The UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans have thrilled the Los Angeles area of the years with many incredible seasons of basketball. Two of their most notable players, Ed O'Bannon of UCLA and Sam Barry of USC, have been selected for the Pac-12 Hall Of Honor. Both will be officially enshrined during the week of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament in L.A.
Continue reading for details on both legendary players...
From the official Pac-12 media release:
Ed O'Bannon, UCLA - O'Bannon is one of just five players in UCLA men's basketball history to start on a UCLA NCAA Championshipbasketball team (1995), have his Bruin jersey number retired (No. 31 in 1996), be inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame (2005) and be inducted into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor (March 2012).
From his sophomore season on, O'Bannon was a UCLA starter and leader. As a sophomore in 1992-93, he was UCLA's second-leading scorer (16.7) and top rebounder (7.0), garnering United Press International honorable mention All-American honors, a USBWA first-team All-District 8 selection and a first-team All-Pac-10 nod. As a junior in 1993-94, he led the Bruins in scoring (18.2) and rebounding (8.8), earning NABC third-team All-America, USBWA first-team All-District 8 and first-team All-Pac-10. As a senior co-captain in 1994-95, O'Bannon led the Bruins to the 1995 NCAA Championship. He did it all for the Bruins that season: He was the team's top scorer (20.4), rebounder (8.3), three-point shooter (.433, 55-of-127) and free throw shooter (.785, 124-of-158). In addition tobeing named Most Outstanding Player of the 1995 Final Four, his end-of-the-season honors included the John R. Wooden, RCA/USBWA and CBS-Chevrolet National Player of the Year awards and Pac-10 co-Player of the Year.
At the end of his collegiate career, his 1,815 points was No. 4 in school history, 820 rebounds ninth and 95 blocked shots second. In the 1995 NBA Draft, O'Bannon was the ninth overall selection by the New Jersey Nets. He played two years in the NBA with the New Jersey Nets and the Dallas Mavericks, and played an additional seven years of professional basketball overseas.
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Sam Barry, USC - Justin "Sam" Barry is the winningest basketball coach in USC history, as he guided the Trojans to a 260-138 (.653) record in his 17 years (1930-41, 1946-50) with USC. His teams finished third at the 1940 NCAA tournament, won eight conference crowns and posted 32 consecutive wins over crosstown rival UCLA. He transformed the game of basketball by pushing for the elimination of the center jump after each basket, resulting in a faster-paced game.
He was a leading advocate of the 10-second rule, and is credited as the father of the triangle offense. Barry also coached the Trojan baseball team, solo from 1930 to 1941 (winning six league titles) and then with Rod Dedeaux for six more years (1942, 1946-50) as they captured USC's first ever-baseball NCAA title in 1948. Before his tenure at USC, Barry coached basketball and baseball at Iowa, and also helped then-Iowa football coach Howard Jones with the football program. Barry won a pair of Big Ten basketball titles in his seven-year stay (1923-29) at Iowa. When Jones left for USC, he again recommended Barry for the Trojan basketball job and an assistant's role with the football team-Barry succeeded Jones as the football head coach for a season in 1941.
He died on Sept. 23, 1950, at 57 years old in Berkeley, Calif., while on a football scouting trip for USC. Barry was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979 and was voted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.