The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 50

9 A Part 111 Wednesday, August 3 1 1988 Cos Angeles Slimes San Diego County Dave Distel Winslow's a Winner Who Wouldn't Quit 'f. 1 A lib Nlr 7i Winslow, Chargers Still Apart By BRIAN HEWITT, Times Staff Writer SAN DIEGO-The Chargers and tight end Kellen Winslow made no progress Tuesday in their dispute over whether Winslow is healthy enough to play in Sunday's regular season opener. But Steve Ortmayer, the team's director of football operations, softened his stance of Monday, at which time he suspended Winslow. "This is the last thing we would want to enter our lives in the week of a big, big game like we have," Ortmayer said. "This is a guy who has been a tremendous player here.

"He's been a part of the history of football. He's been a part of all our football lives here in San Diego. And I'm sure he's going to be appropriately recognized in the Hall of Fame. "Even the importance of the events of this week our opening game with a division opponent this isn't something that we would have any dream or feeling that would ever occur. "But the fact that we have total differing opinions on the obligations of a contract doesn't overshadow the fact that Kellen Winslow has been a great player for the San Diego Chargers.

"We appreciate that and recognize that. But yet we obviously have a strong difference of opin-ion. The fact remains: Winslow is still suspended. Ortmayer said he has informed Winslow's agent, Jim Steiner, of the particulars of the suspension. But he wouldn't say publicly how long the suspension will last.

Winslow maintains his knee has deteriorated to the point where he can't play football anymore. But he claims the Chargers owe him his guaranteed $795,000 1988 base salary whether he plays or not. The Chargers insist he is healthy enough to play. And they don't think they should pay him anything if he refuses to play. Winslow and Steiner were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

I remember the towel draped over his head. I remember his arms hanging limp on supporting shoulders. I remember the drained look on his face. I remember Jan. 2, 1982.

I remember that Kellen Winslow would not quit. I remember that the Chargers were 41-38 winners over the Miami Dolphins on that long afternoon's journey into night. I remember that they were winners because Kellen Winslow would not quit. If that performance was not a profile in courage, it was at least a most magnificent display of determination and perseverance. I remember the heat and the humidity and I remember Winslow catching 13 passes for 166 yards, but I remember his most important contribution came on special teams when he went skyward to block a Miami field goal attempt in the final seconds of regulation.

Thus energized, the Chargers eventually won in overtime. And now I hear that Kellen Winslow is a quitter. I hear that Kellen Winslow is a malingerer. I hear that Kellen Winslow is dogging it. None of this was actually said, but that was what I heard.

It has to do with the manner in which the Chargers announced Monday that Kellen Winslow was no longer a member of the team. No, he was not traded, though this organization has shown no reticence in the past to trade its heroes in the twilights of their careers. Remember Lance Al-worth? No, he was not waived, as ignominious an ending as that would have been. It was worse. He was suspended.

Suspended? "The discipline deals with a refusal to play for the club," the statement read. "Indications are that this entire matter is going to be subject to litigation. On advice of counsel, the Chargers will make no further comment." It is amazing how the English language can be vague and precise at the same time. Since the statement says this man is being suspended for refusing to play, it can only mean that the organization feels that he should be playing. If he should be playing and won't, that makes him a malingering quitter.

Clear enough? It is to me. Except I don't believe it. Let's flash back to another memory of Kellen Winslow. The date was Oct. 21, 1984.

After catching a simple pass over the middle, a catch he had made hundreds of times in practice and games, he took a hit to the side of his knee from the Raiders' Jeff Barnes and went down. I remember the agony as he writhed on the turf. I remember doctors saying that repairing the damage was like sewing two mops together. I remember thinking that this man might never again play football. He was back almost a year to the day later, after making what the Charger media guide called "a long a painful journey through rehabilitation." This man is a quitter? Winslow was never again the force he was before that injury, but it was amazing that he was playing at all.

However, he still played well enough in 1987 to play in his fifth Pro Bowl. What's more, his teammates voted him the Chargers' offensive player of the year. So what has happened since then? More arthroscopic surgery. More trauma to a traumatized knee. It might have been deemed a housekeeping procedure on any knee other than this one.

When it came time to report for preseason practice, Winslow at first flunked and then passed the physical. This obviously was not the knee of a Clydesdale, but Winslow said doctors told him it was sound enough to "get by." What it got him was an appear- VINCE COMPAGNONE Los Angeles Times Kellen Winslow was a mainstay of the Chargers' offense, even after he was injured. What he did seemed to be the sensible thing. He insisted he was not fit to play. What he did not count on is that this would give the club the escape clause it needed.

He did not count on being suspended without pay. He did not count on being portrayed as a malingerer, when that was what he would have had to become if he had continued. Kellen Winslow made the mistake of forgetting that fleas have bigger hearts than the National Football League and the Charger organization is no ance in one exhibition game, and Winslow decided that was enough. Now we get to the ugly part of the scenario. The club, citing the fact that he had passed his physical, wanted him to play.

Winslow, complaining of the pain, did not want to continue. Why would the club want him to continue? I suspect it had to do with his $795,000 contract being guaranteed. It could avoid paying that money if Winslow retired. The club's suggested solution was that he quietly retire at half-salary. It is understandable that this was not acceptable to him.

After all, pain was a price he had been paying and will continue to pay. and that injury was inflicted and undoubtedly aggravated in the line of duty. What to do? He could go all out and play and take a chance on suffering a crippling injury. If that happened, of course, he could probably successfully sue owner Alex Spanos for about four apartment buildings and then retire to life in a recliner. He could play at less than full speed, tiptoeing through the mine fields of National Football League secondaries.

Of course, that would have been dogging it. Charger Notebook All Things Considered, Laufenberg Is Just Happy to Get His First Start anything like that? But Jeff Laufenberg was smart enough to build in playing incentives that will push his brother's 1988 income much higher, if Babe keeps his job and stays healthy. "I just hope the Chargers can shore up their offensive line," Jeff Laufenberg says. "I hope Babe doesn't have to generate quite as much enthusiasm as he's had to the last couple of weeks." The average starting quarterback base salary in the NFL is approximately $600,000. Jeff Laufenberg declined to be specific, but sources say if Laufenberg stays healthy and has a good year, he will earn close to $500,000.

By BRIAN HEWITT, Times Staff Writer SAN DIEGO-The legend of Babe Laufenberg grows. Laufenberg is the longshot quarterback who won the Chargers' starting quarterback job this summer by doing all the right things. Now he's saying all the right things. The Charger-Raider regular-season opener Sunday will feature the league's lowest-paid starting quarterback Steve Beuerlein against the league's third lowest-paid starting quarterback, Laufenberg. Not to worry, Laufenberg insists: "I'd rather be a low-paid starter than a high-paid backup." When was the last time you heard a professional athlete say reserve.

Redden's biggest problem with the hand injury, according to Coach Al Saunders, is pass protection. FitzPatrick reportedly hurt his back weightlifting Monday. The Chargers are still waiting for a doctor's decision on rookie linebacker Cedric Figaro, who has been diagnosed as having a "lumbar strain." The team placed Figaro on injured reserve Monday. Team officials fear Figaro might need surgery that would end his season. Charger Notes The injury report for Sunday's game at the Coliseum: Defensive end Les Miller (ankle) questionable; inside linebacker Gry Pjummer (thigh) questionable; and outside linebacker Billy Ray Smith (calf) questionable for the Chargers.

Raider wide receiver Willie Gault (groin) is the day. There was a glimmer of hope Monday when Banks' agent spoke with Chet Franklin, the Chargers' director of player personnel. Turns out the agent, Harold Daniels, talked to Franklin about another Daniels' client, wide receiver Timmie Ware. Ware was cut Monday. Daniels said he talked to Banks Tuesday and advised him to return to the Chargers.

"I told him it was 'time to come on in and make some Daniels said. According to Daniels, Banks responded by saying: "Stop bugging me. I'm going on vacation." Daniels said he did not know where Banks planned to spend his vacation. The Chargers made several ros ter moves, none of them unexpected. They placed running back Barry Redden (hand) and offensive lineman James FitzPatrick (back) on injured reserve.

Then they re-signed tight end Albert Reese and claimed offensive lineman Darrick Brilz. The Chargers cut Reese Monday but got him back when nobody claimed him. Brilz was cut Monday by the Redskins. Redden and FitzPatrick must miss at least four games. If the Chargers had placed them on injured reserve before their final cut, they wouldn't have been able to reactivate them for six games.

The Chargers probably will reactivate defensive lineman Joe Phillips this week, which means they will have to find somebody else to cut or place on injured Beuerlein's base salary in 1988 is $110,000. He already has received a $10,000 bonus for making the roster. Laufenberg's base salary this year is $175,000. He received a $5,000 roster bonus this week. The second -lowest paid starting quarterback in the league this week will be Pittsburgh's Bubby Brister, whose 1988 base salary is $170,000.

Neither Laufenberg nor Beuerlein has thrown a regular-season pass. Brister is 25 of 72 in two seasons for a career quarterback rating of 20.2. Laufenberg, represented by his brother Jeff, a Los Angeles attorney, signed with the Chargers last April when few people dreamed he would beat out Mark Malone for the first-stringjob. The chances of holdout linebacker Chip Banks agreeing to terms with the Chargers get smaller by Strength Is Virginia Glass' Great Ally-On and Off the Tennis Court By BARBIE LUDOVISE, Times Staff Writer Virginia Glass, a 60-year-old grandmother of two, walked off a tennis court Saturday at Lindborg Racquet Club in Huntington Beach as the world champion in her division-women's 60-and-over. Was she thrilled? "Oh, hardly," Glass said with a quiet laugh.

"It just means I had a little more stamina today." Don't let her fool you. The San Diego resident had to survive a seemingly endless arsenal of drop shots and corner shots before finally defeating her opponent, Doris Clark of Laguna Beach, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3. in the women's 60-and-over final of the International Tennis Federation Veteran Championships. Her victory coming just a day after a 6-1, 6-7, 6-1, semifinal victory over Marcelyne Blom of Holland was somewhat an act of survival, both physical and mental. "I'm a strong horse," Glass said.

"I'm a very strong person." There are many reasons for this, though some have little to do with tennis. Born in the Philippines, Glass remembers little joy during her adolescent years. In December 1941, the Japanese invaded Manila, and she and her family were placed in a Japanese internment camp. Glass and her family were kept there three years, during which Glass could only watch as her father and two sisters died of starvation. After U.S.

forces defeated the Japanese in the Philippines in 1944, Glass and the rest of her family were repatriated to the United States. They settled in New York, and Glass, who received a scholarship to study at the American university of her choice, entered Columbia University as a 16-year-old English and journalism major. "When I was in the camp, my refuge was in books," Glass said. "I loved to read. That's how I survived.

That's how I kept on." And it's also how she came to play tennis. Glass said she first took an interest in the sport at 30, after seeing some tennis footage in the 1951 Hitchcock thriller, "Strangers on a Train," a film concerning a professional tennis player. "I said to myself, 'Oh, don't those people look great in those little white she said. "I wanted to be a part of it." So, having earned a master's degree in library science, Glass went to the card catalogue and looked it up. "Being very book-oriented, I learned everything from books," she said.

"I never once took a tennis lesson." While she taught herself about the secrets of topspin and serve, Glass involved her two sons, Sidney and Luis, then 7 and 8. They went on to be ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in their age groups in the Eastern Tennis Glass said. "I felt every child should have something that he could excel in, be it tennis or baseball or education," Glass said.

"They both loved tennis, and they did very well, so together we learned." Luis, now a teaching pro in San Diego, went on to be an Ail-American at UCLA. Sydney, a lawyer in Marin County, played tennis at the University of Wisconsin during his freshman year "until he discovered civil rights," Glass said. Perhaps Sidney Glass took after his mother. Virginia Glass is listed in "Who's Who Among Black Americans" for her lifetime community service in various minority organizations. Today, most of that involvement concerns tennis.

Glass is the past president of the American Tennis an organization formed in the 1940s to promote and develop tennis for minorities. Current professional players Zina Garrison and Lori McNeil were once part of the ATA program. Glass said. Glass, who works with the National Junior Tennis League, spends much of her time developing junior tennis players, especially in the southeast sections of San Diego. "I try to stay as involved as possible especially with kids," Glass said.

"We'll go to the public parks, where the kids are. Sooner or later, instead of throwing bottles or cans on the court, they'll start asking to play. ROD BOREN For The Times Virginia Glass returns a shot during the tournament in Huntington Beach. "As far as tennis goes, I'm over the hill. But working with juniors, well, that's my reason for staying in the sport.

"If I could steer some kids in the right direction not so that they're great players, but just so they could go through college well, that's my main thing right now. That's what I'm trying to do.".