Perry Leaving USC for CS Fullerton

Rod Perry Jr., who helped USC win an NCAA baseball championship but never played a down of football for the Trojans, has decided to give up football and said he will transfer to Cal State Fullerton.

Two major surgeries on the same knee led Perry to give up his dream of becoming a two-sport professional athlete, and instead of following his father to the NFL, he is making baseball his only goal.

“I’ve had two season-ending injuries in football,” said Perry, who sat out his freshman football season at USC last year after undergoing a second surgery on the right knee he injured as a junior at Santa Ana Mater Dei High. “In baseball, the chances of something like that happening go way down.

“With baseball, I think I can be healthy and play a long time, and I think I can make it where I want to go. Rather than risk something terrible happening.”

Although Perry has not completed the paperwork for his transfer, he said he decided to go to Fullerton in part because USC’s NCAA limit of baseball scholarships for next year already had been reached. He had been attending USC on a football scholarship.

Said USC baseball Coach Mike Gillespie: “Our money is gone. Our hands are tied. There was nothing we could do. That’s a pretty good athlete to have leave. He’s a very special athlete, with remarkable gifts.”

Perry said “it would have been nice to stay at USC,” but emphasized that Fullerton’s baseball program--for which he will be eligible immediately--is on par with USC’s, and said Orange County is home. Paying to attend USC out of his own pocket was out of the question, he said.

“I’d never be able to do that. It was a situation where I was going to need a scholarship.”

Perry’s departure is a blow to another Trojan team as well--although the football squad won’t feel it as sharply this year, with receivers R. Jay Soward, Billy Miller and Mike Bastianelli returning.

“The problem is next year,” football Coach Paul Hackett said, adding he was “very disappointed” about Perry’s decision, calling it “a tough one.”

Perry said it was tough for him, too.

“If I can help it, I’m not going to watch any ‘SC football games,” he said. “But I’m sure I’ll be watching TV and one will pop on and I’ll get that feeling in my stomach. I’ll have to go on. Right now, I’m a baseball player.”