Jack Kirby, 84; scored the touchdown that sent USC to Rose Bowl in ’48

Jack Kirby, 84, who scored the only touchdown in USC’s 6-0 victory over UCLA in 1947 that propelled the Trojans into the Rose Bowl, died March 9 of lung and heart complications at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, his son Steven said Tuesday.

A native of Los Angeles, Kirby played football, baseball and track at Dorsey High before enrolling at USC. After a stint flying torpedo planes for the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, he returned to USC. Kirby was a halfback and defensive back on the 1947 football team that wound up losing to unbeaten Michigan, 49-0, in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1948. He played one more year with the Trojans, then went on to one season of professional football with the Green Bay Packers.

He returned to California and spent most of his working life as a real estate developer. An avid golfer, Kirby invented the golf course distance markers called Kirby Markers.