College Division / Mitch Polin : Once, All He Read Was the Offense; Now He Hits Books

A few years ago, Gary Willison never would have envisioned playing college football for Azusa Pacific University.

After all, the 6-foot 5-inch, 260-pound Willison had spent the first three years of his college career starring as a defensive lineman for USC, which is a long way in football stature from Azusa Pacific, a tiny school that plays in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics.

By the time Willison finished his junior season at USC, he already had played in three bowl games--including the 1984 Rose Bowl--and started for the Trojans in 1985 and 1986.

Then he began to be consumed by academic problems.

“I had academic problems since I was in high school but I was never a failure,” he recalled. “I was just an average student trying to get by.”

The problems, though, headed for a full boil during Willison’s junior season. He said they started to affect his outlook on life and distract him on the field.

He decided it was time to seek counseling.

“It was catching up with me and it was getting to the point that I decided I needed help,” he said. “I could have maybe played football and stayed eligible but I decided that this was the best for me.

“I never failed out of school, like some of the papers said. I just decided that in my junior year there were certain things that I had to take care of for myself and I was never directed to the right people.”

Finally, after withdrawing from school, he found his way to Janet Eddy at USC’s learning center and learned that he had dyslexia--a reading impairment.

“I never had a single idea I had this,” Willison said. “Before, I just tried and tried (to read) and couldn’t do it. It just wouldn’t come out the way it was supposed to. I had my own way of doing things. I was better off when I didn’t study than when I did.”

“Tutors wouldn’t help because they would ask you what did you read and I couldn’t answer that. They just weren’t trained to deal with what I had. I was to the point where it was real hard to look ahead to the next day. All my hopes and dreams seemed to be washing away.”

After his dyslexia was discovered, he continued his work at USC’s learning center but also was directed to a government-funded course at Pasadena City College and started a visual therapy program with an eye specialist in North Hollywood.

He said his emotions ranged all over the place.

“In the beginning when I left, I was gung-ho and excited and wanted to be back (playing football),” he said. “And then, when I saw it wasn’t happening, I fell into a deep depression.

“But everything changed when I learned to read and do things that I couldn’t before. It was exciting and very rewarding. Before it was, ‘Why me? Why don’t I understand? Am I stupid?’ ”

Willison said he participated in the therapy programs, hoping to return to college, but he wasn’t eager about returning to USC.

“I didn’t know if I could go anywhere else but I personally didn’t care if I went back there or not,” he said. “I just wanted to get back to school and do what I had to do.”

He had hoped to transfer to Cal State Fullerton and even took summer classes with that in mind. Willison had been impressed by the interest that Gene Murphy, Fullerton’s football coach, and the school’s athletic department had taken in working with him and steering him into the necessary classes.

“They worked harder (for him) than anyone I had ever met before,” he said.

Unfortunately, Murphy soon learned that there was a strong possibility that Willison’s National Collegiate Athletic Assn. eligibility had expired--even though he was just starting his senior year. So Murphy began searching for NAIA programs, where the eligibility requirements were a little different and Willison would still be able to play another season.

Enter Coach Jim Milhon of Azusa Pacific, the only NAIA school in the area that plays football.

“The first inkling I had about Gary Willison came from Gene Murphy when he called me (in August),” Milhon said. “Gene liked Gary a lot and said he (Willison) had worked real hard to do the things that they wanted him to do. So he tried to look for a place for him and found out that he would be eligible at an NAIA school.”

Milhon was more than willing to take Willison into his program.

“Our main concern was that we had only one year with him so we wanted to pack as much of an education into one year as we could,” he said. “We weren’t looking just to get a good football player into our program.”

But Milhon had little doubt that Willison could make an immediate impact for the Cougars.

“He had never been to Azusa Pacific before the day he came in to meet me in late August,” Milhon said. “I’m a small-college football coach and Gary Willison is 6-5 and 260 and there isn’t much fat on him and I took a look at him and there was no question that he could help this football team.”

Willison, who has been a much better student since he completed his therapy for dyslexia, has not taken long to get adjusted to either the class work or the football team at Azusa Pacific. “It’s been an easy thing to do because the people here make it real easy,” he said.

He made a big impression in Azusa Pacific’s first game, against Occidental, on Sept. 10, making 12 tackles--6 unassisted.

“I keep getting better all the time,” he said. “It’s a whole different attitude and environment here but at the same time it’s the same game.”

Willison said it was an unusual feeling, walking out onto the field at Occidental for the first time, but that he now simply considers it a new phase of his life.

“I had a chance to experience playing in front of 100,000 people and I’ve played on national TV,” he said. “It was an adjustment at first but once I got on the field it was great just to be out there, playing again. It didn’t matter if it was the Coliseum or here.”

He said he will never forget his experiences at USC but is happy about playing at Azusa Pacific.

“After the (Occidental) game, I actually found myself smiling and I was happier than I ever thought I would be,” Willison said.

College Division Notes

California Collegiate Athletic Assn. teams dominate the first NCAA Division II women’s volleyball coaches’ poll announced last week. Defending Division II champion Cal State Northridge is No. 3, UC Riverside is No. 5, Chapman No. 9, Cal Poly Pomona No. 12 and Cal State Bakersfield No. 20. . . . Kelly Conway, former men’s and women’s tennis coach at UC Riverside, has returned to the school as the assistant men’s coach. He replaces York Strother, who resigned to accept a similar position at Nevada Las Vegas.

Cal State Northridge’s football team allowed its first points of the season in a 31-6 victory over Sonoma State last Saturday, but the Matadors, who have outscored their first three opponents by a 96-6 margin, still have not allowed a touchdown. That may change when they face their first and only NCAA Division I-AA opponent, Idaho State, Saturday in Pocatello.