Member Biography

Those huge, sledge-like hands could throw a football 60 yards on a line. The feet darted with deceptive swiftness. The legs were of Olympic high-jump spring. Harold "Brick" Muller was the mold of a marvelous athlete. Indeed, Muller was a superb pass-catcher; and he captured an Olympic Silver Medal in the 1920 high jump. At California, Muller never tasted the bitterness of defeat while starring for the Golden Bears during the era of coach Andy Smith's "Wonder Teams" of the West. In California's 28-0 victory over Ohio State in the 1921 Rose Bowl, Muller stood at his own 45-yard line and threw a touchdown pass to Brodie Stephens, who caught it on the Buckeye goal-line, a tremendous heave in those days of the "fat" football. In later years, memories of that pass brought a chuckle to Muller: "At first, the ball was reported to have traveled 70 yards in the air," he related, "but over the years Los Angeles sports writers whittled it down to 53 yards." There would be fond memories other than those of the 1921 Rose Bowl triumph, as well; for instance, his scoring the only touchdown in the 1922 Ohio East-West Invitational Classic at Columbus. Born in Dunsmuir, California in 1901, "Brick" followed his collegiate playing career with A.B. and M.D. degrees from Berkeley, and later practiced as an orthopedic surgeon.