‘We can’t give up, because the guys out there selling drugs are going to send these kids to jail.’

John Rambo was back in the gym at Poly High in Long Beach, shooting a basketball.

He started with a few close shots, then moved back. A few dozen children, arranged in four rows at Rambo’s side, cheered each basket. The children cried, “Half court!” and Rambo sank a shot from the middle of the gym. In the final test--”Slam dunk!”--the 6-foot-4 Olympic high-jumper came through again.

The trim athlete with the orange cap was the man the children had come to see, and this was his show--Rambo Academic Basketball Camp.

Through notices in schools, Laundromats and grocery stores, as well as personal contacts with children in the boys’ and girls’ basketball league he runs, Rambo had found a way to draw 43 elementary and junior high students back to school for four days of their Easter vacation.

Rambo, 43, played basketball at Poly High and Cal State Long Beach in the 1960s. In 1964, he won a bronze Olympic medal in the high jump and hoped to win a spot on a professional basketball team. Failing that, he returned to his central-city neighborhood and became interested in helping the community.

For this week’s camp, the Long Beach Unified School District let him use the facilities at Poly High. He gathered about $5,000 from five corporate sponsors, including General Telephone and Carl’s Jr., then offered the Monday-through-Thursday camp free to local students.

Several of the children, whose parents brought them from Long Beach and Compton and from as far away as Cerritos, said they didn’t mind going to school over break. “It’s fun,” said one of the five girls in the program.

“We’re doing something,” added a 10-year-old boy. “My cousin didn’t want to come because he didn’t want to do homework, but I like it.”

Much of Rambo’s motivation for running the camp comes from his own experience. “I’m a student-athlete who graduated,” he said. “I know a lot of guys who didn’t . . . and guys who killed themselves because they couldn’t play (pro) basketball.”

When he talks with the children, Rambo never mentions the college athlete he knew who shot himself and his wife, or the professional player who “took a bunch of pills and drowned himself in the Oregon River.” Instead, he stresses the importance of being skilled academically and socially, not just in athletics.

On Monday morning, the program began in two classrooms where each student had a name tag on his desk. In one room, students gathered around a book called “Reflections of Me,” designed to show how they can express themselves through writing. As the students looked at baby photographs in the book, a few started to laugh. “We can laugh at the pictures, but we’re not laughing at anyone, right?” teacher Cathy Jones said.

At recess, Rambo was passing out apples when a boy sauntered up to him with a registration form. After telling the youngster not to be late the next day, Rambo asked: “Don’t you have any favorite subject besides basketball?”

“Yeah, football,” the boy replied.

“How about art, reading, math? You can’t build your whole life around sports.”

Cal State Long Beach basketball coach Joe Harrington expanded upon Rambo’s words. He assured the students that no coach can sneak them into college if their grades and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores don’t measure up. And to make it as a pro, Harrington added, young athletes had best learn to get along with other people. “The NBA has a lot of talent,” he said. “They don’t mess around with guys who don’t have a good attitude.”

In the afternoon, it was time for basketball. Wearing glasses and shorts, Rambo addressed the children in a husky voice: “No, you’re not going to play any games. We’re going to work on fundamentals. You need some, like dribbling the ball.”

Rambo’s no-nonsense approach extended to behavior on the playground and in the gym. Three rambunctious boys were told to sit in the “penalty corner.” Two others who had been scolded by Rambo left in a huff halfway through the session. Most, however, sat in rows and followed Rambo’s rules.

“All youngsters are well behaved when you let them know there’s not going to be any messing around . . . and that you care,” the coach explained.

Rambo spoke from nearly 20 years’ experience with children. In 1972, while working full time as a public relations specialist at General Telephone, he launched a nonprofit corporation to support athletic activities for children. He continues to raise funds privately for his basketball league, Rambo’s Roundballers.

This was his first spring-break basketball camp. But a few years back he conducted a successful summer sports program, and he hopes to do it again.

“Instead of me having 43 kids, I need to have 100, every vacation, every summer, every evening,” Rambo said. “We have to keep on, we can’t give up, because the guys out there selling drugs are going to send these kids to jail.”