Bill Plaschke: 'He was a Trojan until his dying breath.' How Charles White reconnected with USC.
LOS ANGELES — Nurses removed his USC jersey, unclasped his USC watch, slipped off his USC shoes.
Charles White was seemingly ending his tumultuous 64-year journey through life with no visible connection to the school that was his soul.
But as the Trojans' Heisman Trophy winner was taking his last breaths in a Newport Beach hospital, his ex-wife and his daughter pulled out a phone.
One of the last senses to leave the body at the end of life is hearing, and they wanted him to hear how much he had accomplished, how much he had impacted, how much he was loved.
They carefully nestled the phone on the pillow next to his ear and played, "Conquest!"
When Charles White expired on Jan. 11 at 3:21 p.m., he did so while accompanied by the USC marching band, its familiar
