Why a Chiefs Super Bowl champ was hanging out with Mark McGwire in Overland Park
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- USC tie brought together McGwire and Chiefs champ Mike Garrett at event.
- McGwire was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, class of 2025.
- Garrett cited the Trojan bond linking their USC roots and careers.
Until Thursday night at the Overland Park Marriott, former baseball slugger Mark McGwire and Heisman Trophy-winning running back Mike Garrett, who won a Super Bowl ring with the Chiefs, had never met.
Yet McGwire made sure to acknowledge Garrett, sitting at his table, during his acceptance speech at the College Baseball Night of Champions event, where McGwire entered the sport’s Hall of Fame.
What brought them together?
Although decades apart, they both wore the uniforms of the University of Southern California Trojans.
“It’s a bond,” said Garrett, who led the nation in rushing in touchdowns in his 1965 Heisman-winning year. “It’s part of being a Trojan.”
Garrett spent eight years in the AFL and NFL, including four-plus seasons with the Chiefs. He rushed for a touchdown in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl IV victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
After his playing career, Garrett spent 17 years as USC’s athletic director, although his time there didn’t coincide with McGwire’s.
McGwire was named college baseball’s player of the year in 1984. He was a first baseman and pitcher for the Trojans, working as a starter and reliever during his college career. McGwire blasted 583 career home runs in 16 seasons with the Oakland A’s and St. Louis Cardinals.
“It meant a lot to me to have Mike here,” McGwire said. “Once a Trojan, always a Trojan.”
McGwire was among 21 inductees in the college baseball hall’s class of 2025, which includes such former major-league stars as pitchers David Price (Vanderbilt) and Stephen Strasburg (San Diego State) and shortstop Hubie Brooks (Arizona State), as well as agent Scott Boras (Pacific).