Now, Fans of Sheiks Not Silent : Prep football: After three winless seasons, Hollywood High bands together behind 3-0 team.

Just as it is in the community for which it is named, reality at Hollywood High School is sometimes blurred by the fantasies of filmdom.

This is a school that adopted its nickname, the Sheiks, from characters portrayed by Rudolph Valentino in silent-screen desert dramas of the 1920s.

The legend goes that actress Lana Turner, a former student, was discovered by director Mervyn LeRoy at Schwab’s Pharmacy. But Hollywood alumni say the fateful meeting actually occurred at an ice cream parlor across the street from the Hollywood campus at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue.

Jason Robards, Carol Burnett, James Garner, Nanette Fabray and David and Ricky Nelson are among the many students who graced the Hollywood High stage before they moved on and achieved success in the entertainment field.

It’s a tradition of excellence that rarely has spilled over to the nearby football field.

In 1949, for example, Hollywood muffed the opening kickoff of the Los Angeles City championship game, and Fremont recovered in the end zone for a touchdown. Before a second had ticked off the clock at the Coliseum, Hollywood was on its way to a 59-0 defeat--the most lopsided championship game in City history.

Hollywood has not returned to a title game, failing even to reach the playoffs since 1978.

For three seasons, starting in 1987, the Sheiks lost all their games.

But like the change in the ethnic makeup--25 languages are now spoken at the school--and the environment of the community around the campus, the Hollywood football program is enjoying a dramatic turnaround.

Under third-year Coach Dave Loera, the Sheiks ended their 27-game losing streak with a 23-6 victory over Jordan in their season opener. Two weeks ago, they came from behind to defeat Alhambra, 20-19. And last week they beat Pater Noster, 28-0.

The team’s success has galvanized a school with a student body as diverse as the United Nations. Students, faculty and even alumni are beginning to turn out and cheer--or watch in disbelief--as the rejuvenated marching band and pep squad lead them through spirited renditions of “Hooray for Hollywood!”

Suddenly, it’s chic to be a Sheik.

“Last year was really dead,” cheerleader Desiree Woolen said. “Now that we’re winning, everybody wants to be a part of it.”

The auditorium where some of Hollywood’s future Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy award-winning entertainers cut their teeth features a giant Valentinoesque Sheik, who peers down upon the school’s track and football field from behind the east end zone.

The historic Roosevelt Hotel, built in 1926, shadows the west end zone, and the spires of Mann’s (formerly Graumann’s) Chinese Theater can be seen from the 50-yard line.

Several talented athletes emerged from this unusual setting, including pole vaulter Lee Barnes, who was 17 and still a student at Hollywood when he won the gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games with a vault of 12 feet 11 1/2 inches.

Hollywood High, which opened in 1903, made its first appearance in the City football final in 1917, losing to Manual Arts, 13-6.

Ten years later, Hollywood won its only City title by defeating L.A. High, 19-0, before a Thanksgiving Day crowd of 50,000 at the Coliseum that also saw the University of Hawaii beat Occidental College.

“Hollywood Cops Title; Movie Eleven Bumps Romans,” read The Times’ headline after Merrill Brown had rushed for 121 yards to lead Coach Vic Kelley’s team to victory.

Hollywood lost to Manual Arts in the 1934 championship game, 20-0, then returned 15 years later for its forgettable performance against Fremont, which was described by The Times as “the Notre Dame of preps.”

It has been 41 years since that 59-0 loss and 11 years since the Sheiks last won a league championship.

But a Northwestern League title seems within the reach of this year’s 3-0 team, led by quarterback Jesse Elkins, who has passed for 404 yards and six touchdowns, and wide receiver Moriba Camara, who has scored six touchdowns, including two on kickoff returns of 85 and 91 yards.

Instead of tearing the team apart, Hollywood’s three previous winless seasons have bonded the players.

“We’re like a family,” Camara said. “And we’re going to show people that this is our year.”

“Hollywood High is a very charmed school,” said Joe Montgomery, the school’s band director. “But over the years, the tinsel has kind of changed color a little bit as the community has, too.”

About 66% of Hollywood’s 2,400 students are foreign-born and many arrive on campus only a short time after emigrating from their native lands to the United States. The school’s population is 60% Hispanic and 27% Armenian, with most of the remaining 13% from Southeast Asia, the Philippines and other foreign countries.

“You talk to our student body and you say, ‘football,’ and they think of soccer,” said Dick Rippey, an assistant principal who coached the varsity football team in 1974-83.

Hollywood has been handicapped in all sports by its role as the City’s Ellis Island. Many students enroll in school, then move to the suburbs when their families gain their financial bearings.

“We’ve had so much transiency, kids are here for one or two years and then they’re gone,” said Art Kasparian, who has coached the ‘B’ football team for 12 years.

Like all City schools, Hollywood was hit hard by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s no-fail rule, which was adopted in 1983 and excluded students from participating in sports if they failed a class. Under the rule, 50% of Hollywood’s students were ineligible.

Last year, the rule was amended by the school board. A student receiving a failing grade can stay eligible by maintaining a C average every 10 weeks. The new rule has increased the eligibility rate at Hollywood to 65%.

Loera knew it would be tough when he took the job at Hollywood in 1988.

“Everybody said, ‘You’re crazy for going over there. They’ve lost their tradition; you have nothing but ESL (English as a Second Language) kids, and nobody wants to play,’ ” Loera recalled.

Even so, Loera was confident that his 14 years as a football and track coach in the district at schools such as Lincoln and Jefferson had prepared him for the challenge.

Loera’s first act as coach was to start a weight-training program--and he believes the reason for the success of this year’s team can be found in numbers that were byproducts of the regimen.

In 1988, the average bench press for the team’s 22 players was 125 pounds. The Sheiks finished 0-9, scoring only four touchdowns all season.

In 1989, the average bench press increased to 165 pounds, but the team’s roster decreased to 19 players. The Sheiks averaged 17 points a game en route to another 0-9 season.

“We were doing better, so we figured by the third year, we were going to win,” lineman Avo Avetisyan said. “It was a lot of hard work and a lot of heart.”

This year, the 35 players are bench-pressing an average of 210 pounds, and the Sheiks are off to their best start since anyone can remember.

“The weight training and the self-esteem of the players is beginning to progress,” Loera said. “The morale of the school is starting to come up.”

That was evident last Friday when the Sheiks played their home opener against Pater Noster. The bleachers, empty for years, were full of cheering Hollywood students.

“Last year there was no spirit,” said junior Frank Lopez, who attended a few of Hollywood’s home games in 1989. “This year, the spirit is coming back.”

Participation in the marching band, drill team and pep squad has increased by almost 100%. Much of the credit belongs to Montgomery, who found the school’s once-proud band program in the same defeated condition as the football team when he was named director three years ago.

“We had one cornet, one clarinet, no flutes, eight French horns that we don’t use for marching band and seven drums that were all broken,” Montgomery said. “The uniforms consisted of six silk shirts that stunk. I was embarrassed to ask the kids to wear them.”

Through their own fund-raising events, help from the local business community and a donation to the music department by Herb Alpert, co-founder of A&M; Records, the 22-member Sheik band has new red uniforms, a glittering “HOLLYWOOD” shield built by Paramount Studios and a new spirit.

Hollywood faces its first real test tonight at L.A. Wilson, where there will be an added dramatic aspect to the game between the unbeaten Sheiks and unbeaten Mules (3-0) in the Northern Conference opener.

The last time Loera stood on a sideline at Wilson and looked across a football field at Vic Cuccia, Wilson’s offensive coordinator, Loera was the 31-year-old coach of Lincoln.

It was 1977, and Wilson, led by quarterback Ron Cuccia, Vic’s son, rolled to a 63-0 halftime lead. Loera, citing injuries that had reduced his roster to 12 eligible players, summoned the team bus and took his players back to Lincoln.

The game--and Lincoln’s halftime exit--drew national attention.

Loera stepped down at the end of the season and ran the ‘B’ program at Lincoln until 1986. The next year, he moved to Jefferson and coached ‘B’ football and varsity track.

“I don’t have any feelings about it one way or another,” Loera said of the Wilson matchup. “It’s just another game that we have to win, and I’m looking forward to it.

“I’m looking forward to all of them.”

And, for the first time in years, so are a lot of others at Hollywood High.