Since 1995, it has been a tradition every decade to celebrate the 1975 Orange Coast College national championship football team.
This year’s golden anniversary reunion on Nov. 8 when the Pirates host Pasadena City, will be the first sans legendary former OCC Coach Dick Tucker, who died in 2018 at age 92.
Tucker’s Pirates captured the second of two national championships in his 24-year tenure in 1975 (along with 1963). Tucker’s teams won six conference championships, and he was voted conference Coach of the Year six times, recording an all-time record of 129-102-5. The football field at OCC is named after him.
“That ’75 squad was a great team, maybe the greatest in community college history,” Tucker said in 2015. “We had no weaknesses. We were great on offense. I would have hated to try to defend us. We played ball control. We also had a great defense, and we had an outstanding kicking game.”
The ’75 Pirates won 11 games by a whopping average score of 40-13. After 10 consecutive regular-season wins, Tucker’s Pirates concluded their season with a 38-14 victory over Rio Hondo in the Avocado Bowl and captured a national championship.
“We didn’t have a close game all season, but we never intentionally ran up a score,” Tucker said. “We’d pull our starters in the third quarter every game. Our reserves got the bulk of the playing time in the second half.”
The ’75 OCC squad was spectacular in every facet of the game, and two fine quarterbacks shared time, Mike Magner (an excellent ball carrier) and Dave White (a great passer). After OCC, Magner played at Montana and White at Oregon State. White was the starting quarterback for the ’75 Pirates, throwing 19 touchdown passes and ranking among the leaders on OCC’s career total offense list.
In Week 6 of the ’75 Orange Coast season, the Pirates faced longtime rival and perennial national power Fullerton and defeated the Hornets by nearly three touchdowns, which turned out to be “our toughest game of the year,” White said. “Fullerton had a great program with great athletes and great coaches, and (the Hornets) really got after us. But we played well. It was a thrill to play in Anaheim Stadium. After that win, we knew we had something special going.”
White became one of Orange County’s top high school coaches at Edison, where he guided the Chargers for 31 seasons, leading them to 14 Sunset League championships and two CIF-Southern Section titles.
Behind a formidable OCC offensive line, JC All-American running back Tony Accomando rushed for 1,300 yards and scored 29 touchdowns, mostly out of a veer formation. Accomando led the nation in touchdowns, coming up one short of tying the national JC record of 30 touchdowns by O.J. Simpson of San Francisco City College in 1966. OCC’s solid line featured two future Cal players in center Rick Purnell and left tackle Jack Clark.
Accomando and Clark were voted JC All-Americans. Six other Pirates were honorable mention selections on the All-American team, and nine Bucs were chosen first-team All-South Coast Conference. Orange Coast placed 12 players on the first-team All-Orange County unit, with Accomando as Player of the Year.
Magner and White never took a hit or sack from the blind side with Clark and left guard Jeff Kravitz protecting them. The Pirates’ second-string center in ’75, Brad Green, later started at USC.
OCC’s defense, led by sophomore linebackers T.A. Brown and Al Korn, allowed just 73 yards per game on the ground, while opposing running backs averaged only 2 yards per carry. The Pirates stuffed opponents for 517 yards in rushing losses.
“I felt sorry for teams that tried to run against us,” Tucker said.
Sophomore defensive end Mike Frost and freshman linebacker Rhett Tucker, the coach’s son, were also significant contributors on defense. The next year, Rhett Tucker established an Orange Coast single-season record for tackles.
Also spotlighting the Pirates’ defense were cornerbacks Tim Hicks and Ron Lamerton, strong safety Mark Modes and free safety Dave Bienek.
“We had a great defensive coordinator, Jack Fair, who had been with Dick Tucker the whole time (since Tucker arrived at OCC in 1962),” Korn said. “Jack Fair was one tough son of a gun. I have to thank him for everything. He made me the player I was. You didn’t take a snap off with him. It was go, go, go, and he really taught the fundamentals of football.”