Inches From the End of a Career : Grid Star Has Taken His Knocks, Including a Slug in the Ribs

As a cornerback, Eric Hamilton has handed out his share of hard knocks. And as a quarterback, he has taken a few.

But Hamilton never felt the hardest hit of his life. He heard the shots, and he saw people break and run, but all he saw was the flame from the muzzle of a gun.

A small-caliber bullet is wedged behind Hamilton’s ribs to remind him just how close he came to having his collegiate football career--or his life--cut short.

During a six-day stint, which ended last week, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center in Los Angeles, Hamilton learned that it was only a matter of inches.

On Jan. 4, Hamilton and friends were walking toward their car in the Nader’s Furniture Store parking lot on Gardena’s Van Ness Boulevard across the street from Serra High School where Hamilton was a star quarterback in 1987. Hamilton, home on winter break from the University of Colorado, had joined friends for a basketball game at his alma mater that evening.

After seeing Serra fall to St. Bernard, 76-65, Hamilton and his friends were debating about a place to eat. At 5 minutes after 10, they were across the street with about 20 other people leaving the game.

A gunman strode into the crowd and fired three shots.

“Everybody ducked and dove for cover,” Hamilton said. “I turned, and all I saw was the fire from the gun.”

Hamilton had been hit by the first shot. He didn’t recognize the gunman and isn’t sure whom the man was aiming at.

Hamilton leaped behind a garbage can just before the shots. The gunman, Gardena police reported, jumped into the back of a tan pickup and snapped off three more rounds from the camper shell as the truck squealed away from the curb.

Hamilton was dazed, but he didn’t know he had been shot until a friend, Keith Rankin, a Serra linebacker in 1987, saw the blood on Hamilton’s shirt.

“It felt like someone threw a rock at me,” Hamilton said. “It was just like a rock bounced off my chest. I was just walking, and walking, and then Keith saw me bleeding.”

In the car, Hamilton pulled away his shirt and asked if there was a bullet hole in his chest. A friend gave him the bad news and started driving to the hospital. A few minutes later, in the back seat, Hamilton passed out from loss of blood.

“I could hear people talking in the car, but I couldn’t see them,” Hamilton said. “They kept telling me not to go to sleep, not to sit up.”

Hamilton tried to stay calm.

“How are you supposed to act when you’ve been shot?” Hamilton said. “Like I should know. I decided to just act normal and hope I didn’t die.”

At King Medical Center, doctors feverishly worked to stem the flow of blood from Hamilton’s chest. The bullet--from a small-bore weapon such as a .22- or .25-caliber--had entered his upper right chest, passed through his lung and lodged behind his ribs, causing internal bleeding.

“I kept asking them over and over again if I was going to die,” Hamilton said. “But the doctors wouldn’t answer me, so I just told myself I was going to make it.”

Dr. Clarence Warner told Hamilton that the bullet narrowly missed the main artery to his right arm. If it had hit the artery, Hamilton likely would have either lost his arm or bled to death.

Gardena police are still investigating the shooting. The suspect was described as a young black male, about 5-9 with a medium build. But police said there was not enough information about the intended target to consider the incident a gang-related shooting.

“It doesn’t look like we’re any closer to breaking the case,” Detective Sgt. Dave Morgan said. “It’s still an active case and there’s still a lot of investigative legwork to do.”

Hamilton has some legwork of his own to do. He is back at Boulder, Colo. Doctors have told him that he can’t work out for four weeks. But Hamilton’s wound won’t stop him from playing football next year for Colorado, and he should be ready to go by the time spring practice starts in March.

That will come as good news for Colorado Coach Bill McCartney. Hamilton had just switched to cornerback after redshirting as a quarterback this past season.

The Buffaloes, despite a strong showing in the Big Eight Conference this year and a Freedom Bowl appearance on Dec. 29, suffered occasional letdowns in their defensive backfield. Hamilton was expected to become part of a resurgence in Colorado’s young secondary.

Hamilton’s teammate at Serra, Deon Figures, was recruited along with Hamilton by McCartney, who has plucked several of his key players recently out of California high schools.

Unfortunately for Hamilton, a few of those players have been quarterbacks. Hamilton found himself at the low end of Colorado’s depth chart behind junior starter Sal Aunese, sophomore Marc Walters and freshmen Charles Johnson and Darian Hagan. Walters is a former Carson High star, and Hagan prepped at Locke.

On the bright side, there is plenty of room for Hamilton on defense. Colorado’s entire starting secondary graduated before last season, and Figures was able to step in and start as a freshman cornerback. Figures was named the Big Eight’s defensive newcomer of the year and was an Associated Press honorable mention conference selection at corner.

So Hamilton and Figures, who teamed up as Serra’s scoring tandem in their senior year, could be reunited--in the Buffalo defense--next season.

Hamilton’s switch to cornerback shouldn’t be too difficult. He was a four-sport letterman at Serra and was an All-Camino Real League outfielder his junior season (.380 average, 18 stolen bases, three home runs). Hamilton was also a reserve shooting guard for the Cavalier basketball team and hurdled in track.

But football was Hamilton’s favorite. In 1987, he threw for 1,729 yards and 20 TDs. He ran for six more and had a 185-yard rushing game against St. Monica. Hamilton booted 24 extra points that year en route to All-CIF, All-South Bay and Camino Real League offensive most valuable player honors.

Through it all, Hamilton and Figures were inseparable friends off the field. On it, they were a dangerous combination. In his senior year as a wide receiver, Figures caught 35 of Hamilton’s passes--16 for touchdowns.

Figures, Hamilton’s roommate at Colorado, was at the basketball game the night his friend was shot. Figures had gotten impatient with the indecision over the late night snack and left just before the gunfire.

“When I heard about it, I was mad,” Figures said. “I went to the hospital but didn’t get to see him. I was just hoping that it wasn’t serious.”

He was joined there by Hamilton’s uncle and aunt, Douglas and Clara Gray, who have been Hamilton’s guardians for five years. The Grays had rushed to the hospital from their home in Inglewood.

“It was shocking,” Douglas Gray said. “Nothing like that had ever happened to us as a family before.”

Gray said he was pleased that newspaper accounts of the shooting reported it to be non-gang-related.

“I know Eric’s not in a gang, and most of his friends are real nice kids that have never been in trouble,” Gray said. “It was just an act of God, I guess. People nowadays just go by shooting at random into a crowd. If Eric had to be the one hit, we’re just glad that it turned out to be as minor as possible under the circumstances.”