Craig Fertig, at 66; was USC quarterback, broadcaster

John McKay (left) gave Craig Fertig some advice after Mr. Fertig was named head coach at Oregon State University. Mr. Fertig's name was synonymous with USC football over five decades. (Associated Press/File)

LOS ANGELES - Craig Fertig, whose name was synonymous with University of Southern California football over five decades as a quarterback, assistant coach, and broadcaster, died Saturday of kidney failure at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 66.

Even after his official connection with the university ended several years ago, Mr. Fertig was a welcome presence, always ready with a story or joke told in the dry wit of his former coach, the legendary John McKay.

"Craig knew everybody, and everybody knew Craig," said athletic director Mike Garrett, who played alongside Mr. Fertig in the early 1960s. "He was one of the great storytellers."

Mr. Fertig was a sophomore playing behind Pete Beathard and Bill Nelson on the 1962 team that went undefeated and won a national championship. He started only one season, in 1964, but threw one of the most memorable passes in school history.

That fall, undefeated Notre Dame arrived at the Coliseum with quarterback John Huarte, who had won the Heisman Trophy a few days earlier.

The Irish built a 17-0 lead, but University of Southern California scrambled back in the second half, closing the gap to four points, then driving to within 15 yards of the end zone in the final two minutes. On fourth down, Mr. Fertig completed a slant pass to Rod Sherman for the winning touchdown.

Years later, Mr. Fertig delighted in telling the story not because of his heroics, but because of what happened just after he released the ball and was leveled by Notre Dame defensive lineman Alan Page.

The official ordered Page to get off Mr. Fertig. But the players' face masks had become interlocked.

"I can't," Mr. Fertig recalled the lineman saying. "We're stuck."

McKay thought highly enough of his quarterback to keep him around as an assistant, a position that Mr. Fertig held until 1973.

He then moved through a series of coaching jobs, spending time in the World Football League, returning briefly to University of Southern California, then serving as head coach at Oregon State University from 1976 until 1979.

By 1983, Mr. Fertig had landed at USC again as an assistant athletic director involved in fund-raising. After serving in an administrative position at The University of California at Irvine, he moved to the broadcast booth in 1992 and spent the next 11 years as analyst for Trojan football telecasts and as contributor to a weekly USC sports magazine show.

"Generally, former coaches are all X's and O's," said McDonald, who followed Fertig into broadcasting and is now a radio analyst for USC football. "He used terms the average fan could understand. He was friendly."

In his final years, Mr. Fertig briefly returned to coaching at Estancia High School in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Mr. Fertig was born in 1942 in Bell, Calif., and grew up in nearby Huntington Park, where his father, Hank, was chief of police. He was an All-City quarterback at Huntington Park High School.

In 1964 he married Nancy Hooper, whom he met at University of Southern California, and they had two children, Marc and Jennifer. Jennifer died at age 31 in 2002 after battling the Epstein-Barr virus.