More Than Memories : His Football Career Ended 12 Years Ago by a Tragic Accident, Arthur Hemingway Jr. Has Found Other Ways to Serve as a Role Model in Vista

Arthur Hemingway Jr. is happy just to be around football again. Although he is confined to a golf cart or wheelchair, he still assists in the coaching of Rancho Buena Vista High School’s football program in Vista. It’s a good way to stay close to the game.

But he remembers when his role was different.

On Aug. 23, 1978, Hemingway’s life was just were he wanted it to be. As an 18-year old freshman fullback in his first week of practice at USC, Hemingway was fulfilling a lifelong dream.

After a celebrated career at Oceanside High, Hemingway was considered one of USC’s top recruits. His future appeared bright that late summer night. Then it suddenly took a tragic turn.

Hemingway had just left a campus restaurant to call his girlfriend when man driving a stolen car, speeding to escape pursuing police, swerved up and over the sidewalk, sending him hurtling through the air.

Hemingway suffered severe head and internal injuries, as well as a broken leg. Doctors did not give him much chance of recovery as he lay in a coma for 28 days in the intensive care ward at California Hospital in Downey.

Before his accident, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Hemingway was noted for his strength and power on the football field. Those same qualities helped him survive the near fatal-accident, after which he underwent 22 operations, two of them brain surgeries, and his weight dropped to 160 pounds.

“The doctors just told me after the accident that they did the best they could and that the only one who could bring Arthur back is God himself,” said Arthur Hemingway Sr., who was at his son’s bedside daily. “Then one day, Arthur opened his eyes and said, ‘Hi, Dad.’ ”

Hemingway, a Hawaiian-born Samoan, then began his struggle back. He had to overcome a severe impairment of his motor nerves and brain bruises that caused him to shake terribly. His speech was slurred.

“Arthur really was in bad shape,” his father said. “He had to have someone feed him, just like a baby. He recovered little by little.”

Said Hemingway Jr.: “It is difficult to explain, but I just couldn’t talk. I had to relearn everything. It took a little over six months before I got to the point were I got comfortable.”

Faced with the reality that he would never get a chance to block for his freshman teammate, Marcus Allen; catch a pass from Paul McDonald, or score a touchdown on the Coliseum turf, Hemingway had his problems.

“It was tough at first because I was used to being the man . . . the big boss,” Hemingway said. “It was hard seeing those guys play, knowing that I couldn’t join my teammates. I was mad at myself because I thought that I should have been playing. But there was nothing I could do. It was difficult to be really positive and not just give it lip service.”

As a standout blocking back in high school, Hemingway nevertheless gained 765 yards in 86 carries and had a 71-yard touchdown run his senior year. His play earned him scholarship offers from schools all over the country, among them Alabama, Notre Dame, Colorado and Arizona.

John Robinson, who was coaching at USC at the time, remembers Hemingway before the accident.

“He was a great prospect who was a very bright kid who reeked of success,” said Robinson, who had recruited Hemingway. “In our estimation he was with that group of top freshmen (that included current NFL players Chip Banks, Riki Ellison and Allen). There was a very charismatic way about him. He was a very impressive person who had a lot of potential.

“It was so shocking when we found out what happened to him. It was a numbing thing. It is sad that he was just getting started and was never able to be established.”

Still, Hemingway’s tragedy played a role in USC’s success that season, according to Allen, and the success was major. The Trojans won the national championship and the 1979 Rose Bowl game.

“It was unfortunate that something like that happened to (Hemingway),” Allen said. “But, I’m quite sure that its impact brought the team together and made us think about how we felt about one another. Just to think that you were just practicing with somebody and the next thing you know that person is on a life-support system is something unexplainable.”

Neither Robinson nor Allen has seen Hemingway recently, by Hemingway’s own choice, he said.

“I used to go to their games a lot, but I haven’t talked or seen any of the old guys in years,” Hemingway said. “I just don’t like to bother them now. I don’t want to be called a groupie.”

In Oceanside and its surrounding communities, though, Hemingway is widely known. Nearly everyone recognizes his smiling face and knows about his accident.

A local newspaper and the Oceanside High Pirate Booster Club co-sponsored “Arthur Hemingway Night” on Sept. 29, 1979, and an Arthur Hemingway Pirate Pride Award was created, to be given to the student who best projects a positive image for the school.

Five years passed before Hemingway received compensation from the accident. Because the car was stolen from a dealership, a settlement had to be reached with the dealership’s insurance company. In that time, Hemingway moved from the California Hospital to a Camp Pendleton hospital and then finally went back home with his family, father and mother, Loloto, two younger sisters and a brother.

“I had a difficult time living with my parents,” Hemingway said. “I used to bitch at everybody, even my old girlfriend. I was really bad.

“It was not a very good relationship between my parents and myself. I used to have arguments with my father. He always pushed me and didn’t understand the medical aspects and the time necessary to recuperate at the beginning.”

The senior Hemingway, a retired Marine Corps master sergeant, agrees with his son’s assessment of the early post-accident days.

“I used to try to explain to him about what happened to him, but Arthur just called me all kinds of names,” Hemingway Sr. said. “Sometimes he didn’t know what he was doing. He was disappointed and it stayed with him at all times.”

Hemingway went through several changes in the years it took him to get used to his broken body. For two years, he attended Mira Costa College in Oceanside and went through a period when he gained considerable weight.

But things changed shortly before he received his settlement, which allows him to live without financial worries, and moved into his own modest Oceanside home near his parents’. There were no more domestic disagreements and the happiness he displayed in public soon became real.

“I was always a happy-go-lucky young man, but I guess subconsciously I was depressed,” Hemingway said. “That is the reason why I gained so much weight (he ballooned to more than 300 pounds). But, I just had to realize that I was lucky to be alive.”

Steve Scholfield, sports editor of the Blade-Citizen in Oceanside has followed Hemingway’s career since his early prep days and says that he is an inspiration.

“Arthur had everything going for him,” Scholfield said. “He had very good grades because he likes to read. To give you an example of that, for many years after the accident he experienced double vision, but he still read the book “Centennial” in 2 1/2 days.

“Every time I see him, I think God has put him here for some reason. He could be very, very angry about what happened to him and for a time there he was. But he was able to resolve it and has gone on to help others.”

After helping out at Oceanside High, Hemingway moved to Rancho Buena Vista two years ago.

He attends every practice and every game in his golf cart, which is plastered with Rancho Buena Vista and USC bumper stickers. His sense of humor is his trademark. “He plays the role of counselor, part-time coach, inspirational leader and friend,” said Rancho Buena Vista’s coach, Craig Bell, who became acquainted with Hemingway after his accident. “He does an all-around good job for us. We don’t look at him as a handicapped person, but as one of us. He helps keep us in line and we help keep him in line.”

Isaac Haupu, a senior defensive lineman for Rancho Buena Vista, says Hemingway is important to the team.

“He encourages the whole team and talks to people who really need help and they listen,” Haupu said. “Everyone knows about his football background. Sometimes, a bunch of the players go over to his house and watch films of when he played. He tells us stories, like about how it took five people to take him down. He brags a little, but he never pushes himself on us.”

Hemingway, who regularly works out with weights and rides stationary bikes, downplays his input.

“I just try to talk to the kids about gangs, drugs and any other topics they are worried about,” Hemingway said. “I am really anti-drugs because the kid who stole the car that hit me was reportedly was on PCP, and because of that he ruined my life.

“I never really try to talk to the kids about myself. What I’m concerned about is now and what the future may bring.”

Hemingway plans to go back to USC, which has kept his scholarship available, and hopes to eventually earn a law degree. Still, he is concerned about what people seem to expect from him.

“I know I’m physically handicapped now, but I’m not disabled,” he said. “I plan to go back to school in the spring of 1991, so I can begin a career to be a personal injury attorney, but people close to me say I could be doing more. I’m getting tired of people comparing me with other handicaps. They just don’t understand the situation.”

One problem Hemingway does have, which he does not like at all, is an inability to drive.

“The toughest thing for me is finding transportation,” he said. “I have to take a cab everywhere or get a ride from friends. I am not driving because my reaction time is too slow.”

Whatever his son’s limitations, though, Hemingway Sr. admires Arthur Jr.’s strengths.

“Arthur is a different type of person,” he said. “Throughout his fight, I never saw him cry. He was brought up the hard way and is the type of person who never gives up.”

Whatever Hemingway does, he is remembered by those who came in contact with him.

“(The accident) ruined an opportunity for him to have a great professional career,” Allen said. “He is genuinely a great guy who was God’s greatest gift.”

Scholfield, who has been covering sports in the Oceanside community for 23 years, remembers Hemingway the athlete. “He is easily one of the top 10 athletes ever to come out of this part of San Diego,” Scholfield said. “He was just a devastating player.”

At 30, Hemingway has come to grips with his life and is ready to make his mark in other fields.

“I still feel like I want to play football, but I know I have to go on,” he said. “I want to go back to USC and just stay up there and get my law degree. I have two years left and then I want to pursue a career as a handicap consultant. Someday, who knows? Maybe I may run for some type of public office.”