Former UCLA Coach Horrell Dead at 89

Edwin C. (Babe) Horrell, 89, UCLA’s football coach from 1939 to 1944, died Friday night at his home in Beverly Hills. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease for 30 years.

As a player, Horrell was a lineman on California’s famed “Wonder Teams” of the early 1920s.

In 1942, he became the first UCLA coach to beat USC. UCLA went to the Rose Bowl for the first time that year, losing to Georgia, 9-0.

Horrell’s 1942 team featured Bob Waterfield, who went on to become an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback with the Rams.

Horrell’s 1939 team was undefeated, six victories and four ties, the last a 0-0 deadlock with USC before an estimated crowd of of 103,000 at the Coliseum.

Horrell is survived by his son, Steve; and two daughters, Virginia Rookus, and Winifred Cutting, along with 14 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services are scheduled Tuesday at the Bel-Air Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to the United Parkinson’s Foundation, or the National Football Hall of Fame in Los Angeles.