CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : Ex-Titan Lineman Ellis to Tackle State Legislature

Dennis Ellis, a former Cal State Fullerton football player with a rotunda-like physique, would like to work on Capitol Hill someday as a U.S. senator.

It’s an ambitious goal for Ellis, a 6-foot-1, 320-pound former lineman. But then, so was his quest for a Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellowship, and Ellis earned that.

Ellis, who played on the 1987 and 1988 Titan football teams, is one of 12 students in the nation selected for the fellowship, which will provide him a year-long assignment in the California State Assembly starting in October.

The fellowship, which pays a $1,500-a-month stipend, gives young adults first-hand knowledge of the legislature by working with either a specific assembly member or a committee.

Through a selection process that included written applications and oral interviews, Ellis and the others were chosen over some 400 applicants, many of them from more prestigious academic institutions.

“I saw the list of (75) semifinalists, and there were people from Princeton, Stanford, USC and California, people with doctorate degrees, master’s degrees and law degrees,” Ellis said. “And there I was, a business major and football player from Cal State Fullerton.”

Barbara Stone, faculty athletic representative at Fullerton and a former member of the fellowship selection board, said Ellis is the first Division I-A football player to be selected in the 33-year history of the fellowship.

Ellis, who expects to graduate this month with a 2.7 grade-point average, hopes his achievement will help dispel the “dumb jock” image of college athletes and inspire other blacks to pursue academic heights.

“I want to disprove the stereotype that athletes are incapable of doing schoolwork,” Ellis said. “I also want to prove that if you put forth your best effort, the system can work for everyone. I want to show people in the community that, although they may face racism, it’s just an obstacle you can overcome.”

Ellis also hopes to use the fellowship as a springboard to a criminal justice and political career. First, he wants to attend law school, and then he’d like to work as a district attorney in his hometown of San Diego.

Ellis’ mother, is a deputy district attorney in San Diegowhose career apparently is on the rise.

“She just got her first murder case, so I’m really happy for her,” Ellis said.

Eventually, Ellis would like to work on Capitol Hill.

“It may be a little too ambitious, but I’d like to be a senator,” he said. “After football, I was left with a feeling of not being important. A lot of people identify with football players and they can influence you. But this way, I can have an even bigger influence on people.”

Hey, where ‘ya from? What Fullerton catcher Matt Hattabaugh thought would be a funny, off-the-wall thing to do has turned into the joke of the day at Titan baseball games.

When baseball sports information director Tim Murphy announces the starting lineup, he uses a different hometown for Hattabaugh every game, with each town more outrageous than the previous one.

So far this season, Hattabaugh, a Marina High School graduate, has hailed from such places as Soldatna, Alaska, Gotham City, N.Y., East St. Louis, Mo., Whiskey Creek, S.C., Vulture’s Point, Ala., Harlem, N.Y. and South Chicago.

It all began before Fullerton’s home opener when Hattabaugh asked Murphy to announce that he was from Compton, not Huntington Beach. Hattabaugh told Murphy he was born in Compton.

Hattabaugh’s teammates got a kick out of that and some eyebrows raised in the crowd, so Hattabaugh took it a step further, asking Murphy to say that he was from Watts the next game.

The idea snowballed from there, and regular followers of the baseball team have come to anticipate the pregame introductions and the hearty laughs that follow Hattabaugh’s name.

Hattabaugh has come up with most of the hometowns, and Murphy has come up with a few.

“After the first game, everyone liked it so I just kept doing it,” Hattabaugh said. “I’ve been to most of the places but not all of them. But I plan to go to each one some time.”

Except, of course, Gotham City and the hometown Hattabaugh listed for Tuesday night’s game against UCLA, the Titans’ last home game.

“Starting at catcher, from Parts Unknown, No. 39, Matt Hattabaugh,” Murphy said.

Overtime: The Titan Athletic Foundation, which had hoped to raise $500,000 in six weeks, has extended its spring drive another two weeks, to May 22.

As of Saturday, the organization had raised $360,000 in pledges from 600 donors, almost 75% of its goal, foundation executive director Walt Bowman said.

“We usually have between 1,100 and 1,200 donors, so we’re going to spend another two weeks trying to contact the rest of them,” Bowman said. “We should meet or exceed our goal.”

Titan Notes

Fullerton women’s gymnastics coach Lynn Rogers has signed three recruits for the 1991 season, Erin Brewer of Redmond, Wash., Karena Mills of Maineville, Ohio, and Kim Valetutto of Dallas. Brewer, from Lake Washington High School, is a member of the Washington Gymnastics Training Center and has been competing at the Class I (elite) level since 1985. Mills, who has a 3.9 grade-point average at Kings High, competes for the Queen City Gymnastics Center and has been a Class I gymnast since 1987. Valetutto, who will graduate from Alexander Academy this year, competes for Team Dallas of the Dallas Gymnastics Center and has been a Class I athlete since 1988. . . . Titan catcher Matt Hattabaugh, who went seven for 12 (.583) with three home runs, eight RBIs and eight runs last week, earned Big West Conference player of the week honors. Hattabaugh had not homered entering the weekend series against UC Santa Barbara but hit one Friday night and two Sunday. He also threw out Gaucho speedster Jerrold Rountree twice in three stolen-base attempts. Rountree has 51 stolen bases in 71 attempts this season. . . . Fullerton center fielder Domingo Mota was hit by a pitch on Sunday for the 11th time this season, tying a school record set in 1984 by Shane Turner.