Earl McCullouch
 Earl McCullouch c. 1968 | |||||||||
| No. 25 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Wide receiver | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | January 10, 1946 Clarksville, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Long Beach Polytechnic (Long Beach, California) | ||||||||
| College: | USC | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1968 / round: 1 / pick: 24 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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| Medal record | ||
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| Men's track and field | ||
Representing the  United States
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| Pan American Games | ||
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1967 Winnipeg | 110 m hurdles |
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1967 Winnipeg | 4×100 m relay |
Earl R. McCullouch (born January 10, 1946) is a retired American football wide receiver. McCullouch was the world record holder for the 110 meter men's high hurdle sprint from July 1967 to July 1969. When attending the University of Southern California, McCullouch was a member of the USC Trojan Football teams (wide receiver) and the USC Track & Field teams (120 yard high hurdles and 4×110 sprint relay) in 1967 and 1968. The USC Track 4×110 yard relay team, for which McCullouch ran the start leg, set the world record in 1967 that remains today, as the metric 4 × 100 m relay is now the commonly contested event.
Early life
[edit]McCullouch attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School. He tied the national high school record (held by Don Castronovo from Oceanside High School in Oceanside, New York, and Steve Caminiti from Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, California) in the 180 yard low hurdles at 18.1. The record was never broken and the event was discontinued in regular high school competition in 1974.[1] He swept both the 120 yard high hurdles and the 180 low hurdles at the CIF California State Meet in 1964 (defeating Caminiti).[2]
In 1964 McCullouch was named Co-Athlete of the Year in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section by the Helms Athletic Foundation.[3] He earned the award in conjunction with pole vaulter Paul Wilson.[3]
College career
[edit]Next he attended community college and played football at Long Beach City College where he helped lead the 1964 Long Beach Vikings football team to the junior college national championship. He later transferred to the University of Southern California.
McCullouch played college football at the University of Southern California, where he was part of the 1967 National Championship team. He was one of five USC Trojans players taken in the first round of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft after his senior year. McCullouch was known for having elite sprinter speed and used it on both the track and the football field. Wearing No. 22 during the 1967 and 1968 seasons, McCulloch played wide receiver on an offensive USC Trojan Football squad that featured tailback O. J. Simpson. Defensive coverages had difficulty covering McCullouch in pass routes and chasing him after pass completions due to his sprinter's speed. McCullouch also provided down-field blocking on break-away plays, often for 1968 Heisman Trophy winner Simpson.
As a member of the USC Track & Field team, McCulloch was the NCAA 110 Yard High Hurdle champion in 1967 and 1968, the NCAA 60 yard indoor high hurdle champion in 1968, and was the lead leg sprinter of the USC NCAA 4×110 yard sprint relay team in 1967 and 1968 (the team also featured Simpson and future Olympian sprinter Lennox Miller). The USC Trojan sprint relay team (McCulloch, Fred Kuller, Simpson, and Lennox Miller – in order) set a 4×110 yard sprint relay world record (38.6 sec.) in the 1967 NCAA Track & Field Championships in Provo, Utah on June 17, 1967. In the era of metric-distance sprint world records, this world record still stands today and is likely not to be broken.
McCullough was on the cover of the April 1968 issue of Track and Field News.[4]
Professional career
[edit]As the world record holder and National Champion in the hurdles, McCullouch was a favorite for the Olympic gold medal. In 1968, the Olympic Trials held a Semi-Final event a week after the National Championships. There, Campbell hit several hurdles and finished poorly in 7th place. The final Olympic Trials[5] and Olympics were scheduled for late in the year, September and October respectively, well into the football season. And while the Olympics meant glory, there was no money to be made in the amateur days of the Olympics. McCullouch had a tough choice between his two sports. He chose to enter the NFL draft. Willie Davenport went on to win both the trials and the Olympics. A year later, Davenport finally beat McCullouch's world record.
McCullouch was drafted by the Detroit Lions as their second pick of the first round (24th overall). By the time the Olympic races rolled around, Detroit had already played 5 official games of the regular season and was about to take the lead in the Central Division. By that time, McCullouch had already amassed 419 yards receiving and scored three touchdowns, including an 80-yard reception, from the Lions' other first round pick Greg Landry, in his first NFL game.[6] He finished the season with 680 yards receiving, plus another 13 in 3 rushing attempts, 5 touchdowns and a 43-yard per touch average and was named the NFL Rookie of the Year in 1968. He played 7 seasons for the Lions between 1968 and 1973, then finished off his career with a non-productive season with the New Orleans Saints in 1974.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ National High School Record Book. nfhs.org
- ^ "California State Meet Results – 1915 to present". Hank Lawson. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
- ^ a b Southern California High School Track & Field Record, 1965 Season (PDF), Helms Athletic Foundation, 1965, retrieved March 24, 2013
- ^ Past Covers 1968 Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Trackandfieldnews.com. Retrieved on July 17, 2015.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 20, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Detroit Lions at Dallas Cowboys - September 15th, 1968". Pro-Football-Reference.com.
- ^ "Earl McCullouch Stats". Pro-Football-Reference.com.
External links
[edit]- California State Records before 2000[permanent dead link]
- Database Football
- NFL.com
- Pro Football Reference
- LBCC Hall of Champions
- The Races of Earl McCullouch (Internet Archive)
- USC Track Archived May 8, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
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- USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners
- 1946 births
- Living people
- People from Clarksville, Texas
- American male hurdlers
- American football wide receivers
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1967 Pan American Games
- USC Trojans men's track and field athletes
- USC Trojans football players
- Detroit Lions players
- New Orleans Saints players
- National Football League Offensive Rookie of the Year Award winners
- Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in athletics (track and field)
- World record setters in athletics (track and field)
- Track and field athletes from California
- Long Beach City Vikings football players
- Medalists at the 1967 Pan American Games
- Long Beach Polytechnic High School alumni
- NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners
- NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships winners
- 20th-century American sportsmen