in South Laguna, will attest.

But in 1978, it seemed his luck had run out. Though Cleary was a picture of health at 56--he didn’t smoke, hardly drank, wasn’t overweight and had no cholesterol problem--he suffered a major heart attack.

In the following weeks, he twice went into full cardiac arrest. Cleary thought he was a goner the second time when he saw a bright light at the end of a long, dark tunnel--the classic vision of many who have been pronounced dead and then revived.

“In my mind, I was coming out of the Los Angeles Coliseum dressing room, through the tunnel and out onto the field,” Cleary said.

It was one playing surface he never reached, mostly because of luck. For even when his luck ran bad, Cleary has been fortunate.

The first time his heart stopped, Cleary was in an ambulance, being transported from one hospital to another, and paramedics were there to revive him.

The second time he went into full cardiac arrest, he was in a hospital. Cleary was in bed when he saw the line on the EKG monitor go flat--a Code Blue, as they say in the medical profession. Doctors rushed in and revived him.

Cleary was in an emergency room the third time his heart stopped, in 1982. He had been experiencing chest pains and went to the hospital as a precautionary measure. Doctors were there to revive him.

“Had I been anywhere else, I wouldn’t be here today,” Cleary said.

In the years since his heart attacks, Cleary’s heart has gone into fibrillation twice when he was on the golf course. The first time, a doctor happened to be in the clubhouse and administered aid until paramedics arrived.

The second time, Cleary was playing a round of golf with two doctors.

“That’s the story of my life,” Cleary said. “I’ve been very fortunate in everything I’ve done.

“Like during the war, I had friends who never lasted a day in combat. It depended on if you were in the right place at the right time--or the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Cleary, it seems, has always been in the right place at the right time. Like at USC in 1947.

“I almost went to Stanford,” Cleary said. “I would have never made All-American there because they didn’t have a very good team that year.”

Had he not made All-American, Cleary doubts that he would have been elected to the National Football Foundation Collegiate Hall of Fame, as he was in 1989. And he doubts that he would be among the four athletes inducted into the Orange County Hall of Fame next Thursday.

That Cleary garnered both honors is a credit to his determination, dedication and perseverance.

Cleary graduated from Santa Ana High School in 1940 without playing a down of varsity football. His peak weight reaching 140 pounds, Cleary was deemed too small to play with the big boys, so he spent his high school career on the junior varsity team.

The next fall, Cleary redshirted at Santa Ana Junior College and spent the 1940 season practicing with--and getting beat up by--players who were 60 pounds heavier.

Finally, Cleary started growing. By fall, 1941, he was up to 170 pounds and was listed as the team’s third-string end. By the end of the season, Cleary had earned a starting job and the team’s most improved player award.

Stardom found Cleary in 1942. Having grown and developed even more since the previous year, Cleary helped lead Santa Ana to an undefeated season and a No. 1 national ranking among junior colleges. He was named outstanding junior college player in Southern California.

The Army found Cleary in 1943, though, and during his three years of service during World War II, Cleary never touched a football. He returned to USC in 1946 and worked his way from sixth-string end to starting end by the end of the ’46 season.

And then came ’47. USC had an outstanding team that went undefeated before losing to Notre Dame and Michigan in the last two games.

The Trojans tied Rice, 7-7, in the second game of the season, and Cleary drew rave reviews from Rice Coach Jess Nealy, who told reporters Cleary “is the best end in the country.”

“That was significant because his end was a preseason All-American pick,” Cleary said.

The next week, USC rode the train to Columbus, Ohio, and ripped Ohio State, 32-0. Many of the nation’s major sportswriters and broadcasters were on hand to see Cleary play another outstanding game, and Cleary received national recognition for his performance.

Two weeks later, USC beat a previously undefeated California team, 39-14, and Cleary had several fine catches. “Movietonews” picked up film of the game, and soon, highlights of Cleary were being shown in theaters across the country.

The USC publicity department pushed Cleary for All-American honors. A caricature of Cleary with the title, “Paul Cleary: Troy’s leading All-American candidate,” began appearing in USC game programs.

Here’s how it described the two-way starter: A glue-fingered wingman with a deceptive style of sliding into the open makes him a standout pass receiver!! There’s not much traffic around this end!

As good as USC was, however, the Trojans were steam-rolled by Notre Dame, 38-7, in their regular-season finale and by Michigan, 49-0, in the Rose Bowl. Michigan was one of the first teams to use the platoon system, with separate players for offense and defense.

There was a nationwide debate in 1947 over who had the best team--Notre Dame or Michigan. They didn’t meet on the field, but when it became apparent that both would play USC, the thinking went that whoever beat the Trojans by a bigger margin would be declared No. 1.

So USC, in effect, served as a punching bag for Notre Dame and Michigan. Though the Michigan score was more lopsided, Notre Dame wound up as the nation’s No. 1 team. And Cleary still is asked which team was better.

“My answer was always, ‘What’s the difference between getting hit by a Greyhound bus going 60 miles per hour or a Porsche going 90 miles per hour?’ ” Cleary said. “They were two different teams with different styles. Notre Dame was bigger and more physical, and Michigan was smaller but had great, quick backs. They were both awesome.”

Many teams, including USC’s, were awesome in 1947. Because those who served in the war--and many who played in armed-forces leagues--were able to retain their college eligibility, most rosters were stocked with players in their mid-20s, players who normally would have moved on to the professional ranks by then.

“We had guys who were colonels, in prisoner-of-war camps, Navy aces, 25-year-olds--everyone had them,” Cleary said. “Everyone had a good team because there was so much talent with seven years worth of players.”

Cleary also found himself amid a world of talent in December, 1948, when he appeared on a “This Is Your Life” television show honoring sportswriter Grantland Rice.

A picture in Cleary’s den captures the studio scene, which featured Rice and host Ralph Edwards surrounded by such legends as Jim Thorpe and the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame (Elmer Layden, Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller and Jim Crowley).

Cleary and USC teammate John Ferraro, an All-American tackle and now president of the Los Angeles City Council, also are in the picture.

“Of all my mementos, that’s my most unique,” Cleary said. “To be included in that group was fantastic.”

Cleary’s professional career lasted as long as his USC career--two seasons--but wasn’t nearly as distinguished. Married with a daughter by the time he graduated from USC, Cleary wasn’t even planning to play pro football.

But when the New York Yankees of the newly formed All-American Football Conference offered him $8,000 a year--far more than most players were making at the time--Cleary jumped at it.

He played the 1948 season with the Yankees, appearing in every game but never starting, but was cut before the 1949 season. Cleary was offered a contract by the Chicago Hornets and played one more season before retiring in 1950.

“I would never have been a great pro player because I wasn’t fast enough to be a wide receiver when they started specializing, and I wasn’t big enough to play defensive end,” said Cleary, who played at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds. “But I was good when you had to do both.”

His pro football career was a bust, but Cleary’s business career boomed. R.J. Noble died in 1966, and Cleary, who has four children and seven grandchildren, had secured controlling interest in the private company by 1967.

R.J. Noble is now one of Orange County’s most prominent construction companies with a core of about 160 employees. The company has been heavily involved in county road construction for the past 40 years and has recently moved into the Riverside/Corona area.

“He’s a legend in the construction business,” said Paul Salata, a former USC teammate now in the real estate investment business. “We’ve had architects, engineers, lawyers and doctors off that 1947 USC team, but no one has been more successful than Cleary.”

But after his heart attack in 1978, Cleary cut his work load in half and handed the company reins to his son, Paul Jr., who became president. Cleary now spends most mornings in the office and many afternoons on the golf course.

As healthy as Cleary looks--he has actually lost a few pounds since his playing days--it’s hard to believe he has had so many serious heart problems.

But Cleary has been on medication for his heart ailments since 1978 and hasn’t experienced any major problems since his last cardiac arrest in 1982. He proclaims to be “healthier than a horse” and enjoys golf and hunting and walks about 10 miles a week.

“I’m certainly not incapacitated,” Cleary said, “just lucky.”

PAUL CLEARY

Football Player

Age: 68

Hometown: Santa Ana

High School: Santa Ana High School

Colleges: Santa Ana Junior College, USC

Accomplishments:

Was Southern California Junior College football player of the year in 1942 after leading Santa Ana College to 9-0 season and No. 1 national ranking.

Was an All-American end at USC in 1947, when Trojans were 7-2-1 and played in Rose Bowl.

Elected to National Football Foundation Collegiate Hall of Fame in 1989.

President of R.J. Noble Construction Co., in Orange.

Will be inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday at Disneyland Hotel.