doubles and 21 triples in 187 games. His last year, at 41 years-old in 1921, he hit .316 with 199 hits and 44 doubles in 175 games. Crawford decided to stay in Southern California, and in 1924 became the head coach of the University of Southern California (USC) baseball team, a position he held until 1929. He was instrumental in the development of the California Intercollegiate Baseball Association in 1927, and led USC to second-place finishes in his last two seasons. Crawford was 59–46–3 as the USC coach. He later worked as an umpire in the Pacific Coast League from 1935 to 1938, quitting after finding it a thankless job and lonely life. In 1927, Crawford had a role as the baseball coach in Buster Keaton's comedy film College. Later life In retirement, Crawford became somewhat reclusive, staying away from official baseball functions. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1957. At the time, he was living in a small cabin on the edge of the Mojave Desert near Pearblossom, California. Reporters showed up there with the news, shocking the locals, who were unaware that their neighbor had even played Major League Baseball. After his election, Crawford told the curator in Cooperstown that he wanted his plaque to read "Wahoo Sam." He noted: "That's my hometown, and I'm proud of it." Crawford spent much of his later years working in his garden and reading. In March 1964, in Baywood Park, California, he was interviewed by Lawrence Ritter for the 1966 book The Glory of Their Times, a series of interviews with the players of the early 20th century. Crawford's tales of teammates such as Cobb and deaf player Dummy Hoy, and opponents such as Honus Wagner, helped to make the book one of the most admired ever written about baseball. During the Ritter interviews, Crawford quoted from the works of philosopher George Santayana and agnostic Robert Ingersoll, and discussed the works of one of his favorite writers, Honoré de Balzac. As for how he hoped to be remembered, he said: "When I kick off they'll say, 'Well, good old Sam, he wasn't such a bad guy after all. Everything considered, he was pretty fair and square. We'll miss him.'" Crawford suffered a stroke on May 26, 1968, and died two weeks later at Hollywood Community Hospital in Los Angeles at age 88. He