TRACK AND FIELD : Ex-UCLA Coach Bush May Become USC Head Coach

Can you imagine Terry Donahue as the football coach at USC, given his long association with UCLA?

Not so startling, but equally intriguing is the prospect of Jim Bush becoming USC’s track and field coach.

Bush, who was UCLA’s track coach for 20 years and, more recently an assistant coach at USC, has formally applied for the head coaching job at USC.

The position became vacant recently when the track program was restructured, with a coach to oversee the men’s and women’s programs along with two full-time assistants, a part-time assistant and a volunteer coach.

In the reshuffling, Ernie Bullard, the men’s coach, was given another assignment in the athletic department.

It was reported earlier that Bush, who joined the USC staff in 1989, wasn’t interested in becoming the head coach.

He has changed his mind.

“I wasn’t interested for many reasons,” he said. “I didn’t want to become a head coach again. Since then, so many alums have talked to me and my former athletes and athletes at USC. So my hat’s in the ring. I know I can do it.”

Bush, 63, said he already feels a lot younger.

“I’m getting the old itch again,” he said. “I’m a competitor. I didn’t have it for a while, but I got it back.”

While at UCLA from 1965 through 1984, Bush’s Bruins won four NCAA championships, seven conference titles and 88.1% of their dual meets.

Moreover, in 1966 Bush was the first UCLA coach ever to beat USC in a dual meet. His teams went on to beat the Trojans 12 more times.

“There is no doubt in my mind that I can get the (USC) program going again,” Bush said. “And it will be kind of exciting going against UCLA.”

Some assistant coaches, such as Foster Andersen in football, have worked for both schools, but no head coach comes to mind who has switched allegiances.

Meanwhile, Mike McGee, USC athletic director, and Barbara Hedges, associate athletic director, are interviewing prospects for that job and some of the assistant coaching jobs. Mike Bailey, the former women’s coach, has already been retained as a full-time assistant.

It’s believed that Ron Allice, the Long Beach City College coach, and John Chaplin, Washington State’s coach, are among those interested.

Art Venegas, UCLA’s weight coach, is not a candidate. He has signed a new contract to remain at UCLA.

Tom Tellez, the University of Houston’s coach, and Carl Lewis’ personal coach, was interviewed for the men’s coaching position before Bullard was hired in 1985.

“I haven’t talked to anyone about (the job),” said Tellez, who hinted that he might be interested if USC officials contacted him.

“We’re interested in hiring the most qualified person, whether that person is male or female,” Hedges said Monday.

Hedges said the interviewing process will continue as long as necessary.

USC’s track programs have lagged in recent years. The men scored only nine points in the NCAA meet earlier this month and the women scored 10.

Long jumper Larry Myricks is facing the prospect of a lifetime ban from track and field.

He has already been suspended for three months for taking an over-the-counter cold medicine that contained a banned substance, phenylpropanolamine, commonly known as PPA, at the USA-Mobil Indoor Games Feb. 23 in New York.

It was reported last week that Myricks also tested positive for PPA at indoor meets in Hamilton, Canada, Jan. 12 and Seville, Spain, Feb. 27.

International Athletic Assn. Federation rules call for a three-month suspension for the first offense of this nature; a two-year ban for a second offense and a lifetime ban for a third offense.

Myricks said that the IAAF treats the three offenses as one, but has told The Athletics Congress, the governing body for track and field in the United States, that it can handle it any way they want.

“And TAC is treating them as separate offenses,” said Myricks, who has appealed the latest findings.

PPA is found in Alka-Seltzer Plus, a cold medicine that Myricks took during the indoor season. The United States Olympic Committee maintains a hot line to inform athletes of banned substances, but Myricks said he didn’t call to find out if he was taking a medicine that has an ingredient on the banned list.

The levels found in Myricks’ samples were 14.18 micrograms per milliliter at Hamilton and 51.1 at Seville. TAC regards anything over 1.00 to be a positive for a stimulant.

Myricks, 34, had mediocre jumps--in the 26-foot range--at the meets at which he was cited for taking banned substances.

Greg Foster, the former UCLA star hurdler, was suspended for three months for reportedly taking vitamin pills that contained PPA. Quarter-miler Antonio McKay also reportedly took a cold medicine that contained PPA, but a review board rescinded his three-month suspension.

“We have no basis for knowing whether, in fact, the athletes just took Alka-Seltzer, or any other cold medicines,” said Doriane Lambelet, a former member of the drug-testing custodial board. “The levels of the stimulants are high enough that a cold medicine has been taken, but a pure stimulant was taken on top of that.”

Myricks is one of the most durable athletes in track and field. He is a two-time world indoor champion and a four-time Olympian. He competed in 33 meets last year.

If his appeals are denied and he is subjected to a lifetime ban, what then?

“Financially, I would be ruined,” he said. “I would have to sell my house in Upland that I recently bought.”

If Myricks was financially dependent on his track career, why would he jeopardize it by knowingly taking a banned substance, even in a cold medicine?

“Logic doesn’t have a place in the whole process,” Myricks said. “In the appeal process, the only thing we can dispute is whether it’s our sample or not.

“I’m in support of TAC in its effort to clean up the sport, but the protocol as it is needs to be revamped. Not every situation is that cut and dried. They don’t consider the irreparable harm to someone financially.”