Shipkey Left His Mark on Every Level of Game : O.C. Hall of Fame: Former Pittsburgh Steeler helped Anaheim win CIF title and played on USC and UCLA Rose Bowl teams.

When Jerry Shipkey was told he was being inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, his reaction was similar to the one he had almost 40 years ago when he was standing on USC’s sideline during the Rose Bowl and Trojan Coach Jeff Cravath called his name:

“Who, me ?”

Shipkey was a 19-year-old freshman who spent the 1943 season on the junior varsity and was called up to the varsity for the Rose Bowl game against Washington. What luck, Shipkey thought. Here it was, the biggest game of the year, and Shipkey had one of the best seats in the house--right there on the Trojan sideline.

“I was the seventh fullback of seven fullbacks, behind some great players, and Cravath turns around and says, ‘Shipkey!’ ” Shipkey said. “Geez, I couldn’t believe it. I jumped up, started running onto the field, tripped over a sideline marker and fell flat on my face.”

News of his Orange County enshrinement didn’t knock Shipkey over, but it threw him for a loop.

“I had my share of yards and touchdowns in high school, had a good college career and made the pros,” Shipkey, 68, said. “But this came as a big surprise. It’s the last thing in the world I expected.”

Shipkey had his “share of yards and touchdowns” and helped Anaheim win the CIF Lower Division football championship in 1940 and finish second in 1941. He was an All-CIF football player and also held the state shotput record for several years.

During his “good college career,” he was a starting linebacker on the 1946 UCLA team that went 10-0 in the regular season, shut out two opponents and held six others to seven points or fewer. He also played fullback, rushing 80 times for 475 yards and three touchdowns.

Shipkey, who entered college under a naval officer training program, was transferred from USC to UCLA after his freshman year and is believed to be the only player to play in Rose Bowl games for USC and UCLA. Shipkey’s 1943 USC team beat Washington, 29-0, while his 1946 Bruin team suffered its only loss of the season to Illinois, 45-14, in the Rose Bowl.

And Shipkey did more than “make the pros.” He spent five seasons (1948-52) with the Pittsburgh Steelers and played in the first three Pro Bowls (1951-53). He set a team record with eight rushing touchdowns as a rookie fullback but spent the majority of his Steeler career as a defensive player.

Shipkey was traded to the Chicago Bears in 1953, but an exhibition-game shoulder injury drastically curtailed his playing time and eventually forced him to retire.

The Steelers had only one winning season during Shipkey’s tenure, 6-5-1 in 1949, but Shipkey developed a reputation as one of the league’s harder-nosed players. He won the team’s “Iron Man Award” one season and a Dapper Dan Club of Pittsburgh Achievement Award in 1952.

Hailed the Dapper Dan banquet program: “Never before has there been more of a flaming, fighting football spirit shown on a local football field by a professional player than that displayed by Jerry Shipkey in 1951. Through defeat and disaster, Shipkey held his head and spirit high.”

And his fork, too. Shipkey was 6 feet 1, 215 pounds through high school and college, which was very big for his day, and his on-field prowess was rivaled by his appetite.

“He’d eat a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread for breakfast,” said Tom Shipkey, Jerry’s cousin. “He had an awesome appetite.”

One sports writer devoted a entire column to what Shipkey ate for breakfast on a train ride home from Oregon.

“I started with cantaloupe, had a dozen eggs, 10 slices of bacon--it just went on and on, and I topped it off with a bowl of ice cream,” Shipkey said. “I used to drink six quarts of milk a day in high school. I don’t know how my dad afforded me, to tell you the truth.”

Lucky for Shipkey, he had an understanding father. Arthur Shipkey was an All-American tackle at Occidental in the early 1920s, and with the nickname “Battleship,” you know he probably had a healthy appetite.

Shipkey’s uncles, Harry and Ted, were also All-American football players at Stanford in the 1920s, and his brother, Art, was a standout at Anaheim High. Art was wounded in Germany during World War II, but Jerry, despite spending three years in the service, never saw combat.

“When the war ended, I was on a torpedo boat in the Long Island Sound,” Shipkey said. “I never got a scratch.”

He delivered his share of bumps and bruises during the 1946 football season, though. UCLA rolled through the regular season, with one-sided victories over Oregon State (50-7), Washington (39-13) and Montana (61-7).

The night before UCLA was to play USC for the Pacific Coast Conference championship, a rainstorm turned the Coliseum field into a quagmire. Rain continued during the game, but 93,000 fans still showed up and saw the Bruins beat the Trojans, 13-6, in what is known as “The Mud Bowl.”

The score was 6-6 when USC’s Mickey McCardle fielded a punt on his five-yard line. McCardle was hit by UCLA’s Al Hoisch and fumbled. The Bruins recovered and went on to score the winning touchdown.

“That was the game when we were punting on third down, so in case it got blocked or we fumbled the snap, we’d have a chance to recover and kick again,” Shipkey said. “As luck would have it, McCardle fumbled and we scored.”

A recap of that game in the Rose Bowl described the scene: “Sawdust spread on field reminded of ye olde time grogge shoppe.” Shipkey just remembers the ooze.

“There was mud up through your ears and eyes, just mud everywhere,” Shipkey said. “The footing was terrible. Everything about that game was really weird.”

Just as strange was UCLA vs. Illinois, which marked the first time the PCC (now Pac-10) and Big Nine (now Big Ten) champions met in the Rose Bowl.

“The papers were bombarded with how bad we were supposed to beat Illinois--we were heavily favored,” said Shipkey, who played sparingly against Illinois because he was suffering from strep throat. “But they beat us, 45-14.”

UCLA went 5-4 in 1947, and although Shipkey had another year of eligibility, he chose to turn professional in 1948. He had a solid career at Pittsburgh, but ran into misfortune with the Bears in 1953.

“Five (Philadelphia) Eagles terminated my career in Hershey, Pa.,” Shipkey said. “I made a mistake by catching a kickoff as a short blocker and, rather than turning for a lateral, I took off. I was doing pretty well until five guys cut me off. My left shoulder hit the ground and the ball was under that arm. It tore every ligament in my shoulder.”

After playing hurt for parts of eight games, Shipkey decided he wasn’t helping himself, or the team. He told Bear Coach George Halas he was going home.

Shipkey ran an automobile tires/batteries/accessories business for about 15 years and spent 1974-85 cruising around North and Central America in a 46-foot sailboat. He currently splits time between homes in Laughlin, Nev., and Dana Point.

Shipkey’s arthritic back, shoulders and hips has slowed him considerably, and sometimes getting out of bed can be a chore.

“It’s hell getting old,” Shipkey said.

But it sure beats the alternative, which Shipkey came face-to-face with in 1978, when he survived a head-on collision with a diesel truck in Costa Rica, and in 1985, when he passed out on the deck of his boat, which was in dry dock, and somehow escaped a 12-foot fall with only a broken foot.

“I really looked death in the eye twice, so I’m on borrowed time now,” Shipkey said. “I know I cuss a lot and probably make too big a deal (about my ailments), but I’m lucky to be alive.”

Hall of Fame Induction Facts

What: 13th Orange County Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony

Where: Gate 6, Anaheim Stadium

When: 11 a.m. Sunday

Highlights: Ceremony inducting Bert Blyleven, Gary Carter, Maurice (Red) Guyer, Hal Sherbeck, Jerry Shipkey and Ray Willsey will take place outside Anaheim Stadium. The public can then gain admission to the newly opened Hall of Fame for $3.