Famous Hooks: Proving That ‘I’m Better’

When Famous Hooks was a boy in Chicago, the boundaries that defined white school districts kept moving. Each time, Hooks and his mother moved with them.

“It was unheard of to have a black in an all-white school, but she was determined,” Hooks said. “It seemed like you could never live in the right place in that city, but that didn’t stop her. Every time they changed things, Mom would say, ‘Well, it’s time to move again.’ ”

Today, Hooks is still in motion. But most of it happens on the basketball court at Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley, where Hooks, an English teacher, also coaches the winning girls’ varsity team, which this year rose to third place in its league.

It was Hooks’ mother, owner of a real estate business, who taught her only child to strive to be the best.

“She was very strong willed and pushed me hard in everything, especially school,” said Hooks, who skipped both the fourth and sixth grades. “She always taught me to set a goal and strive for it. She loved me more than life itself.”

When he was 11, his grandmother died, and his mother wanted to move away from Chicago. She sat him down and asked where he would like to go.

“My whole heart was Disneyland,” he said. “So I told her I wanted to go to California. Two days later, her business was sold and we were packed up and on a train to Los Angeles.”

“That,” he said, “was my mom.”

For the next 10 years, Hooks was in motion on the set of American Bandstand, where he was a regular dancer known as the All-American Boy, with a signature smile and trademark polka-dot shirt.

“It was the most fun of my life,” said Hooks, 34. He received at least 250 fan letters each month.

“I met so many different people and did so many different things,” he said. “Because of my image, I couldn’t have been bad if I tried.”

He also attended Los Angeles High School, where he led the football team to two City Championship games and graduated two years early.

At Cal State Long Beach, where he majored in English and history, he was head cheerleader and president of his dorm. In 1981, he began teaching at Los Amigos High and moved to Westminster, despite warnings from people who said Orange County would be hostile.

“People are scared,” he said. “They hear things about Orange County and they believe them. And some of the things are honestly true. But I didn’t get killed in Chicago, so I knew I wasn’t going to get killed here.”

But Famous Hooks (his real name) said he just works hard and has faith in himself.

“I’m always having to prove I’m better than some white person to get what I want,” he said, “always having to prove I’m twice as good as anyone who is white. A person can be totally inadequate and white, but they’ll get the job before you or try to take your job away. I work very hard to get what I want.”

Hooks also works his students hard.

“I try to teach my students to make the best of themselves. To be whoever you are and have animosity toward no one. To have a positive outlook on life. That’s what my mother taught me.”