Times-Advocate from Escondido, California • 51

TIMES-ADVOCATE, Saturday, August 31, COUNTY CONSUMER NEWS, Thursday, Sept. 5, 1985 19 Chargers childhoods The first love of Charlie Joiner, the NFL's leading all-time pass catcher, was baseball. When they were young From diapers to the NFL, most players always loved football By Bob Gaines Times-Advocate Sportswriter SAN DIEGO No, they were not born wearing cleats and shoulder pads. Pro scouts and agents did not hang around the nursery school. Interviews were not conducted during school recess.

But stored with the earliest memories of childhood is an initial spark that eventually led to a career in football. Some members of the Chargers had an immediate fascination for the game. Raised in Port Arthur, Texas, Mike Green was in love with football about the time he was discarding diapers. "I started messing around with football very early," said Green. "I remember running home with my older brothers from Sunday School to watch the Dallas Cowboys on TV.

I was about 4 years old." "The first time I wore a uniform, I put it on four hours before game time," said Pete Holohan. "I had the pads on backwards. I didn't know what went where." "When I was 8, I joined flag football," said Ralf Mojsiejenko. "The Vikings we were the champs. "And about the same time, my dad signed my brother and me up for punt, pass and kick.

He'd get out a tape measure and teach us how to kick. It was always fun." Future football greats might be expected to reach immediate stardom. That was not always true. "My earliest memories of football weren't too good," said Lionel James. "We'd pick teams and there would always be two guys left me and my younger cousin.

'You go on this team and you go on that The other kids always seemed a lot bigger." "I was always the last one picked," said Holohan. "My older brothers and their friends gave me my baptism in the backyard. I was kind of skinny, but I could always Ralf Mojsiejenko started his career playing flag football. catch." Most of the early skills were picked up playing sandlot football. "Sandlot was all we played," said Jesse Bendross.

"Me and my older brothers would play all the time. They'd hit me and I'd cry. They'd always call me a sissy. But I stuck with it and I learned from them." "I wouldn't play with my older brothers no way," said Green. "They went for blood.

They'd say, 'Come on, Mike, you can be on my Then, boom next thing they'd be calling me a wimp." "My mom wouldn't let me play," said James. "She didn't like contact sports. We'd sneak out and play in the backyard when she was gone. Then, we'd stop just before she got home. "Finally, when I was in junior high school, she came to a game.

'Well, it looks like you're having she said." Heroes played a major role in fashioning the dreams of young Chargers. "My first memory of football was Y.A: Tittle throwing an alleyoop pass to R.C. Owens and hearing my dad describe it on the radio," said Dan Fouts, whose father was the San Francisco 49ers play-by-play announcer. "I was about 6 years old." Raised in Hollywood, Bendross closely followed the Dolphins. "My dream was to be just like Paul Warfield," said Bendross.

"I copied his style. I tried to do everything just like he did." Holohan grew up in Liverpool, N.Y. "My dad was a Giants fan, so I figured that was my team, too," said Holohan. "My favorites were Homer Jones and Spider Lockhart." Tim Spencer's hero was his older brother. "He was my idol," said Spencer.

Mike Green started playing football at the age of 4. "He was years older than me and played for Akron University. I tried to act just like him. He taught me a lot." But not everyone was crazy about football as a youngster. "In New Hampshire, football and soccer were always played in the fall," said Benirschke.

"I chose soccer. I never played organized football until I was a senior in high school." Growing up in Lake Charles, Charlie Joiner's first love was baseball. "I really wasn't into football," said Joiner. "My parents wanted me to go to college, but couldn't afford it. My high school coach told me football would be a good way to get a scholarship.

I was lucky because I got one to Grambling. "Baseball was my sport. I guess I've adjusted very well." Fouts was the ballboy for the 49ers. "I was close to the team and having fun," said Fouts. "But football was just another sport to me then." In St.

Henry, Ohio, Jim Lachey also got his start as a ballboy. "I lived a block away from the high school and I always hung around," said Lachey. "When I was 10, I got to drive the tractor to bring out the dummies and While Bendross followed the Dolphins, Green the Cowboys, Fouts the 49ers and Mojsiejenko the Bears, rookie Curtis Adams went against the grain. Raised in Michigan, his family rooted for the Lions. He didn't.

"I had enough of the Lions," said Adams. "I was always a Chargers fan.".