Former player and coach Nick Pappas died Friday


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Nick Pappas, a former USC football player, coach and associate athletic director, passed away of natural causes on Friday at his home in Pasadena. He was 99.

Students, staff, administrators and football fans mourned his passing with a moment of silence at Saturday’s USC-Utah football game, and acknowledged the nearly six decades of service to the University that led Pappas to be nicknamed “Mr. Trojan.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Pappas, who was born in Seattle in 1916, started as a tailback for the USC football team in 1935 and led the team in rushing for the next three years under coach Howard Jones. He played for the Hollywood Bears, his first pro football experience, from 1938 to 1939 before returning to USC to coach the freshman teams.

When the United States entered World War II, Pappas joined the Navy, earning Purple Heart and Silver Star medals for his service overseas. After the end of the war, Pappas found himself at USC once again, scouting for the football team for two years before starting as an assistant coach under Jess Hill in 1953.

As assistant coach, Pappas helped lead the Trojans to the Rose Bowl in 1954. Perhaps his most lasting contribution to the University, however, was the establishment of the Trojan Club athletic booster organization, a group he created in the late 1950s with the goal of establishing a bond between the school and its athletic donors, according to the CBS News.

Though Pappas retired in 1981, he worked to raise endowment funds for the University through wills and estates until 2004. He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997 and received USC’s Alumni Service Award.

Pappas is survived by his daughters, Lisa Widman and Mona Pappas, as well as five grandchildren and multiple great-grandchildren. His wife of 66 years, Deedy, and his daughter Rene Arrobio passed away before him. Services for Pappas are pending; his family encourages well-wishers to donate to the USC Nick Pappas Football Scholarship.

This post has been updated for style and clarity.