The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 102

Bo0 Angeled 3ime0 San Diego County 17A Part IllSunday, November 27, 1988 No. 14 by Any Other Number Would Have Played as Sweetly "Yi 'ou mean after all these years, It's going to come out?" laughed Sid Brooks, the Chargers' equipment man. "OK, so I made Dave Distel "Everybody," he said, "wants me to come up with an all-time highlight, one play or one game. I can't do that. It's not one play or one game.

It's the people who made those plays or played those games I'll remember." Players such as Ed White, Doug Wilkerson, Wes Chandler, John Jefferson, Kellen Winslow, Louie Kelcher, Billy Shields, Don Macek, Charlie Joiner and Russ Washington. This is my list, not Fouts'. His would run off the page. And coaches such as Don Coryell, Ernie Zampese, Joe Gibbs and Jim Hanifan. Again, the list is mine and is undoubtedly much too short.

This was a special era in Charger football. And Dan Fouts will stand on the field today to represent himself, his teammates and an era. "I'm going to be very happy," he said, "and that's going to be my rock to fall back on." There have been many emotional moments in Mission Valley for Dan Fouts, but all of the others have been in the heat of battle. The spotlight, to be sure, has always been on him but never quite like this. "I won't need a script," he said.

"The stadium is my script. There's not an inch of that turf that isn't familiar to me. There won't be a face in the stands I'll feel like I haven't seen. I'll feel like I know them all." Sid Brooks will be there too, of course. After all, they were rookies together.

There won't be any mistakes now, because there weren't any mistakes then. Sid Brooks knew all along how special Dan Fouts would become. He knew the number wouldn't make a bit of difference. enlightened. In these parts, No.

14 and Dan Fouts are inseparable. with apologies to Carmelo Martinez and Valentine's Day. A few years ago, the telephone company even got into the act. They retired 714 hereabouts. I presume the "7" was for touchdowns, and we all know about the "14." Somehow, Fouts and touchdowns never seemed to be far apart.

The thing about occasions such as this is that the number, in all reality, is a prop. And what we're talking is not retirement. We're talking preservation. That's right. We're talking the preservation of memories.

Dan Fouts. Tough. (You had to see him with the ice bags on Monday morning the blood on his jersey Sunday afternoon.) Resourceful. Intelligent. Brusque.

You interview him after a loss to the Raiders. Calm. Confident. (Yes, cocky, too.) Mischievous. (Why would a quarterback be in a special teams meeting if he wasn't there to needle the kicker?) Loyal.

(Ask teammates and coaches, not owners.) Appreciative. Modest. A whole lot of what this is all about, and I suspect Fouts is with me on this, is the recognition of an era and the people who made it special. Dan Fouts and the No. 14 are vehicles for this recognition.

a rookie mistake." The year was 1973, and Sid Brooks was a rookie equipment man. Another rookie also joined the Chargers that year. He was a quarterback from Oregon, drafted in the third round with a choice acquired from Atlanta through Oakland for a running back named Jeff Queen. One of Brooks' chores was to assign numbers to new players. He gave No.

14 to the kid from Oregon. Dan Fouts. Neither Brooks nor any future Charger equipment man again will assign No. 14, because it is to be retired at halftime of today's game with the San Francisco 49ers. Of course, this is not the end of the story.

It has to do with another rookie quarterback who reported to the Chargers in 1973. His name was Tony Adams, and he was a 14th-round pick from Utah State. Sid Brooks gave him No. 11. Dan Fouts' real number.

Huh? Dan Fouts wore No. 11 at Oregon. Tony Adams wore No. 11 at Utah State. "It was a rookie mistake," Brooks said again.

"Dan was drafted higher, but Let Fouts himself get his old friend off the hook. "Naturally." he said, "I was a holdout. Since I wasn't there yet, and Tony Adams wore No. 11, he got No. 11." Learning quickly when to hesitate to make a point, the rookie broadcaster leaned back with a whimsical look in his eye.

"But." he said, "I got the job." And I don't really get the impression that Fouts is particularly superstitious about what number he happens to be wearing. By his own account, a chronology of his numbers goes like this: He wore No. 10 in the seventh grade, No. 1 4 aha! in the eighth grade, No. 1 1 his freshman year of high school, No.

10 his sophomore through senior years of high school, No. 15 as an Oregon freshman and No. 11 his sophomore through senior years at Oregon. "I wanted to be No. 10 in college," he said, "but a redshirt freshman named Harvey Winn already had that number." And so he wanted to be No.

10 but got No. 11, and then wanted No. 11 but got No. 14. even that was not until after he had been given No.

18 in the Chargers' springtime minicamp after the draft. "Marty Domres wore No. 14 the year before," Fouts mused. "I think they gave it to me because it was lying around. I don't think they went out and printed up new numbers like now." And so it was that the Chargers are retiring No.

14 today. "We could have been retiring No. 11," Brooks said, "if I hadn't. Never mind, Sid, it was not a rookie mistake. It was CHARGERS FOUTS An Easy Victory in Their Opener Is Something Special for Aztecs TODAY'S GAME a Opponent: San Francisco 49ers.

Continued from Page 1 not necessarily in order of importance. "Dan Fouts iww the Chargers for 15 years," says Al Saunders, the head coach who is still looking for a replacement. I Sit: San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. was more interested in what the players and the coaches thought than the press." The analyst's trap is giving in to the temptation to tell the viewer what just happened instead of why it happened. To be able to avoid that trap, Fouts spends 8 to 9 hours a day Tuesday through Saturday reviewing tapes and interviewing coaches and players.

Fouts' initial exposure to football was as a fan rooting for the home team. "This," he says of his new job, "is the best of both worlds. I get to root for both teams. Because if they do well, we'll have a good game, which will make for a better broadcast." Timo: 1 p.m. PST i Records: Chargers 4-8.

49ers 7-5. FOUTS THE OPPOT.1WT a Radio: XTRA (690). XEBG 1 550) I TV: Blacked out locally. iRostort: Page 17. FOUTS THE HARD GUY 7" Sep? In 1982, Fouts and Wes Chandler combined to beat 49er cornerback Eric Wright for 3 touchdowns in a 41-37 victory at San Francisco.

Wright remembers. "When you went up against the Chargers," Wright says, "you knew it was going to be bombs away." "Dan was intimidating simply because he would stand in there and take all the punishment a defense would give him," San Francisco Coach Bill Walsh says. "If there was anybody who would stand strong right in the eye of a rush, it was Dan." "One hard part is losing some of your privacy and having to share your husband with other people. But the hardest part was watching him play. I loved what he could do.

But when he would get hurt that was very, very hard for me." FOUTS THE TEAKS3ATE FOUTS THE 803 DAVID McNEW For TV TimM SDSU's Michael Best looks on while Curtis Dudley, left, and Mitch McMullen reach for ball. By CURT HOLBREICH, Times Staff Writer SAN DIEGO-San Diego State opened its 1988-89 basketball season Saturday night by defeating Delaware, 74-61, in front of 2,536 at the San Diego Sports Arena. If that sounds like a ho-hum yawner to you, think again. Because recent history says it is not every day that the Aztecs win, let alone open their season with a victory. Not since 1984 86-77 over UC Irvine) had the Aztecs started the season by winning, and not since 1982 (75-58 over San Francisco State) had they done so as convincingly.

For the Aztecs, in their second -year under Coach Jim Brandenburg, it was one of those small steps to savor, regardless of the opponent or the sometimes relative sloppi-ness of the early play. And considering the Aztecs started two transfers and used 10 players in the first 10 minutes only four of whom were part of last season's 12-17 team Brandenburg had some reason for optimism. "I saw some things I was pleased with," Brandenburg said. "For a first game we did some things well. But we still have some work to do." Senior center Mitch McMullen had game highs of 21 points and 9 rebounds for the Aztecs.

Senior forward Shawn Bell, a transfer from Chicago State playing in his first game at SDSU, had 14 points and 4 assists but made 6 turnovers. Junior guard Tony Ross, the Aztecs' leading scorer the past 2 seasons, came off the bench to score 12 points in 25 minutes. Fouts is well-read, well-rounded and a terrific after-dinner speaker the kind of guy whose brain you'd like to pick in an oak-paneled den over brandy and Macanudo cigars. But he's had this problem over the years projecting warmth. He doesn't suffer fools gladly and can't really see why anybody expects that he should.

He's honest to the point where LaRusso worries about his future in broadcasting because of Fouts' disdain for corporate politics. "If they expect him to get involved in that, he will tell them to go to hell," LaRusso says. Fouts never patronized sportswriters. And many of his own teammates were put off by what they took to be his inherently superior and aloof nature. "The thing with Dan was a lot of people thought he was cold at times," McKnight says.

"But with Dan, he's not just going to go out of his way for a rookie or something like that. You have to earn his respect. "The people who thought he was cold or stuck up when they first knew him never really got to know him. They didn't earn his respect." And once you did earn Fouts' respect? "You were one of his boys," McKnight says. making all 4 of his shots from the field, including two from 3-point range.

"Tony came in and played a real nice ballgame," Brandenburg said. Ross had lost his starting spot to junior Michael Best, a transfer from Clemson. But Best struggled in his Aztec debut, missing all 4 of his shots and fouled out after playing only 27 minutes. Delaware was led by Mark Haughton's 15 points. Both teams started slowly.

It was the Aztecs who shook the doldrums first. They broke open a 9-4 game by outscoring the Blue Hens, 12-2, in a 3-minute span to take a 21-6 advantage with 10:03 left in the half. In the 12th week of the 1985 season, the Chargers trailed the Houston Oilers, 34-28, with less than 2 minutes to play in front of a howling mob at the Astrodome. The end zone was more than 80 yards away. "I'll never forget it," Charger guard Dennis McKnight says.

"Our heads were kind of hanging a little bit, and here comes Fouts jogging into the huddle. He says, 'Hey fellas, let's go down, get 7, get on the plane and get outta "Then I saw everybody pick up their heads and stare at him. It was like he said we're going to do it. and we all believed him." The Chargers moved down inside the Oiler 10. But they got hung up and found themselves looking at fourth and goal from the 12.

McKnight: "He came back onto the field after a timeout and said, 'OK guys, give me a little bit of time on this, and it's a touchdown. I promise "And I'll never forget blocking and blocking and blocking for what seemed like an eternity. And I looked out of the corner of my eye, and all of a sudden I saw Wes Chandler waving his arms with the ball. It was like that whole sequence made me realize the rest of my career that when he said we were going to do something as a team, I just believed it" Unfortunately, Fouts didn't play defense. The Oilers raced right back up the field and won, 37-35, on a 51 -yard field goal by Tony Zendejas with 2 seconds remaining.

TOUTS THE PROTEGE Fouts grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, the son of former 49er play-by-play broadcaster Bob Fouts. He would eventually follow his father's footsteps into the booth. Do you think Walter Cronkite would have been proud if his son had become a network anchor? Do you think Cronkite would have been proud if his son had stopped first to serve as President of the United States? "I'm pleased for Dan that he's found a life after football that's lucrative and interesting," Bob Fouts says. "I don't necessarily consider that he's following in my footsteps. We hope he'll carry the profession to a higher standard.

Certainly he'll make more money than I ever did." Lining the walls of Bob Fouts' office are pictures of Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, Y.A. Tittle and a lot of other quarterbacks of high repute. One day several years ago, Bob Fouts looked at that wall and blinked. "It was hard to comprehend," he says. "My kid was surpassing these people.

"But I'm proud of him as a man first of all. His football exploits were a pleasant surprise." Sports broadcasting is overrun with ex-jocks who owe their spot behind the microphone to looks or athletic ability. Career broadcasters don't get to become professional athletes when they retire. And they are painfully aware of how often unfair the converse is. The irony of this is not lost on career broadcaster Bob Fouts, whose son is now an ex-jock in the booth.

"I resent ex-players in the booth only if they become pedestrian and fall back on all those cliches," he says. USIU Blows Lead, Then Rallies to Win FOUTS THE STUDENT San Francisco's Walsh is not so much a genius as he is a superb technician. He has refined the science of footwork for quarterbacks and turned it into a precise, balletic art. During his year as the Chargers' offensive coordinator in 1976, he imparted that art to Fouts. Fouts had just come off a disappointing 1975 season in which he had thrown 10 interceptions and only 2 touchdown passes.

Injuries had slowed his progress, and there was even talk, about trading for a more durable, mobile, dependable quarterback. "Dan was determined to do something about this," Walsh says. So the two of them went to work in February, 8 months before the beginning of the 1976 season. "He was determined to improve," Walsh says. "And he gave it every bit of time required to change his style and develop his sophistication of understanding defenses and developing the footwork and mechanics to time his passes.

We worked on the field and in the classroom and made the breakthrough." FOUTS THE FAKSLY MAN Mora San Diego County coverage. Page 21. Air Force scored seven consecutive points to open the second half to cut USIU's lead to 46-44. The Falcons took their first lead, 63-62, on a 3-pointer by Sean Giles with 12:02 remaining. Giles, a point guard who played at the University of San Diego High School, then gave Air Force its biggest lead, 68-64, with another 3-pointer.

But USIU rallied and took a 70-69 lead on a free throw by Demetrius Laffitte as Bowling fouled out with 7:51 remaining. Air Force pulled within 77-76 on a free throw by Dudley with 4:23 remaining. The Falcons did not score again until 11 seconds By RICK HAZELTINE SAN DIEGO-United States International University showed that it is capable of using its speed and up-tempo style to score a lot of points. But one thing the Gulls also discovered in their season opener against Air Force Saturday night is they still have to learn how to put an opponent away. The Gulls wasted a 9-point half-time lead and had to battle back for an 82-78 victory at Golden Hall.

The victory broke a seven-game losing streak against Air Force and was the Gulls' first over the Falcons since 1980. USIU was able to win despite missing on 5 of 6 one-and-one free throw opportunities in the final 2:35. Steve Smith was finally able to connect, hitting both free throws to give USIU an 82-76 lead with 18 seconds remaining. FOUTS THE CHARGER ALUM Dominic LaRusso is a burly, former semipro football player who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Washington in 1950, got his Ph.D. in speech at Northwestern and became the most popular teacher at the University of Oregon.

He was attracted to Dan Fouts and Julianne, the girl Fouts was dating at the time, the first day they walked into his classroom. He says both remain among "the five brightest" students he has ever taught "Dan was an outstanding student because of his curiosity and dedication," LaRusso says. "But more for his ability to see beyond the obvious. But that curiosity enticed the hell out of me." LaRusso is much more than a rhetorician. He is also an accomplished physical therapist and an expert in the science of body language.

At Oregon, LaRusso and Fouts devised experiments together based on the importance of perception in communication. LaRusso's contributions enabled Fouts to train his long and short-range vision in a football context With the use of televisions Fouts factored in the concern of the blind-side rush. Lack of funding curtailed any meaningful expansion of their efforts. But according to LaRusso, they were approaching a breakthrough whereby aspiring quarterbacks could sharpen vision and instinct through perceptual exercises. They were zeroing in on the Inner Game of quarterbacking.

Around their impeccably decorated home in the wooded hills of Rancho Sante Fe, Dan Fouts is known to his family as the "French Chef." "You know, French toast and French fries," says his wife, julianne. Dan and Julianne Fouts met at the University of Oregon almost 20 years ago. They have 2 children Dominic, 10, and Suzanne, 9. Dominic is named after Dominic LaRusso, the Oregon speech professor and renaissance man who has influenced the lives of Dan and Julianne ever since they took his class in non-verbal communication. Julianne Fouts is currently studying to become a family therapist On the two nights a week she attends classes at National University, the "French Chef cooks dinner for the kids.

"He's a wonderful father," Julianne Fouts says. "When he's home, he spends as much time as he can with the kids. Our family is very important to him. We are his highest priority." Fouts and his son they call him "Nick" play catch in the yard just as other fathers and sons do. They also kick the soccer ball around.

Fouts' competitive nature is more likely to rear its head in the spelling games the family plays together. He helps both of them with their homework. As a wife, Julianne Fouts has most appreciated the support her husband has provided for her USD Defeats Lehigh in Tournament He works for CBS, the network of the NFC. So he has seen more of the 1988 Rams than the 1988 Chargers. And his relations with the three most powerful men in the Charger organization owner Alex Spanos, operations director Steve Ortmayer and Saunders were strained at the end.

But, Fouts says, "I firmly believe the Chargers are on the right track. They may have let too many good players get away. But who could have foreseen so many developments and injuries. Certainly there has been no lack of effort. Very often you see teams with similar records fold their tents at this time of year.

Spanos is the one who decided to retire Fouts' jersey. No other Charger not even the nonpareil Lance Alworth has been honored this way in the 29-year history of the team. The Chargers briefly retired the jersey of offensive lineman Ron Mix But they quickly un-retired it when Mix joined the Raiders in 1971. Spanos will be involved directly in the halftime ceremony. "I think that's very appropriate," Fouts says.

"I'm really pleased. My relationships with both owners Spanos and Gene Klein) were similar to my relationships with opponents. They realized what kind of competitor I was. But that's all water under the bridge now." FOUTS THE BROADCASTER Staff and Wire Reports ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. The University of San Diego men's basketball team won its opener Saturday night, defeating Lehigh, 68-58, in the first round of a tournament at the University of New Mexico.

USD plays New Mexico, a 96-71 winner over Loyola of Maryland, tonight at 8. Craig Cottrell's game-high 21 points helped the Toreros erase a 30-24 halftime deficit. USD shot 38 in the first half but improved to 56 in the second. "Our shooting was off in the first half," Torero Coach Hank Egan said. 'They threw a lot of multiple defenses at us.

We played much better defense in the second half." USD made a 12-4 run at the beginning of the second half and took a 36-34 lead with 14:14 remaining. Cottrell scored 7 points during that stretch. Lehigh scored 7 in a row to retake the lead, 41-36. with 1L34 remaining. USD came back again and took the lead for good on a 3-point jump shot from the top of the key by Gylan Doltin, a 6-5 freshman guard.

in developing her own interests. "We've had some rough times," she says. "But we're still married Football is not easy. And being married to a celebrity is not easy. We started dating before he was a celebrity.

And he's the same LaRusso and Fouts' father both regularly critique Fouts' work. So do the bosses at CBS during twice-monthly conference calls to the directors, producers and announcers. There are no won -lost records or quarterback ratings with which to judge his work anymore. "Public feedback was something I never really cared about as a player anyway," Fouts says. "I regular old person now that he was before he became a celebrity..