Top 50 Cal Pros: No. 31 -- Ed White, A Feared Offensive Lineman

We are counting down Cal’s top 50 athletes based on their careers as post-collegiate professionals. Their performance as Golden Bears is not factored into the rankings.

31. ED WHITE

Years at Cal: 1965-66 through 1967-68

Sport: Football

Pro teams: Minnesota Vikings, San Diego Chargers

Age: 78

Hometown: San Diego

Why we ranked him here: A second-round selection in the 1969 NFL Draft by the Vikings, White was moved from his college position of nose guard to the offensive line, seeing action at both guard and tackle. The 6-foot-1, 269-pounder played in four Super Bowls and four Pro Bowls during his 17-year career with Minnesota (1969-77) and San Diego (1978-85), helping his teams to the postseason 12 times. He is one of four players who were part of all four of the Vikings’ Super Bowl teams between 1969 and ’76. (Minnesota lost all four). White played 241 career games, starting 210 of them. He was a second-team All-Pro pick in 1979. Chargers star quarterback Dan Fouts has campaigned for his inclusion in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “He was one of the most feared offensive linemen in the game,” Fouts said. “You talk to guys like Howie Long and Matt Millen who had to go against Big Ed. They hated it.”

Ed White at Cal | Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

At Cal: A consensus All-America nose guard his senior season of 1968, White anchored the “Bear Minimum” defense that allowed opponents just 3.6 yards per play. Cal was 7-3-1 in 1968, recording three shutouts and limiting seven opponents to 10 points or fewer. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame, the East-West Shrine Game Hall of Fame and was voted onto the Pac-12 All-Century Team.

White on White: A self-portrait | Ed White

Other: White is an accomplished professional artist, labeling himself an environmental abstract contemporary painter. He also has been commissioned to do bronze sculptures . . . Indio High School, his alma mater, named its football field in his honor.

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