The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 68

VIEW Thursday, August 1, 1985Part CosAtwjctCB (Times Action Adventurer Devotes Energy to Anti-Communist Causes A Lifetime of Involvement on Black Scene By PAUL DEAN, Times Staff Writer A March article in the Soviet newspaper Izvestia published its thoughts on aggressors and hypocrites and culprits and condemned Jack Wheeler as an ideological gangster working under the auspices of the CIA. Wheeler loves the first accusation. He is a little huffy about the second. But together, he said, it's a rave review. "When the Soviet By TIA GINDICK, Times Staff Writer Jessie Mae Beavers might have been reminiscing about her family, so casual was her manner.

How, when she was a girl, the YWCA had separate weeks at summer camp for its black campers. Heck, black members in the 1940s and 1950s no matter where they lived all had to belong to the same southeast chapter. And when she was at UCLA, Beavers continued 2 JHt tj-itf fife "I A.JnZXit Three faces of Jack Wheeler: with insurgents in Nicaragua, above, with turbaned anti-Soviet guerrillas in Afghanistan, below, and at his home in Los Angeles, right. and Mozambique and any other place where, he says, native and armed insurgents are opposing Soviet imperialism. All of which, Wheeler agreed, justifies that editorial evaluation by Izvestia.

It also has proved the viability of a point, Wheeler added, and maybe the existence of a pattern. For the Third World, Wheeler believes, is rejecting Soviet imperialism in these '80s as it rejected American imperialism in the '50s. Marxism and totalitarianism, he has testified to government groups, are being moved aside by revolutions (within nations populated by 120 million people) pushing for democracy and Western values. He sees the empire of Soviet Russia crumbling, maybe teetering to follow the fall of the British and French empires. Produced An Alliance And in June, in the rebel stronghold of Jamba, Angola, Wheeler stood among the hunted (who also happen to be the hunters) of Laotian jungles and Afghan hills and saw one of his unusual ideas produce a bizarre solidarity a contra conclave of anti-communist guerrilla leaders from Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Laos and Angola.

It produced an alliance known as Democratic International. "Now there's something starting up in South Yemen," Wheeler continued. "There's a clandestine radio operating there. Surinam may have something. But these are embryonic and nothing like the anti-Marxist movement in Angola with its 50,000 guerrillas (or) the situation in Mozambique, twice as big as California, where guerrillas have free run of the countryside, the government is collapsing and there are no elections, no food.

"I've been to these countries. Three times in Nicaragua. Three times in Afghanistan. Twice in Angola. Once each in Mozambique and Cambodia.

I've lived with the insur-Please see ADVENTURER, Page 2 Los Angeles Times Union calls me that, it means I'm starting to get under their skin. Ideological gangster? I'll proudly refer to myself as that. CIA auspices? Look, anybody who has incurred their (Soviet) displeasure is a plot of the CIA. They're very conspiracy minded. So, it should be noted, is Wheeler.

His mail goes to a Malibu box number while his gardener goes to a residence "somewhere in West Los Angeles." No sign on that home identifies it as headquarters of Wheeler's neophyte Freedom Research Foundation. Similar security (albeit more anti-crackpot than a barrier to the serious assassin) has been imposed on the date and destination of his next overseas trip. That's because recent Wheeler dealings and wanderings have been to Afghanistan with the Moujahedeen freedom fighters to Angola with Jonas Savimbi's UNITA guerrillas to Cambodia and Nicaragua Remembering the Gold at a Celebration of the Olympics Attending premiere of Bud Greenspan's "16 Days of Glory," a benefit celebrating Los Angeles Olympic Games, were gold medalists Peter Vidmar and Rowdy Gaines, lower left; Mayor Tom Bradley with gold medalist Greg Louganis, left; Wyomia Tyus, gold medal winner in 1964 and 1968, Greenspan, gold medalist Carl Lewis, below. See Jody Jacobs, Page 4. TONY BARNARD Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Jessie Mae Beavers works in her office at L.A.

Sentinel. conversationally, blacks weren't allowed to live on campus. "It was a way of life. Nobody thought anything about it. At UCLA, I was just glad I'd been accepted.

But no, girl, I wasn't bitter then. I'm not bitter now." Long Career Nevertheless, Beavers is not about to let anyone forget those times. A Tom Bradley appointee to the city's Human Relations Commission 12 years ago and its president four times, she's made a lifetime career of involvement with the black scene its politics, its society, its journalism: Head of the commission's affirmative action committee, she's drafted and published position papers, held seminars and organized task forces, including leading the 1982 investigation of discriminatory hiring policies in the entertainment industry and its examination of how minorities are portrayed in movies and television. Executive editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel (the area's largest black-owned newspaper), she's been writing (under her maiden name of Jessie Mae Brown) about who's doing what socially in the black community since she was a student at Los Angeles High School. During the years, both with the California Eagle and, since 1950, the Sentinel, she's accumulated a slew of awards from journalism organizations.

She's a 30-year member and past president of the Lullaby Guild, a support group to the Childrens Home Society, and active in Links, the prestigious service organization, which every fall conducts a large debutante ball for young black women, and the sororities Iota Phi Lambda and Alpha Kappa Alpha. She's attended the Second Please see BEAVERS, Page 13 1 5- Inside View BRIDGE: Page 14. DEAR ABBY: Page 16. ERMA BOMBECK: Page 3. YOU FEATURES: PAGE 5.

Ten cruises for diners. 54 HOURS: Page 10. Jack Smith was cruelly disappointed when he lost the "long count" fight to Gene Tunney, not to mention losing all my marbles, my loose change and my pocketknife on bets. But since track and field athletes are far better then they used to be, we can guess that so are tennis players, baseball players, basketball players, soccer players and football players. It is not only that athletes are bigger, stronger and faster than ever, but they train harder and work harder, because they all have a chance to be millionaires.

They're big business. Also, the population base from which they are selected is mostly a sentimental journey, and except for Eric Dickerson, running back, Jack Youngblood, defensive lineman, and one or two others, I would go back into history for my choices. The offensive line is tough. If I were a good judge of offensive lineman I'd be a coach, not a writer. But I go with two old-timers Tom Mack and Joe Scibelli, and throw in Charlie Cowan and Dennis Harrah.

At center, Rich Saul, the iron man. Tight ends? The Rams have been rather poor in this position, but I lean toward Bob Klein and Pat Curran. The other running backs, to go with Dickerson, back to the indestructible Don Paul, and to Jack (Hacksaw) Reynolds and Isiah Robertson. Defensive backs: Nolan Cromwell, Dave Elmendorf, Rod Perry and Pat Thomas. We're allowed only two receivers, which is one of the reasons the Rams have never won the Super Bowl.

They ought to start four. I'll take Preston Dennard, and go back to Elroy Hirsch, old Crazy -Legs, who probably wouldn't have enough speed to make it these days, but who gave us so many thrilling catches. For kicker and punter, no one else but Bob Waterfield, the complete football player. For kickoff returns, Jon Arnett, because he was exciting. For punt returns, Leroy Irvin.

I suppose it will turn off all those readers who don't care for football, but I feel obliged to offer my selections for the all-time Rams team. I am advised by Will Kern of our Special Events Department that readers are being asked to name their all-time Rams team "partly to help celebrate the Rams' 40th anniversary in Southern California and partly to whoop it up for the 40th Times Charity Game against the Houston Oilers on Saturday, Aug. 10, at Anaheim Stadium." To begin with, I should say that I don't believe in "all-time" teams. Athletes are bigger, stronger and faster today than they were 10, 20 or 30 years ago, and in a sense they can't be compared with players of earlier days. If the all-time Rams team could magically be assembled, sentiment might well clobber him in the backfield At quarterback, the piece de resistance, how could I vote for anyone but Waterfield? He could throw the ball 60 yards and kick it 60 yards, and he made the team go.

He was the kind of dream quarterback that Warren Beatty was in "Heaven Can Wait." That's my team. And if you want to know who I'd pick to coach it Tommy Prothro. Even though he had a funny idea about punting on third down, Tommy was a smart coach. When Tommy left UCLA and went to the Rams I met him once in the cafeteria at training camp and gave him a couple of my ideas; but he never used them, and the Rams never won the world championship. Now I'll wait for all those letters asking what makes me think I'm a sportswriter.

would be Glenn Davis and Jon Arnett. Arnett didn't have Dickerson's size or dynamic power, but he was an artist; a broken -field runner of quickness and finesse, and beautiful to watch. Davis, old Mr. Outside, could break away and give you a thrill; besides, he's a friend of mine, and I pick him for fraternal reasons. The defensive line is easy: Fred Dryer, a free spirit on and off the field; Deacon Jones, who talked as big a game as he played; Merlin Olsen, that big, friendly Mr.

Nice Guy who seemed too decent to clobber runners the way he did; and Jack Youngblood, the prototypical all-American boy. For my three linebackers I would go all the way much larger than it used to be, so the chance of high quality is increased. I have an idea that John McEnroe could humble Bill Tilden on grass, even though he might be rather boorish company at a tea party; (but I wouldn't have bet on him against Pancho Gonzales in his prime. All of which means that if the all-time Rams team could magically be assembled, if all those fellows could be rounded up and rejuvenated and placed on a field at the peak of their abilities, I doubt that they could beat the present Rams team, as so-so as it may be. Of course in picking an all-time team we are allowed to pick players from the present team, but this is Look at the world records in track and field.

In 24 men's track and field events, all but three of the present records were set in the past decade, and 14 were set in the past five years. In most other sports, performance can not be measured specifically, in terms of time and distance; so it is mostly a subjective or emotional question whether Nolan Ryan is a better pitcher than, say, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and whether Larry Holmes could have beaten Joe Louis. I happen to think that Jack Dempsey could have beaten them both, but then Jack Dempsey was the idol of my boyhood days, and I.