The right number: After 57 years, Indio High School retiring Ed White's jersey number
Ed White admits he was a little surprised by the phone call.
“Some things take longer,” White said about learning Indio High School will retire his number from his days as a football player for the Rajahs in the 1960s. “But that’s okay. It’s an honor I’m very fortunate.”
White’s number retirement ceremony will take place at halftime of this week’s Banning-Indio game in the on-campus stadium for Indio that is already named after White.
“The stadium might be a bigger deal to me,” said White, the 75-year-old former University of California and NFL star. “But I think they are both equally something that I can brag about for a few more years.”
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White is the second Rajah to have his high school number retired by the school this year. Former Indio and USC star Oscar Lua had his number 45 retired in the first game of the season, but the stadium’s public address system wasn’t working well, so many people didn’t know what was going on with Lua that night. So Lua also will be honored at halftime Friday night, though the night is about retiring White’s number 40.
“Being from Texas, I’ve seen jersey retirements a lot,” said current Indio head football coach Daniel Hayes. “I was kind of walking through the foyer one day, and I was looking at all those basketball jersey that are hanging up in there, and it just kind of dawned on me that we didn’t have any football jerseys hung up in there. I kind of just thought, how do we name a stadium after a guy and not retire his jersey.”
From that idea, Hayes contacted school officials as well as White and Lua, and everyone agreed the number retirements should happen this year.
An honor a long time in the making
“I was honored by it, actually,” said White, 75, who graduated from Indio in 1965. “It’s kind of a special thing to think, you know, no one is going to wear that number again. It’s kind of a special time. I was a little floored after 50 years, but was excited.”
White actually started high school at Helix High School in San Diego, but moved to Indio about midway through the football season of his freshman year.
“I was playing tight end and fullback,” White said, explaining he was number 40, a non-traditional number for an offensive lineman. “So I started at fullback and ate my way up to the front of the line and became a lineman.”
White wasn’t just any lineman. His time at the University of California led to White being named to the College Football Hall of Fame, the all-Century Pac-12 football team, the University of California Hall of Fame and the East-West Shrine Game Hall of Fame.
A second-round pick in the 1969 NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings, White played 241 games for the Vikings and the San Diego Chargers, playing in four Super Bowls with the Vikings. He later served as an offensive line coach in the NFL. He was a four-time Pro Bowl member as well as a member of the 50th anniversary teams for both the Vikings and the Chargers.
Now living in Valley Center near San Diego, White said his connections with Indio High School go beyond having played for the Rajahs.
“(His wife’s) father was the head of the science department, Mr. Boyer, and taught chemistry for 20 year there I think,” White said. “And her sister took over when Joanne’s dad retired, Linda Davidson, and she took over the science department and taught at Indio as well.”
For Friday night’s ceremony, White said some of his old Indio teammates will be on hand for the halftime ceremony.
“And my whole family is going to be there, all my brothers and sister and all of their kids, and the far majority are Indio High School graduates.” White said. “And my wife and her family as well.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Former Vikings, Chargers star Ed White will have number retired at Indio High
