DBD 10-17-2024: Dick Erickson

Welcome to the DBD, a W4C community board where one can talk about pretty much anything, like…

In yesterday’s DBD, I posted a trivia question asking who had the fewest completions in a season by a starting QB from 1946 onward. “Starting QB” was anybody who had the most pass attempts in a season.

The answer is Dick Erickson in 1946, who completed six out of his 23 attempts. When WW2 ended, you had returning servicemen enrolling in university. The first year back, Cal was under first-year coach Frank Wickhorst. Erickson played at U Michigan under the Navy ROTC in 1945, which was considered a top program. Erickson went off to war, but it ended and he was discharged. Erickson then went to Cal and said that Wickhorst was “a wonderful person, but one who was not what I would call a first class Head Coach”. The new HC Pappy Waldorf then sent essentially the same players to three straight Rose Bowls.

The running back for that team was Jackie Jenson, who averaged about 3.7 yards per carry under Wickhorst, but then over 7 for the next two years.

Erickson went on to be a legend for Cal, heading up the Alumni Association for 17 years and being assistant Chancellor for Development. He was also heavily involved in Cal Band and approved its evolution to be a high-stepping marvel. Erickson passed away in 2018.

Jackie Jenson pitched Cal to a College Baseball championship win over George H. Bush. In football, he was an All-American and fourth in the Heisman voting. But Jensen followed baseball, playing for the Oakland Oaks minor league team with Billy Martin. He then got picked up by the Yankees, who wanted to develop him as the heir to Joe DiMaggio. However, the Yankees ended up getting some guy named Mickey Mantle, so he got traded to the Washington Senators where he immediately became an All Star. He was traded the next year to Boston and proceeded to have a sterling career and is now in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, College Football Hall of Fame, and Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. He retired from baseball at age 32, partly because he was terrified of flying and partly because he was homesick. Jenson later became the coach of the Cal Bears baseball team. Sadly, he passed away from an apparent heart attack at the age of 55 in 1982.