Looking and Playing the Part : College football: Arizona’s Glenn Parker may have been late to the game, but the former Golden West tackle is making up for lost time.

When Glenn Parker attended Golden West College in the fall of 1985, he looked like a football player.

He was 6-feet-5 and 265 pounds. Just put a helmet on him and he’d be ready. Only thing was, he had never played a down of organized football. He preferred the beach to the field.

But a year later, he decided to play the game at Golden West, and has become a first-team all-Pacific-10 offensive tackle for Arizona this season.

Arizona (7-4) plays North Carolina State (7-4) in the Copper Bowl Sunday at Tucson.

After transferring from Golden West, Parker started all 11 games at right tackle his junior season for the Wildcats. When he reported this summer, he was surprised to find he was a preseason all-conference selection.

But Parker and John Brandom, Arizona’s starting right guard, had prepared for the upcoming season in more ways than one.

Beside working out together all summer, the two also got tattoos on their biceps. Each has a block-style red A--the helmet logo for Arizona--and there’s a skull and crossbones through the letter.

On the first day of practice and, subsequently, on game days, Parker sports a goatee and wears a bandanna. Along with his tattoo, it’s no surprise that teammates mistook him last August for a member of the Hell’s Angels.

“People will always try and make something out of it,” Parker said of his appearance. “But it’s just me. I just try and look like a madman when I’m on the field. I’m actually more mellow than that.”

As the season progressed, Parker’s leadership role on the offensive line has increased.

Against UCLA, Parker told his teammates in the opening huddle that they had to make at least five yards on each play. He repeated himself during the drive, and Arizona quickly scored. Parker kept the pressure on his teammates throughout the first half.

The Wildcats went on to a 42-7 victory and gained 480 yards on the ground, the greatest single-game rushing total against the Bruins. In fact, Arizona led the Pac-10 in rushing, averaging 240.9 yards a game.

“That’s the week I went off my rocker,” Parker said. “I just wanted to beat UCLA so much on national TV and show everyone back home. I was really just trying to be a leader.”

Arizona was ranked 15th in the nation after beating UCLA, but the following week was upset by California, 29-28. Parker injured his right leg in the first half against the Bears.

He tried to play the next week against USC, but lasted only a few plays. It was later discovered he had a hairline fracture of his right fibula. His string of 21 consecutive starts ended two weeks later when he sat out a 28-10 victory over Arizona State.

With the rest that accompanies five weeks without a game, Parker is healthy and ready for the Copper Bowl. But it won’t be his last collegiate game; he is scheduled to play in the Senior Bowl on Jan. 20 at Mobile, Ala.

“That is a great honor to be going to that game,” Parker said. “It will be my chance to see what I can do against the best players in the country and also to impress the pro scouts.”

Parker grew up in Huntington Beach and spent a lot of time at the beach, where he played a lot of pick-up basketball and volleyball.

Summers, he believed, were meant for lazy days on the beach, body surfing and just kicking back. It wasn’t a time to be in a weight room or in football pads.

But at Golden West, Parker, a graduate of Edison High School, started to think about playing football. He talked to the coaches a few times in the fall of 1985, but didn’t go out for the team until the next spring.

“I was just into going to the beach and taking it easy,” Parker said. “I just wasn’t into football. A lot of my friends played, but it wasn’t for me. Then at Golden West, I decided to give it a try.”

Parker spent his first season learning the Golden West offensive line blocking patterns. He didn’t play much at the start of the season, but by the end, he was seeing a lot of action.

“We could see him walking around the campus. He talked to us three times before he finally showed up,” Golden West Coach Ray Shackleford said. “But once he did, he stuck with it and became one of the most dedicated athletes we’ve had. He was always big, but worked hard to get stronger and quicker.”

At the end of his freshman season, Parker met with Dennis Dixon, the offensive line coach. Dixon told Parker that with hard work and dedication, he could get a scholarship almost anywhere he wanted.

“That was the turning point in my life,” Parker, 23, said. “When I first started to play, I couldn’t see any end to it. Everything was so far away. Once Coach Dixon told me that, I really got motivated.”

Parker, with a goal in focus, worked hard in the weight room for the first time in his life that next summer. He now weighs 310 pounds.

But Parker injured his knee in preseason practice and sat out most of the first three games. But his play in the last seven earned him All-South Coast Conference and all-state honors. He was a J.C. Grid-Wire honorable mention All-American as well.

Parker, who was recruited by many of the nation’s top programs, turned down offers from Colorado, USC and Tennessee. He signed a letter of intent with Arizona on Dec. 27, 1987.

Remembering the date was easy. “When your life turns around, you tend to remember exactly when it happened,” he said. “Had I not gotten motivated to play football at Golden West, I still might be there.”