Seoul ’88 : L.A. Athletes Show Youth How to Win

I haven’t seen the movie “Colors,” but I read newspapers, and I watch television, and I have seen the bad that youth can do.

Through nine days of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, which ended Saturday, I have also seen the good that youth can do. I just wish that Dennis Hopper had been here to film that.

Central to the plot were a number of inner-city L.A. athletes, who chose not to become Crips or Bloods but to wear the colors of Joe Douglas’ Santa Monica Track Club or Bob Kersee’s World Class Athletic Club or Chuck DeBus’ Los Angeles Track Club.

Two of them provided moments that those who follow the sport may never forget.

Florence Griffith-Joyner, who graduated from Jordan High School in 1978, ran a 10.49 in the 100 meters, a time that did not figure to be reached by a woman for at least a couple of decades.

Danny Everett, who graduated from Fairfax High School in 1985, became the second man in 20 years to break 44 seconds in the 400 meters, running 43.98 in the final. Unfortunately for him, the first man in 20 years to break 44 seconds, Butch Reynolds, who ran 44.93, also was in the race.

Another moment that I will never forget was Johnny Gray’s victory lap after he won the 800 meters.

Instead of waving the tiny American flag that all members of the U.S. team were handed within seconds after crossing the finish line, Gray, who graduated from Crenshaw High School in 1978, carried his own hand-made flag.

On one side, it said: “In God We Trust: Drugs Kill.”

On the other side, it said: “Say No To Drugs: Drugs Kill.”

Gray said there were two motivations for winning the race. After finishing seventh in the 800 at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, he said that he wants a medal in Seoul. “I’ll even take a copper.” But he said that he also knew that if he won, he would be able to show off his flag.

When he entered the interview tent, in his arms were his two young sons, Johnny III, 4, and Jared, 2.

“The way drugs are destroying the youth of today, the future of America doesn’t look too good,” Gray said. “So my race today is dedicated to the youth of America. I hope to make them realize that drugs kill.

“I hope that if some kid out there is getting ready to take drugs he thinks, ‘Wait, Johnny Gray says don’t do that,’ and he doesn’t do it.”

Living within a 5K run of the Coliseum, Gray said that he sees crime in the streets, or the effects of it, almost daily, and that he believes most of it is drug-related. Fending off a man who was trying to steal his car last year, Gray was hit on the head.

“It’s like a jungle in Los Angeles,” he said. “The drug scene is pretty bad, and gang wars. I think drugs make the world unfit, and I want to help do something about it.”

He said it is too late for one of his former roommates, a half-miler who died last year from a drug overdose. He was 21.

There are too many stories similar to that one, young people who are getting false starts.

“I recently had a conversation with a young man who could have been a good athlete if he had been willing to work at it, but he opted for the quick money on the streets,” John Smith said last week. “He thought that was the way to earn respect.

“But now he’s no longer called Mister. Now he has a number for his identification.”

Smith grew up in South Central Los Angeles, graduated from Fremont High School and attended UCLA, where he is the assistant track coach in charge of sprinters. Four of the men that he coaches, Everett, Steve Lewis, Kevin Young and Mike Marsh, will be in Seoul as members of the U.S. Olympic team.

While running for UCLA, Smith finished second in the 400 meters at the 1972 Olympic trials. He still holds the world record for 440 yards.

Smith said he was never tempted by the gang-life as a teen-ager, but that was during a time when it didn’t pay so well.

“Guys I knew in the gangs didn’t have $100,000 days,” he said.

But there are more temptations now, and perhaps less options. Smith said he suspects that young people today are having a more difficult time finding their way through the maze.

“If you could get rid of the drugs, you could field an Olympic team with the gangs in South Central alone,” he said. “There’s a whole Olympic team out there.”

Fortunately for Los Angeles, there are people such as Smith, Anita DeFrantz, Regina Jacbos and others who are seeking solutions.

Jacobs, who earned a place on the Olympic team by finishing second Saturday in the 1,500 to Mary Slaney, coordinates a program for the Amateur Athletic Foundation, in conjunction with the L.A. Unified School District, that introduces distance running to junior high school students.

Last winter, 800 children from 38 junior high schools participated in the program. Anita DeFrantz, president of the Amateur Athletic Foundation, said last week that she believes all 72 junior high schools will participate next fall.

The Foundation, which received $93 million of the surplus from the 1984 Los Angeles Games, has awarded grants in all 23 sports contested in the Summer Olympics, and is directly involved with 15 of them. She said some of the young people now benefitting could emerge as members of the 1992 Olympic team.

But one of the problems is finding enough programs to support that can make the time and energy commitments necessary.

“There are too many programs that last a week and not enough that last a year,” she said. “Every summer there are lots and lots of camp programs, and when the summer is over, it’s like the kids no longer exist.

“We try to work through our grant programs to help as many as possible go year-around. We want to make sure that any kid who wants to be involved in a sport, any sport, can learn.

“I think we’re close to a turning point. I know there’s a lot of work to be done. Sometimes I’m too optimistic.”

Can sports solve the problems in South Central, or anywhere else in Los Angeles for that matter?

DeFrantz may be an idealist, but she also is realistic.

“Sports can’t solve poverty or drugs or crime,” she said. “It’s not a stand-alone effort. But it can provide individuals with the opportunity to succeed. It can help them develop a sense of honor, a sense of teamwork and a sense of community.

“That’s an experience you can never take away from them. It’s non-refundable.”

Sports is not the answer for all of our children. But it may be the answer for a few of them.

As the saying goes, one child saved is one child saved.