Jim Pursell '23

of this survivor of many firsts. He was on the USC football team that played in the first game in the Los Angeles Coliseum, in the first game at the Rose Bowl, and in the first Rose Bowl game at the Rose Bowl. As Orange County-Register sports columnist Jeff Miller put it, “This link to an era as forgotten as train robberies, Prohibition and the Model T, is working on his 100th year of life. Jim Pursell played football before USC and UCLA ever played each other.”
Leafing through his vintage 1923 USC Pigskin Preview, the plucky Pursell points out his listing as a guard – number 37 – weighing all of 160 pounds. Despite his lean build, in the fall of 1921 Pursell earned a spot on the team as a walk-on when Coach Elmer “Gloomy Gus” Henderson noticed him throw those 160 pounds into a hole in the line to make a tackle.
“I never developed into a star,” says the 99-year-old Pursell, now living independently in Leisure World. “But I never missed a practice, and in one game I knocked out three Stanford players. I think I was up to 165 pounds that day.”

Following his playing days, Pursell began a 35-year career as a physical education teacher and football and track coach in Los Angeles, mostly at University High School. He coached dozens of champion runners, including some world-class athletes. At University High, he coached Mel Patton, whom he sent to USC. Patton went on to set world records in both the 100- and 220-yard dashes and won gold medals in the sprints in the 1948 Olympic Games.
“So many of my kids turned out to be quality men,” says Pursell. “They have character. If I had anything to do with that, I’m grateful and proud.”
Many of them still phone, send letters and drop by to see Coach Jim – as most of his former athletes still call him. Patton and former world record-setting hurdler Craig Dixon visited not long ago, Pursell says. “You know, those guys are getting old,” he quips.
Besides exercising his wit, Pursell stays active physically, attributing his flat stomach to taking the stairs to his second-floor apartment and playing a little golf. His coaching appraisal of a recent nine-hole outing? “I was terrible – except for one short hole. I got a birdie!”
Sports are fun, says the grand old coach, “but I have more fun doing things for other people. That’s always what has kept me going. The more we give, the more we have to give.”

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Jack Harrington '70

Jim Pursell '23

William Altaffer '67

Edwin F. Westover '23 and Family