Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 54

26C ST. PETERSBURG TIMES SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1980 Ricky finally rings the bell as Bay Bucs' MVP SPORTS EDITOR HUBERT miZELL f- aSAt 1 IT I- Lif iff- S4 II Oft V' OQT)f) v' i' i 'x i TAMPA When the bruises of 1977-78 had healed, Ricky Bell was glad he had gotten beat up. After hearing the boos, the cheers meant so much. When one has drunk from the rancid fountain, mere pure water can taste as wine. "Football hasn't been this much fun for me since high school," Bell said after showering away the grimy sweat of another training camp practice.

"When I was a kid, I spent summers anxiously waiting for fall football practice to begin. I would daydream about playing. I feel that way now." Tampa Bay's rise from bum to baron in the National Football League so parallels the individual climb of Ricky Bell, a celebrated University of Southern California runner who sputtered through two pro seasons before 1979' monumental turning of the orange tide. IN SEASONAL RECORDS, the Bucs in Bell's time have gone from 2-12 to 5-1 1 to 10-6. His rushing total was a lukewarm 4 as a rookie.

It soared only gently to 679 in 1978. But then, last year, the trumpets and the drumrolls came to Tampa Stadium. For Bell, for the Bucs. Jogging behind a rapidly improving offensive line, Bell and that unique gallop of his covered 1,263 yards. Only five NFL runners got more.

The day the Bucs clinched the NFC Central Division championship with a muddy 3-0 win over Kansas City, Bell sloshed 137 yards in 39 carries. In a 24-17 post-season upset of Philadelphia, Bell's 38 attempts set an NFL playoff record and he made 142 yards. For those deeds, Bell will receive The St. Petersburg Times Award as the Bucs' most valuable player of 1979. Instead of a trophy, the award is an oil painting of Bell by Times artist Jack Barrett and will be presented tonight at Tampa Stadium prior to the exhibition game with St.

Louis. "HAVING BEEN SO successful with teams that were big winners in high school and college, I was somewhat spoiled when I was drafted by Tampa Bay," said Bell, a kind and deeply reflective man. "1 learned to appreciate it is greater since I had to fight for it." In the punier days of Tampa Bay's offensive line, Bell would constantly thump into the line for a yard or two. He would try the famous Southern Cal sweep, but in 1977-78 it became infamous and seldom went anywhere for the Bucs. "I would call home to California, to my business manager Marilyn O'Brien," he said, straddling a chair in the Hall of Fame Inn where the Bucs are now encamped.

"She believes in me. She advises me, helps me with investments and is really my Svengali. When times were tough here, I had some very large phone bills." O'Brien hand-picks her clients. She represents athletes prone to excellent behavior and healthy relations with the public as well as the media. She used to manage O.J.

Simpson. She handles the personal business of Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann, pro basketball guard Gail Goodrich and several others. BELL WAS SEEKING philosophies in the battered days of 1977-78, anything to cushion the voyage during his injury-nagged and low-reward NFL infancy. He was an expensive investment for Tampa Bay, first pick in the 1977 NFL college draft. When he didn't immediately explode for big yardage, fans became impatient.

"I even became uncertain that I could make the transition from college ball to the pros," he said. "But now that I have matured and had a little success, I think it was best it happened the way it did. I am better off than had I been like O.J. Anderson of St. Louis who was a runner as a rookie last season.

"After my tough beginning with the Buccaneers, I was forced to work harder and concentrate under the most difficult circumstances. I came here thinking I knew quite a lot about football, but I now realize I didn't know much at all. I'm still learning every day. There are about 500 different defenses you can run against. The more I'm able to think as a coach thinks, the better player I can become.

"I'm still climbing my mountain as a professional foot-hall player. When I get to the very top, I want it to be at the end of my career rather than the beginning. I don't ever want to see the other side of the mountain." EVEN NOW, BELL frequently repeats words used by a noted gymnastics coach to urge on a different sort of athlete with unfulfilled potential. "You've got to throw your heart over the bar," Bell quoted, "you cannot be afraid." Although his troubles are less frequent now, when they do arise the 25-year-old Bell has a fresh shoulder to cry on. Someone else to share the bad times as well as the good.

A few weeks ago, he married a UCLA dance therapy major. By September, Natalia Bell will have recessed her studies and moved to Tampa for the Bucs' season. Prior to last season, Bell received his bachelor's degree from USC. He still takes courses during the off-season "to prepare myself for a life beyond football, for an eventual career in business." He took a speech course, one in business economics and began pursuit of a real estate license. Being a athlete won't last forever.

Bell sets personal goals for football, sets them high. In 1977-78, he came up terribly shy. But last vear he made it with those 1,263 yards. In 1980, Bell will gun for 1,600 yards, an average of 100 a game. "With the offensive line we have now, I think it's most realistic," he said.

"Making This is 7mes artist Jack Barrett's painting of star Buc runner Ricky Bell. back with high-rise potential who still hears periodic hi mis. "Doug's situation is like mine was two years ago," said the Bucs' MVP. "I just read Terry Bradshaw's book and his early NFL years are so similar to what Doug Williams it going through now. "Both Terry and Doug came to the pros with incredible throwing arms.

Both were criticized for being a little wild with their passes every now and then. Both were from smaller schools in Louisiana. Well, I think Williams has more potential than any quarterback alive. He is also a fine human being on and off the field, and that counts for a lot, too. "I think he'll be great." Is it possible? In two years, will Doug Williams be getting the Buc MVP award and recalling his rougher days around here? If the football journey goes as upward for Williams as it has for Ricky Bell, he really might be another Terry Bradshaw.

I'm sorry and that I'll make up for it the next time. He does the same." As he sat there remembering, going deeply into his football career, Bell recalled being a linebacker at Fremont High School in Los Angeles. "My goal then was to wear uniform number 00," he said. "That always went to the toughest linebacker at my school. As a junior, I became double-zero.

I took pride in that." DURING THE LAST off-Reason, Bell visited his old high school basketball coach. Dave Yunai is now a college coach at Cal State-Dominiguez. "He said something that meant a lot to me," Bell said. "He said, 'Ricky, you always had enough character to pursue anything and be successful. You could have made it in basketball, football or baseball whatever you decided to Being more mature now, I really appreciated him saying that." Bell, in his fourth NFL season, finds himself in a position to understand and advise Doug Williams, a quarter 100 a game is no really big deal in pro ball today." LAST MONDAY NIGHT in Houston, Bell never left the Astrodome sideline as the Bucs began the preseason with a 21-7 bumpoff of the Oilers.

On the field, Jerry Eckwood was running brilliantly, catching passes and even throwing 61 yards to Ike Hagins for a touchdown. John McKay smacked his lips. He must've been daydreaming of a Ricky-Jerry backfield pairing. Last season, at first it seemed sure there would be a mighty tandem of rookie Eckwood at tailback and Bell at fullback. But then Eckwood busted a wrist and entered a downward spiral.

Eckwood is whole again, Bell is more aroused than ever about playing for the Bucs. So, McKay has a right to smack his lips, like a glutton awaiting the entree. "It helps to have a man of Eck wood's ability in the lineup," Bell said. "It pushes me. Competition within a team is healthy.

We get along well. We're honest with each other. If I miss a block when Jerry has the ball, I say Reaves from 1-C lr-." JLi i TO Bucs from1-C Several thousand tickets at $12 and $8 remain. BUCS NOTES: Tampa Bay didn't even wait until the deadline before getting rid of free agent Eddie Foster, a wide receiver. Foster, from the University of Houston, started for the Oilers in 1977 but was shelved until recently by an injury.

Foster leaves behind seven receivers grappling for five jobs. The secondary grew by one player Friday with the acquisition of corner-back Sid Justin, who was waived Thursday for the second time by the Los Angeles Rams. Justin (5-foot-10, 170 pounds) joined LA as a free agent out of Long Bea-h Slate. The Rams cut him in the 79 preseason, then reconsidered and signed him again. Justin played sporadically in the Rams' secondary, enough to intercept one pass.

His only claim to fame was an 80-yard touchdown return of a blocked field goal. It also wiped out the rest of the season. Justin pulled a hamstring on the run and was stuck on injured reserve. Justin was due in Tampa by today, but probably won't compete this evening. He boosts the number of secondary playerSi in camp to nine.

He called us this week and told us that he felt he was capable of playing and asked us to put him on waivers." The Vikings had encouraged Reaves to undergo treatment at Hazelden after he had problems with alcohol and drugs in Tampa earlier this summer. The Vikings paid for the treatment. Reaves said he planned to head home to Tampa "and wait to see if there are any NFL teams interested in me." The quarterback, who did not play during the regular season last year, said he was disappointed about not being able to return to the Vikings. "I feel that right now I have more to offer than ever before because, for the first time in the last 10 years, I have a new outlook on life as a result of the past month that I have spent in the center," Reaves explained. "I've had drinking problems and drug problems for years HE ALSO SAID HE FELT himself to be in better mental, physical and spiritual health than at any other time in his life.

'I'm so excited about life now that it is too bad I couldn't work things out with the Vikings Reaves continued. "'I'm praying that I will be claimed. If not, I will be writing letters to every team in the league, explaining my desire to play and to help them to the best of my ability." Reaves, 30, is 6-foot-3 and weighs 210 pounds. He hag played eight years in the NFL. He set an NCAA passing record of 7,549 yards as an All-American college player at Florida.

The Vikings acquired him on waivers from Cincinnati in July 1979. well partly because Wilkinson wanted to start young Steve Pisarkiewicz at quarterback. Bidwell's choice was veteran Jim Hart. So it should come as no surprise that Hart will start, tonight and forevermore. Or at least until Bidwell has a change of Hart er, heart.

Hanifan, meanwhile, is the fifth coach Anderson has been associated with in six years. "Hope I'm not gonna jinx Bomebody again," says 0, J. Other Cardinals of interest are placekicker Roy Gerela, dropped last season by Pittsburgh, and defensive back Ken Stone and linebacker Tim Kearney, both Buccaneer performers way back when. On Dec. 18, 1977, the Cardinals became the first team ever to lose to the Bucs in a regular season game at Tampa Stadium, and they haven't recovered since.

The Red birds went 5-11 last year and lost to New Orleans 17-13 last week in their exhibition opener. Exciting St. Louis runner Ottis Anderson was NFL Rookie of the Year..