Retired PCC football coach Don Hunt dies at 85

By Brenda Gazzar, Staff Writer, Pasadena Star News Posted: 12/17/2010 06:11:18 PM PST

Retired Pasadena City College football coach and instructor Don Hunt apparently died in his sleep, friends said Friday.

The La Canada Flintridge resident was about 85.

"Don Hunt was a great man, a great coach," said Skip Robinson, a former PCC athletic director who played for him in the Junior Rose Bowl in 1966. "He personally taught me a lot about football and about life...(He) had an impact on a lot of athletes here in the city of Pasadena."

Hunt started his football coaching career at John Muir Junior College in Pasadena in 1951 and became the head football coach at John Muir High School between 1954 and 1961, said Robert Lewis, a PCC spokesman.

In 1962, Hunt became PCC's head football coach. He stayed on the job until 1967, going 29-24-1.

His best season was in 1966, when the team won the Western State Conference Championship and played at the Junior Rose Bowl, Lewis said.

"He not only coached championship teams at John Muir High School and PCC, but he ... made kids champions," said Harvey Hyde, who coached with Hunt at PCC.

Also a wrestling coach, Hunt served as a physical education instructor from 1962 to 1993 and was an active member of the PCC Sports Hall of Fame Committee, Lewis said.

Hunt is preceded in death by his wife LaVerne and is survived by their son Michael of Temple City.

After earning a battlefield commission, Hunt was promoted from a U.S. Army sergeant to a second lieutenant while serving in the Philippines during World War II. He retired as a brigadier general, said friend and former player Joe Borland.

Hunt attended UCLA where he not only played football, but also broke the school's high hurdle record, Borland said. He also played a stint with the Los Angeles Rams.

"He's like a rocket ship," he said.

brenda.gazzar@sgvn.com

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