Red, White, Blue and Gold
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 8, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 /Daily Bruin Among the several UCLA athletes who went on
to serve in foreign wars are Mike Marienthal,
Lynn "Buck" Compton and Al
Sparlis.
By J.P. Hoornstra
Daily Bruin Contributor
With a slow, gravelly voice, Lynn Compton revealed the lessons
he has learned on many battlefields. “In sports,” he
said, “you develop a certain amount of individual
courage.” With a decisive tinge of allegiance showing
through, he added, “Especially if you’re a
lineman.”
Like many of the courageous veterans whom the country remembers
every Nov. 11, Compton ““ or “Buck”, as he is
known to the band of brothers that made him famous ““ wore the
blue and gold of UCLA before he donned the uniform of the United
States Military.
Compton was a guard on the 1942 UCLA football team that became
the first Bruin squad ever to defeat cross-town rival USC. Later
that year, his team swept into the Rose Bowl, UCLA’s first
trip to Pasadena in school history. He was also an All-American
catcher and team captain in baseball.
After the 1943 school year, Compton accepted his commission in
the Army and was dispatched across the Atlantic to defend
democracy. For his service over the next three years, he was
awarded the prestigious Silver Star Award.
“Primarily to me, (Veterans’ Day) means more for the
guys that died and were seriously injured or lost a leg,”
Compton said. “Those are the guys that you think about … at
least I do.”
On this Veterans’ Day, however, Compton’s
accomplishments will easily garner more notice than those of many
fallen servicemen.
Every Sunday night for the last 10 weeks, the story of
Compton’s 2nd Platoon has been featured in the HBO miniseries
“Band of Brothers.” Compton (portrayed in the series by
Neal McDonough) watches the show every week and has read the
Stephen Ambrose novel that it was based on.
“(The producers) took a certain amount of dramatic license
like they always do,” he said, “but for what (the show)
set out to do, it was excellent. It was a character study, more
than just shooting and battle stuff.”
His UCLA teammate, Mike Marienthal, has a pair of eyes that
belong in the university archives.
Playing both offense and defense, Marienthal’s eyes saw
the 1942 team that first marched through USC and into the Rose
Bowl.
For 50 years, from the official scorer’s table, his eyes
witnessed the UCLA men’s basketball program ascend into one
of college sports’ greatest dynasties.
And if his eyes made him a legend at UCLA, it was a different
part of his body that Marienthal needed most when he left for the
Marine Corps.
“Football gives you maturity, self-discipline,
determination and guts,” he said.
Although he was a trained Naval officer, Marienthal made the
difficult decision in 1943 to accept his commission in the
Marines.
 Courtesy of World War II Magazine Buck
Compton, UCLA alumnus “Five of us did from
UCLA,” he said. “One didn’t come back.”
Marienthal compiled a distinguished service record in the
military; his Marines unit became the first to receive two
presidential citations. Individually, he was awarded a Purple Heart
after losing his leg during heavy shelling in the Pacific.
His dedication to UCLA has been no less distinguished.
Marienthal entered UCLA in January 1942, took 22 units during
spring semester, enrolled in both summer sessions, and entered fall
football season in sophomore standing. This allowed him to
circumvent the rules of the time prohibiting freshmen from
competing in varsity football.
He served as an assistant football coach at UCLA for three years
before becoming a high school administrator. Still a season ticket
holder in both basketball and football, Marienthal admitted,
“I haven’t been very far away from the school since I
left there.”
Alan Hoisch is a member of the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. He was an
honorable mention All-American halfback for UCLA in 1946 and led
the Bruins to the Rose Bowl the following January.
And yet, in spite of his collegiate accomplishments, he conceded
that “football is just a game.”
As Bruin wide receiver Tab Perry broke four ribs in one fateful
play against Washington State last Saturday, football could not
have felt like a game.
But for Alan Hoisch, who has lived in the same Beverly Hills
home for 47 years, whose successful career in the textile business
spanned 41 years, football is a game.
“The things that made me a good athlete are probably the
things that kept me alive in the Army,” Hoisch said.
“Being in the Army, and doing what we did, was not a
game.”
Fresh out of pilot training, Hoisch was thrust into active duty
in World War II in February 1944. Over the next two years, he would
amass 1500 hours of combat time, earning three distinguished flying
crosses and four air medals for his service.
He entered UCLA in 1946 and played football the next two
seasons. On this Veterans’ Day, Hoisch attempted to extract
meaning from the time he spent both on the gridiron and in the
hostile skies over Burma.
“The only thing that’s meaningful,” he said,
“is having done what we were supposed to do (in World War
II), and then having the chance to get back into real life, play
the game of football, and live a life.”
He paused, then added, “There’s a lot of guys that
didn’t make it back.”
Francis Wai, class of 1939, did not. This notable Bruin was a
four-sport athlete and, at the time, one of the few Asian-Americans
to have competed in Division I. Captain Wai was killed in combat in
1944 while leading a ground mission in the Pacific. In May 2000, he
was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Peter Blackman did make it back. After playing basketball from
1960 to 1962 for John Wooden, Blackman served his country during
the Vietnam War. He has since traded in both uniforms for an office
in Murphy Hall, where he serves as the university’s
administrative vice chancellor.
Jackie Robinson, UCLA’s starting quarterback in 1940, and
a four- sport athlete, was drafted into the Army the following
year. When a white bus driver ordered him to the back of the bus in
1944, he refused, and was court-martialed for his actions. Although
his refusal was in violation of Army regulations, Robinson was
eventually acquitted and honorably discharged. He went on to break
arguably the most significant barrier in sports history when he
joined the Brooklyn Dodgers.
These men, along with many others, fought for UCLA and their
country with pride and dignity. All of them were Bruins. All were
patriots.
