A Two-Letter Man : When guard Wnek got a scholarship to play at Biola, they wanted to call him ‘Patrick.’ ‘No way,’ he said. ‘My name is P. J.’ Now the kid from Carson has grown--as an athlete and a man.

Patrick Joseph Wnek will wince when he reads his full name in print.

At home he’s known simply as P. J. He likes it that way.

He’s called P. J. on the playgrounds in Carson and by the gym rats who hang out at Carson High School during the summer. They know him well near the corner of Avalon and Carson streets, where he frequented a pool hall with his older brother Mike.

When he received a scholarship to play basketball at Biola University in La Mirada, they wanted to call him Patrick.

“I told them, ‘No way. My name is P. J.,’ ” he said.

The kid has grown, physically and otherwise.

The 6-2 player “has come a long way in his spiritual development, and that is good,” said Biola basketball Co-Coach Dave Holmquist.

They talk a lot about spiritual development at Biola, where P. J. is following in Mike’s footsteps this year as a starting guard on the Eagles, the undefeated powerhouse of the National Assn. of Inter Collegiate Athletics. Founded in the late 1950s, Biola is a Christian university where students are taught to strive for religious enlightenment.

P. J. initially found Biola to be a rude awakening from his days at the Catholic Bishop Montgomery High in Torrance, where he was a two-time all-league player on a team that “was just horrible,” he said.

At Biola, “I was a little wild at first,” said P. J., who’s now a junior.

P. J. struggled with what he termed the “culture shock of a Carson boy” in a new Christian surrounding. Catholicism hadn’t prepared him for Biola.

“At first,” he said, “I wasn’t sure I’d made the right decision.”

The atmosphere at Biola is a long way from Carson. Straddling the border between Los Angeles and Orange counties, the school is located amid rows of well-kept, middle-class homes. Blocks of dormitory rooms are sheltered by tall trees and set back from busy surface streets.

Edwin and Patricia Wnek raised three boys and a girl, and the family had always been close. When his father died suddenly two years ago. P. J. was a freshman at El Camino College. He and Mike found themselves saddled with wage-earning responsibilities.

“It was a tough year” for them, Holmquist said.

Mike and P. J. have a special bond and it helped them through the crisis.

“We’d do anything for each other,” P. J. said.

Mike, who’s 6-5 and three years older, is the consummate big brother.

“We always hung out together,” Mike said.

Both are psychology majors. Mike attended Bishop Montgomery and he, too, was a two-time all-league choice.

“Mike was a great player,” P. J. said. “He was so unselfish.”

P. J., Mike said, “has the potential to be the best point guard in the NAIA.”

Each brings special qualities to the basketball court.

Mike, according to Holmquist, could penetrate a defense better.

“He could really make the break go,” he said.

P. J., Holmquist said, is “the type of player that makes others better players.”

Unlike P. J., Mike received a scholarship out of high school. Within three years, Mike played at three different colleges, all out of state. He dropped out of school and into a job on the graveyard shift loading trucks in Gardena.

Without a scholarship, P. J. walked on at El Camino College and soon “fell into the doghouse” with Warrior Coach Paul Landreaux.

“I was uncomfortable (at El Camino) trying to be competitive with Top 20 Division I transfers,” he said.

A friend told him about Biola. Holmquist later received a phone call from Landreaux. Would Holmquist be interested in a hard-working bench jockey? Holmquist invited P. J. to work out in an open gym, and soon signed him.

P. J., the family man, never forgot his brother.

“I told (Holmquist) about Mike. I said he could play, that they should pick him up. (Holmquist) said to bring him down to the gym,” P. J. said.

With Mike and P. J. together again, Biola was off to a 29-2 season. Mike beat out his little brother for a starting guard spot.

Mike used his final year of eligibility last year to become an All-NAIA District selection. Now it’s P. J.’s turn. He’s off to a good start, hitting 65% of his three-point attempts. (He had made 27 three-point attempts before a pair of games this week.)

“I know I can do more than I have done,” P. J. said. “But I must accept my role. I’d like to push the ball up the floor more.”

But Holmquist laughs.

“Every guard that has played the game wants to run more. Last year, with Mike here, we averaged 87 points a game,” he said.

If spiritual development includes personal maturity, P. J. is learning his lessons well. He is intelligent, speaks thoughtfully and says he wants to be a counselor someday.

“P. J. is real sensitive. He can open his heart to people,” Holmquist said. “He can feel when others are hurting.”

But P.J. isn’t so sure.

“I’ve mellowed out a lot. . . . When I lost in high school I wasn’t the most pleasant fellow after a game.”

But with a smile Patrick acknowledges that’s all part of growing up.