The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 31

Cot AafltU Stan 10 Part IllTuesday, January 10, 1984 MURRAY First, She Finds a Coach, Who Ends Up Becoming Her Legal Guardian, Then She Finds the Range as a San Diego State Freshman For Tina Hutchinson, Playing Basketball Has Provided a Lot Including a Father By CHRIS COBBS. Times Staff Writer Tina Hutchinson "My grandmother was hesitant about me leaving home," Tina says now. "But my mother had a sister living in East St Louis, right across the street from the high school. I convinced my mother I could take care of myself. "It's funny now, but I had to drive it into their heads that basketball could do a lot for me.

My mother tries to tell me she used to play ball herself, but I don't believe her." By leaving Birmingham, Hutchinson was getting away from a neighborhood she feared would drag her down for life. But there were no guarantees that life would improve in her adopted neighborhood. East St Louis (pop. 50,000) is an economically troubled area. The job base and the population have declined for nearly 20 years.

The crime rate is high. High school sports provide an anchor, a source of hope. In recent years the community has sent Eric Wright, Shelby Jordan and Kellen Winslow into pro football. "Sports has put us on the map and brought us some national attention," said Lincoln High School Principal John Bailey. "Sports enhances academics and gives our students something to shoot for." Before becoming principal.

Bailey was an elementary school teacher who dabbled in coaching. His sixth grade teams regularly lost to a team coached by Riggins, with whom he became friendly. Bailey hired Riggins as coach of women's basketball at Lincoln and watched in amazement as his teams won 60 straight games, a state championship and compiled a 203-14 record in seven years. Among the 18 players who later played in college were UCLA's Jackie Joyner and Deborah Thurston. Riggins worked nonstop with Hutchinson to help her develop a jumpshot, to use her left hand and to play more under control.

At home, he and his wife were just as picky. "Tina was not poised when she moved in," Riggins said. "My wife worked with her on her manners and her use of language. She's able to articulate when she takes the time, but she tends to run her words together." Hutchinson is grateful for all Riggins has done for her. "I see him as my real father," she said.

"I can't picture him as anything else. I have to be careful not to call him Daddy when we're at practice." Hutchinson's desire to be No. 1 is not strictly dependent on making the Olympics. "I want to be the best, but there's a long way to go and a short time to get there. Maybe by my junior or senior year.

I don't want to be given anything. I want to work for it. I never give up. If there's something I want, I'll get it." Nearly as important is her desire to move her mother and grandmother to Southern California. She may owe her basketball skill to her new father, but she owes her strength to the women who guided her for 14 years.

"I always depended on them," she said. "I had to. My father wasn't there. My mother and grandmother survived without a man. If a man's not there, he's not there.

Women are as good as men." SAN DIEGO Tina Hutchinson hasn't seen her real father in a decade, but she doesn't mind, because basketball has given her a new one. The hardest part has been learning to call him "Coach" when her natural inclination is to say "Daddy." Hutchinson is a 6-3 freshman forward at San Diego State, the No. 2 scorer in the nation and a candidate for the U.S. women's Olympic team this summer. Her relationship with her "father," Earnest Riggins, is one of the least complicated parts of her life.

He coached her for three years at Lincoln High School in East St Louis, 111., became her legal guardian and took her with him when San Diego State named him its women's basketball coach last spring. Hutchinson was raised by women her mother and grandmother and later an aunt and firmly believes women can function without the opposite sex. But she learned to play basketball in the company of men and she much prefers to compete against them. "Females complain too much," she said. "It's always, 'Hey, you scratched To me, basketball is business.

I'm a nice young lady off court, but I can be mean when I'm playing ball." She isn't nearly as mean as she is good. She is averaging 2S.9 points, 10.5 rebounds and 5.8 steals a game. Part of it is talent Part of it is the result of going to the gym at 11 p.m. to practice. A security man once threatened to arrest her.

"Tina was the top high school player in the country last year," said UCLA Coach Billie Moore, whose efforts to recruit her might have been successful if Riggins hadn't become the San Diego State coach. "A lot of people have compared Tina to (USC's) Cheryl Miller," Moore said. "I don't think her game is as polished yet, but she has the same potential and the same ability." Pat Head Summitt, the coach at Tennessee and also the U.S. Olympic coach, said Hutchinson was one of the most impressive high school players she'd ever seen. "She's turned some heads, but it remains to be seen how much she can contribute at the international level," Summitt said.

"Her freshman year is very important. Her mental and emotional maturity will be a factor in whether she makes the team." Hutchinson believes she has a 99 chance of playing on the Olympic team. No less modest is her goal of becoming the greatest player in the world. A secondary goal is to meet her idol, Magic Johnson. "I bet he doesn't even know I exist," she said.

Hutchinson couldn't even make a jumpshot when she determined that basketball would be her existence. She left home at the age of 14. She had not seen her father since she was in the third grade. She hated school and her friends were pushing her to use drugs. So she said goodby to her mother and grandmother in Birmingham, and moved to East St.

CoBtlaoe4 from Fift 1 of the annual Sunkist Invitational Indoor, which celebrates its 25th anniversary Jan. 20 at the Sports Arena. It's a nice living. But it's hardly a franchise in the NFL. "Someone has to do it," shrugs Franken.

Not everyone would want to. There's a certain air of high suspense in dealing with track athletes. Take the matter of the track. The one from Milwaukee took 10 days to arrive. The driver apparently took care of social obligations along the route, and the carpenters were just about finishing with the final nails when the runners came down the pine lanes behind them.

Another time, a track loaded in Portland, destined for Franken's meet in San Francisco, was denied access to the Oregon highways the height limit." the Highway Patrol told So, it was rerouted through Idaho, then Nevada, then over the Donner Pass. "It was February, and I had visions of people eating it in a blizzard," recalls Franken. It was even worse. The California Highway Patrol ruled it over-height too. and a rescue truck had to be dispatched from San Francisco to aid in the transport "The Teamsters ate up all the profits." recalls Franken.

Another track was fitted with a special Astroturf substance which proved fatal to record times. "It was like running through a theater lobby full of chewing gum," Franken recalls. Franken always befriended the athletes. He never took the position they were to run for an airline ticket and hamburgers. He paid them "promotional" fees.

"How could you sell out a track meet if your stars did not come into town for a few days before and meet the press and go on TV and hype the show?" he asked. "Don't worry, the Wannamaker Mile paid, too. But that was New York and Madison Square Garden and all those guys in tuxedos. This was that upstart from California in the loud shirt. How can you be an 'upstart' for 25 years?" Friendships were formed.

Kipchoge Keino, the magnificent Kenyan, gold medalist in two consecutive Olympics, sent the Frankens a zebra. Not to ride, to put on the floor of the living room. There were headaches. The world record-holder in the long jump, Bob Beamon himself, the man who almost jumped clear to Cuernavaca in the Mexican Olympics, once came into the Franken office in San Diego to return the keys from a rented car. Franken was pleased that Beamon was so thoughtful.

Until he asked where the car was parked. Beamon looked thunderstruck. He couldn't, for the life of him, remember. "All I could think of was this car parked in Palomar or someplace while the rate Jcept ticking on at Hertz," recalls Franken. They were lucky: They found the car in the sixth parking lot they searched.

When Spanish miler Jose Luis Gonzales came down with an achey feeling in his chest and throat, and Mrs. Franken rushed him to the emergency room, the X-rays indicated heart attack. He was only 23 years old. "Those distance runners all have enlarged hearts," Franken says. "Several hours and several hundred dollars later, they found out all he had was the sniffles.

A little head cold." Sometimes it's like hanging out a shingle and announcing "Carmen" and having to settle for a barbershop quartet. Franken: "Lasse Viren came out one year just after he won all those gold medals in the Olympics, falling down in one race and still winning, and when he got here he couldn't catch a bus. He was so out of shape we had to keep the ushers on late waiting for him to finish. "The Russkis are the worst though. You send them money for a Valeriy) Borzov, the sprinter, and a party of lesser lights, and when they arrive, no Borzov.

He has this little cramp or toothache, and here you have to settle for some guy in a fur hat nobody ever heard of." Track and field is a hard sell, generally. Partly because you're dealing with "amateurs." As the late Jack Hurley once said: "God deliver me from amateurs." But Franken just shrugs. "My forte is hanging tough," he says. "I don't get my feelings hurt easily." Which is a good thing. Because you won't find Franken in the VIP box on the opening day of the '84 Games.

More likely, he'll be back at the dressing rooms trying to sign up the winners of the intermediate hurdles for his indoor season next January. Or he may be trying to find out from the Ugandan quarter-miler how he likes his breakfast. "But, it's been interesting," Franken says. "I mean, you ever tried to find a malaria specialist at 2 in the morning in Beverly Hills?" TINCE COHPAGNONE Los Anfetea Timet Tina Hutchinson hits a jumper against UTEP. Louis, 111., where she would live with an aunt.

Before long she was spending much of her time at the home of her coach, Riggins, who became her guardian. While he taught Tina to shoot a jumpshot and dive for loose balls, his wife provided instruction in table manners, proper English usage and how to conduct herself as a lady. Hutchinson did pretty much as she was told, except for one time when she got into a fight with some other girls. Riggins, who had urged her to always turn her back on a scuffle, whipped her with a heavy leather belt. They laugh about it now.

There was nothing funny about the circumstances that united them, however. It was the summer of 1979. Tina was attending a basketball camp in Milledgeville, Ga. She wasn't a very good player, but basketball was about the only thing that appealed to her. Back home in Birmingham, her mother and grandmother were worried.

They knew Tina cut classes too often and was spending time around kids whose preoccupation was with getting high. Hutchinson talked about leaving Birmingham and going elsewhere to play basketball, but it seemed unreasonable to the two older women in her life. Hutchinson was looking for something better, but when she was first introduced to Riggins by a couple of girls she'd befriended at the camp, she asked only that he teach her some defense. The relationship developed slowly. Riggins worked with her for a few days, then had to leave to attend a camp in Los Angeles under the direction of Moore.

When he returned home to East St. Louis, there was a message from Tina. She invited him to Birmingham for a visit. After three or four days, it was decided she would accompany him back to East St. Louis.

OSTLER outsmarted the NFL, which never entered the bidding. "The Cincinnati Bengals, who have the No. 1 pick in the draft, wouldn't return my phone calls," Trope says. "They issued a press release saying they would make their top draft pick a generous offer, but nothing that would alter their salary structure. "I know what their salary structure is because I've had three of their No.

1 picks Archie Griffin, Charles Alexander and Anthony Munoz, and I'm already shopping Munoz around the USFL. "At the last NFL owners' meeting, they had to decide whether to hold their draft on May 1 or move it up to Feb. 1. Only five owners voted for February. Al Davis was one.

They didn't want to get into a bidding war for rookies." So Rozier's choice was to sign with the Maulers for big bucks, or wait another five months, when the Maulers' offer would no longer be on the table, and sign for a lot less with Cincinnati or Houston. Big bucks won. Where all this is leading, of course, is to more money for all players, more agents, more contract- and league-jumping, more broken promises. It all sounds pretty sleazy. Who do we trust? Who's clean in all this? "Nobody," the Agent of the Stars says evenly.

"Nobody." Trope says. "They find out that a contract is a piece of toilet paper." Trope estimates that one-third of draftable college stars are straight that is, they won't sign until it's legal to do so, won't sign with more than one agent, won't renege or steal money. "The trouble is," Trope said, "you don't know who the one-third are. They all say (to the agent), 'You're my "Some of them could win Academy Awards. Do I get fooled? Yes.

Surprised? Nothing in this business surprises me. "I had a player one year, he came to L.A. the day before the draft and borrowed a thousand. I went to his hotel the next morning. He hadn't checked out, but his bags were gone.

He had flown to New Orleans and signed another agent To this day he has never written or called to explain." Trope retired a year ago at the age of 31, a millionaire several times over, he says. Then Earl Campbell talked him into renegotiating Campbell's contract with the Houston Oilers. Linebacker Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants also asked for help. Then Trope couldn't resist signing up one more Heisman winner, just for old time's sake. Trope had negotiated Taylor's original contract with the Giants, $1.5 million for six years.

"At the time," Trope says, "we thought we were kicking some butt" Now the Giants are offering Taylor a six-year package of $7.3 million and change. But the Rozier signing is the one the football people are buzzing about The USFL stole Walker by raiding the underclass ranks, but on Rozier they simply Continued from Page 1 Generals. Trope has negotiated pro contracts for five other Heisman winners Johnny Rodgers, Archie Griffin (who won it twice), Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell and Charles White. No other agent has represented more than one Heisman winner. But Trope swears this is his last.

"It's guerrilla warfare out there," he says. "It's unbelievable." In order to sign a client like Rozier, Trope has to beat out 50 or so other heavyweight agents, not to mention hundreds of fringe types. Once an agent signs a kid, the battle isn't over. One recent college star signed with one agent but didn't tell anyone. So his parents signed him up with another agent and his brother began interviewing still other agents.

One highly rated college player in this year's draft has already signed with five agents, leading to speculation that the kid is starting his own basketball team. Signing with more than one agent is common, Trope says. College stars are tempted by pretty promises and up-front cash loans, which most agents offer in return for the kid's signature. Hey, don't these student-athletes realize a signed contract is legally binding? Contract, schmontract What most of the kids realize, or what other agents tell them, is that it's easy to jump a contract. The jilted agent(s) isn't likely to waste the time or money taking the kid or his new agent to court.

"People get into this business thinking it will be fun," national Sports UPDATE! 12131 976-2111111 Only-25c per call plus toll charge, if any. SPORTSCALL from the Cos Angeles Slimes Los Alamitos Entries 84,000. Purse 8300. Super Bowl ours and Tickets 213) 385-9553 213 480-0522 SUPER BOWL TICKETS BUY SELL 202-0053 Hares A Hoping RarnblinMoonstar Suposta Win Hesachamp Call Shot Amajancer Coin For It Blue Pool Bad Risk Deadly Pursuit 64th night of 80-night quarter horse muting First Poet 7:46 p.m. 898 FR8T RACE.

380 yard. 4 yaw old. Maiden. Purse 84.800. Right Easy Nashville Bo HempensJewel TinyJuana MissFlickaTe Sound Special Mikes Fancy Rising Light 808 SECOND RACE.

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Purs 34,300 903 SIXTH RACE. 870 yards. 4 year old A up. Cal brad. Claiming prio 88.000.

Pur aa.auu. Los Alamitos Results Midnight Policy The Festival Josego NoisyReb Miss Hazard County Champion At Play Dupes Little Bear Dickeys Big Frat Chase After Me Angelica Maria Pick six results (4-5 or 8-6-7-5-1) 45 tickets with 5 winners paid $736 00 Carry over pool $33. 1 2 1 44. Pool $84, 1 50 Go Azure Mirage One Naughty Merle Drifting Lee Ettas Prize Ramble Wisely Binarys Honey Rosie Lu Jon UnaCiega Bit Of A Charger Shades Of Azure '84 CUTLASS SUPREME ONLY $222 raKO.grcSUt GALL MIKE JANSJ1SM 804 SEVENTH RACE. 860 yard.

4 on a up. JUMwano. year PutmI Consensus Copyright, Daily Racing Form 600 THMD RACE. 360 yard. 3 year old.

Maldirn. Cal bred. Claiming prie 88.000. Pur 82.900. Matty Mito Lucky Leif Hydromatic Flash Em UnojoBoy Cinder Cite Dry Patch Coras Boy Christopher Sly Autumn Lee Top Me Not Annie Kip Lets Watch Close Champagne Silk Aces Cold Lady Di Watch Charming Native Kerens Lucky Cat Weavers Trade rlardtobehumbolt High Steppin Robin Kitty Apollo Grotto Miss Party Venture Apollo Rockette Gal, Muz 8 Fast.

Travel On Fast, Bookies Cruck.LukiPicbirilo. Jockeys 1) Cr eager (2) Edwards 13) Ruiz. 82 Enact 17-3) paid 881.40 SIXTH RACE. 400 yard. 3 year old.

Claiming prlca 820,000. Purs 84,400. Noz 6 60 3 40 2 60 Miss Triple Hemp 4.00 2 80 Muter Hulen 2.60 Time 20:36. Alsoraced Speed Specialist. Kip Deluxe, Little Ms Ruffian Jockeys (1) Zufett.

(2) Hart. (3) Cardoze. KmmtRACE. SOOyerda. 4yaer gpOalmlnaprloo .000.

se Azure Accord 7.40 3 80 2 60 Mr Rich Bird 3.60 2 60 Marcus Express 2.60 Time 17:83. Also raced Juliet Top Moon, Jet On Mrto. Keystone Kop. Lucks Moon. Jockeys (1) Creager.

(2) Ward. (3) Clarissa. 82 EMcta(1-3)pald 828.80 Copyrtpjht 1904 by DaKy Recsna, Form. Inc. to Alamho.

Cain. FOOT HACE. 400 yard. MlrJn. 3 year oM.

Cat brad. Claiming prio bo JOOO. Pro pur 04.000. Telia Story 6 20 4 40 3 20 LemsterLane 16 80 7 20 Jetliner Joe 3.40 Time 2029. Also raced Hello Lady.

A La Page. Asurechtc, Bills Rootbeer, Aye Doo Jockeys 1) Hen. 12) Bute. (3) Brooks. 02 EmcB (1-6) paid 800,20 SECOND RACE.

870 yards. 4 war olaa Si up. Claiming prte 83.200. Pur 82 Causa krt Fair 7.20 4 80 3 00 Overtime Fog 20.40 7.20 Noble High 2 80 Time 46:15. Also raced Cold Request.

Preferred Policy. Trinrty Cloud. Split The Sheet. I Trunk I Can. Jockeys 1 1) Bard.

(2) Floras. 13) Pirkenlon THRU) RACE. 400 yard. 4 year old Si up. Mara.

Cat brad. Claiming price 88,000. Oroaa puree 84,800. Flag User 5 80 3 40 3 00 Duration 3 80 3 20 Bright As A Flash 4.00 Time 2044. Also raced Miss Summit Money.

Bacons Baby. Deadly Watch, Leona Moon. I Spyder. Mrss Kipy Cat. Jockeys (1) Hart.

12) Bard. 13) Creeper 82 Enact 18-8) paid 81 8.20 FOWrrHRACE. 400 ywdayMT oklfcOalmliuj prio .000. Purse Pink Oemnd lady 5040 16401120 Boon Boone 4.00 4 00 Mr Commuter 5 80 Time 20:65. Also raced Wandering Jet Boy.

Value Due, Azure Pod, Formetoo. Hidden Request, Sues Fella, Nans Sassee. Jockeys (1) Figueroa. (2) Garcia. (3) Clarissa.

82 Enact (8-10) paid 8187.40 FIFTH RACE. 400 yard. Mare. 4 Car ofde Si up. Claiming prio OOP.

Puree 83,000. TmyJetaranda 6.00 4 20 2 80 TrutysLuck 8.40 540 Mayor 4.20 Time 20:66. Also raced Jay Dees 006 EIGHTH RACE. 400 yard. 4 year old 6.

up. Mara. Claiming prio 860.000. Purs 68,300. Peach Picker Miss Deep Snazzy Sound Of Summer Poly Rock Kathys Hope Easy Like Jet 801 FOURTH RACE.

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6 The Festival 14. Midnight Policy 10. Champion At Play 8 7 Dry Patch 18. Christopher Sly 10. Autumn Lee 7.

8 Kathys Hope 19. Poly Rock 12, Easy LikaJetS 9 Samurai Warrior 1 1, Mr Ohs 10. Fast Shove 8. Bast Bat SUPOSTA WIN (5th) jvu. 600 NINTH RACE.

360 yard. 3 Kr oias. claiming prio .000. Purs 82.600. Charger Go Big Midnight Saint Got Hi Share Silver Grey Fox Simple Man Duck Run Cro Bar Moon Skip The Beans Starabuck Rebels Oh Oh RunninSix Jugs Brown Sugar Often Right Debs Turn Magic Solution Fiesta Hy Lucks Swinger Lady Jetf est Fast Shove Native Cee Mr Ohs Joli Marie Samurai Warrior Last Sinn Sea Tassel Lets Keeper ThelmasEasy Zevi Seeker 602 FIFTH RACE.

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