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Gary Joseph Beban (born August 5, 1946) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for two seasons with the Washington Redskins. He played college football for the UCLA Bruins, where he won both the Maxwell Award and the Heisman Trophy in 1967. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988.
In his senior year, Beban played in the 1967 USC vs. UCLA football game, widely regarded as one of the best college football games of all time. The game pitted No. 4 AP (No. 2 UPI) ranked USC, and their Heisman Trophy candidate running back O. J. Simpson, against the No. 1 ranked Bruins and Beban—also a Heisman Trophy candidate—with both the AAWU and national championships on the line.Bonfante, Jordan - The Technocrat - Sports / Gary Beban is the Master of Cool Football Life Magazine, November 17, 1967, pg 90A Badly injured with torn rib cartilage and in great pain, he still threw for over 300 yards and two touchdowns. Although USC eventually won the game 21–20 on a blocked PAT, and went on to the Rose Bowl, Beban would go on to win the Heisman Trophy. Both Beban and Simpson were featured on the cover of the November 20 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine. USC VS. UCLA: SHOWDOWN IN L.A. - Sports Illustrated November 20, 1967 (Cover) Article:The Great One Confronts O.J. Sports Illustrated, November 20, 1967, Volume 27, Issue 21 Commenting on Beban's heroic effort playing through injury, famed L.A. Times columnist Jim Murray wrote that if "Gary Beban wins the Heisman Trophy, they ought to fill it with aspirin".
In addition to winning the Heisman, Beban was unanimously named to the All-America Team,1975 UCLA Media Guide, UCLA Athletic News Bureau, 1975 won the Maxwell Award, and was awarded the Washington Touchdown Club Trophy and the W. J. Voit Memorial Trophy as the outstanding football player on the Pacific Coast. He was also named a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete and received the Dolly Cohen award, given to the player best combining academic and football achievement.
UCLA became the first school to have a player of the year winner in both basketball and football in the same year, with Beban winning the Heisman Trophy and Lew Alcindor winning the U.S. Basketball Writers Association player of the year award in 1968. For one week in November 1967, UCLA had the No. 1 ranked football and men's basketball teams, with the chance of landing national championships in both sports. UCLA did ultimately garner the 1968 basketball championship.
Beban was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1991. He is a charter member of the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame, and the Bruins retired his No. 16 jersey. Although the UCLA football program has turned out a high proportion of successful professional players through the years, Beban remains the only Bruin to win the Heisman.
His draft rights were traded to the Washington Redskins on June 14, 1968, after failing to agree to terms on a contract with the Rams, in exchange for a first-round draft pick in 1969 (the Rams used the pick, tenth overall, to select split end Jim Seymour). Beban signed a reported three-year contract worth $200,000 three days later. He played for the Redskins in 1968 and 1969, under new head coach Vince Lombardi. But, sitting behind veteran quarterback and future Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen, Beban was given little game time, and the professional stardom portended by his college career was not forthcoming. Released from the Redskins on September 8, 1970, Beban signed with the Denver Broncos after the 1970 season, but was waived on August 5, 1971, and retired from professional football afterwards.
In 2009, UCLA scheduled a special "Throwback Jersey" day in Beban's honor for the UCLA-Washington homecoming game at the Rose Bowl, where the team dressed in the powder-blue and white shoulder-stripe jerseys with pure gold helmets (without decals) of UCLA's 1965–66–67 seasons, uniforms first devised by the coach Red Sanders for his teams of the 1950s, including the 1954 National Championship team. Fans were able to purchase Beban's number 16 jersey to wear en masse that day.
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