Trope and Clients Plan Bell Memorial

Sports agent Mike Trope said Tuesday that he and about 25 of his clients in the NFL will donate approximately $100,000 to the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect (ICAN) to establish a neighborhood family center in South Central Los Angeles as a memorial to the late Ricky Bell.

Trope said he has contributed $27,000 to the agency, and that he has received donations from a number of his clients, including a $5,000 check from the Rams’ Johnnie Johnson.

Trope said the idea to start a center occurred to him after he had visited a child-abuse center in El Monte. Bell, the former USC football star who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and, briefly, the San Diego Chargers, was one of Trope’s clients. Bell died last Nov. 28 of a rare muscle disease.

Trope said that beyond the initial donation he plans to raise $50,000 per year to maintain the center.