Marshall Fundamental High’s McAlister Tries to Make Name for Himself as Coach : Football: Former UCLA and NFL player tries to bring a winning touch to football-poor high school.

When James McAlister was first hired as football coach at Marshall Fundamental High last spring, he didn’t mention a word about his athletic past to his players.

But the coach said one member of the team was a little more intrigued than the rest.

After all, McAlister, 38, still had the appearance and physique of somebody who could hold his own on the field.

So the player went to research his coach’s past at a public library. He found that McAlister had starred as a running back at Blair High, UCLA and the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots of the NFL.

“After he looked it up he told everyone who I was and what I’d accomplished and, naturally, they were all very impressed,” McAlister said. “I also found a lot of parents who remembered me.”

For McAlister, the attention is something he has always enjoyed but rarely sought.

He would prefer to focus on the task ahead of him. It is a challenge that could be greater than any he ever faced as a player.

In his first season as a head coach, McAlister’s mission will be to rebuild a team that struggled to a 1-9 record last year and has always been in the shadow of Muir, Pasadena and Blair high schools.

“It’s a heck of a challenge but I’ve always been the kind of person who never underestimates my opponents,” McAlister said. “I just did what I had to do to get it done and that’s what I’m going to do here.”

He said much of the challenge will be breaking down mental barriers that might have formed in players in the past.

“I think I have to show these kids that they’re just as good as anyone else,” McAlister said. “I think it’s important that they get last year out of their minds. This is a new coach with a new coaching staff and we don’t have anything to do with what happened here before.”

McAlister said he also has to build enough interest to keep top players in the program.

“The biggest thing is to keep the players interested enough to stay in the program instead of transferring to Pasadena, Muir or Blair,” he said. “We’re trying to establish a winning tradition and hopefully, with my name and background, we can start to establish a tradition and not only have three good schools in Pasadena but four.”

His first project in establishing a football tradition at the school is to build an on-campus weight room.

“That will make a big difference,” he said. “We also need to instill pride like other successful programs have and we also need to have dedication. Hopefully with pride and dedication we’ll start winning like other schools do.”

He is also hoping to develop a rivalry with Blair akin to the annual Muir vs. Pasadena game in the Rose Bowl. The teams meet in the second game of the season on Sept. 14 at Pasadena City College, but McAlister hopes there will be enough interest to play the game in the Rose Bowl by the 1991 season.

McAlister has already received high marks from administrators at Marshall with his strong, positive attitude.

“I appreciate his brand of enthusiasm and it’s very contagious,” Marshall Athletic Director Paul Bodenshot said. “I’m highly optimistic about the program. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.”

Said defensive coordinator Anthony Taylor: “Just because of him, the interest of the kids has changed. He’s got them much more excited about football. He’s always been a hands-on manager and he’s been able to bring a lot of kids back who either quit or didn’t want to play.”

That was evident during spring practice, when he had between 25 to 30 players participating. It was a pretty good turnout when you consider that the Eagles finished last season with only 14 players.

The results on the field were also promising during the summer.

“We’ve had pretty good success with it from what I’ve seen so far,” McAlister said. “We had our summer (passing) league and went 7-1-2. We improved 100% from last season and I’ve had other coaches tell me that, too.”

He also noticed an improved work ethic in his players during the first day of practice Monday.

“We told the kids that practice started at 8 a.m. and most of the kids were here by 7:30,” McAlister said. “Some were even out running before 7.”

The coach said the early success stems from persuading the players to believe in themselves.

That is a trait that McAlister developed early in his high school career after a motivational discussion with a 10th-grade counselor at Blair, Jessie Beguay.

“She was the one that opened my eyes to the fact that I could be somebody if I just kept trying and was willing to work at it,” he said.

McAlister played at Blair from 1967 to 1970, leaving behind several CIF Southern Section records.

His best season was 1969, when he combined with running back Kermit Johnson. The Blair Pair led the Vikings to a 13-0 record and the school’s first and only Southern Section championship.

“To be 13-0 is incredible,” he said. “It’s hard to duplicate that kind of a season and as players we knew we had something special.”

McAlister, who was subsequently selected CIF player of the year, finished his prep career among the all-time Southern Section scoring leaders. He is tied for 10th in career touchdowns with 54, tied for ninth for touchdowns in a season with 31 and tied for fifth for points in a season with 228.

For much of McAlister’s career, his name always seemed to be mentioned with Johnson--and not without just cause.

After their successful high school careers, the players decided to continue their football careers at UCLA. After playing for the Bruins from 1971 to 1974, the two stayed together in their first season in the pros with the Southern California Sun of the defunct World Football League.

It was after their first season with the Sun that they decided it was time to pursue careers in the NFL.

Johnson wound up playing for two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. When his career was finished, he became a fireman in Pasadena and has since become a city fire marshal.

They are still friends, McAlister said, although they do not see each other much anymore. “We run into each other now and then but we don’t really go out of our way to see each other,” he said. “We still respect each other, we’ve just gone our separate ways like a lot of people do.”

As for McAlister’s NFL career, he found a measure of success in three seasons with the Eagles from 1975 to 1977 and one season with the Patriots in 1978.

McAlister had his best season in 1978, when he started in the Patriot backfield with USC standout Sam Cunningham. McAlister received eight game balls during that season.

He said he also finished the 1978 season in good shape physically. That’s why it was a shock to teammates when he announced after the season that he was retiring.

“I just decided that it was time to walk away from the sport,” McAlister said. “We had just lost to Houston and Earl Campbell in the first round of the playoffs and I said that’s enough.”

McAlister said he probably had the ability to play another four or five seasons but wanted to leave the game healthy.

“In my own honest opinion, I figured it was time to get out,” he said. “Being at that level five years was enough. I had my share of injuries but I never had an injury that required major surgery in my career. I felt that because I could still run and jump and I was able to work out, it was the right time to leave.”

Following his retirement, McAlister spent two years as a social studies teacher at Edison Junior High in Los Angeles. He also worked in an after-school sports program in conjunction with the Sugar Ray Youth Foundation.

His football coaching career started as an assistant at Blair in 1980. He coached six years at Blair, under Herb Robinson from 1980 to 1982, Steve Somerlot in 1983-84 and Gene Zeller in 1988.

In between, he has found time to work on numerous community projects.

“I’m really a community-oriented person,” he said. “A lot of things I’ve done most people probably don’t know about. I’ve been involved in the community from preschool to youth leagues to Pop Warner.”

For the past 10 years, he has also owned a successful carpet cleaning business in Pasadena. “It allows me to come and go as I please although it wasn’t that way at first,” he said. “At first I was working 16- to 18-hour days.”

After his last coaching stint as an assistant at Blair, McAlister spent the 1989 football season coaching a Junior All-America team at Victory Park in Pasadena. He also coached the Marshall baseball team last season.

But when the football coaching position at Marshall opened last spring, McAlister was interested.

“When I heard this job had opened up I immediately applied,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if I would get the job but I thought to myself, ‘Who knows, you never can tell.’ I knew that there would be more qualified applicants in front of me but in my heart I knew that I could do the job because I know kids and what motivates them.”

Although he wasn’t the school’s first choice for the job, McAlister was more than happy to accept the position in early May.

“I know I wasn’t the first choice but it was one of those times when being second was OK,” he said.

McAlister is hoping the position will give him another opportunity to return something to the city, which he has called home since he moved from Arkansas when he was 5.

“Because Pasadena has been so good to me, I feel I have something to give back to the community,” he said. “It’s very important to me that I take what has been given to me and give some of it back.”

Never one to shy away from lofty goals, McAlister has high ambitions for the immediate and distant future.

He is not predicting miracles but expects the Eagles to be successful in his first season.

“I told the kids I’m not here to win two games and I’m not here to win three games,” he said. “As long as we work hard and do everything we’re supposed to, we can win every game we play. Why settle for two or three games.”

McAlister said he eventually wants to become a head coach at a major university.

But for the moment, McAlister realizes that his most difficult challenge is coaching the Eagles.