U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL / LOS ANGELES 1991 : NOTEBOOK : Athletes Are Warned About Where They Wear Red, Blue

When Patty Salmon, a sailboarder from Gainesville, Fla., checked into the athletes’ dormitories at USC, she was told by the registrars that the neighborhood surrounding the campus was “hard.”

“They told us not to go out at night, and if we had to go out, not to wear red or blue clothes because of the gangs,” Salmon said.

The Festival uniform issued to the athletes includes a royal blue cap and a warm-up suit that has a white jacket with blue, red, yellow and green stripes. The pants are one of the four colors in solid, depending on the team the athlete is on.

“Then, on the way over here (to Dodger Stadium for the opening ceremony) the bus driver told some of the athletes to take off their hats while we drove over here,” Salmon said. “Is this really true?”

Add bus trip: One of the buses in the caravan from USC to Dodger Stadium was shot at, according to Steven Mendonca, a roller skater from Modesto.

“We were almost here, and we saw two guys running down the street and another guy running after them with a gun,” Mendonca said. “Then we heard a pop. Then a voice came on the bus driver’s radio and said that the bus behind us had been shot (at), but nobody was hurt. The bus behind us was told to pull over.”

More bus trips: The driver of the women’s basketball East team also took side streets to Dodger Stadium. From UCLA, where the team is staying, the driver took Sunset Boulevard all the way, a scenic trip of the cultural diversion that is Los Angeles.

“Some of the girls saw street people for the first time, and then right before that, they saw the rich people in Beverly Hills. It was really interesting,” said LeAnn Henrich-Millar, the team coach.

Thursday night the men’s and women’s basketball teams had a dance party and dinner. But Henrich-Millar said most of her team thought the opening ceremony was going to be “rinky-dink” and didn’t want to come.

The players changed their minds after they arrived and saw the extensive setup. “It’s overwhelming,” Rebecca Lobo said.

Unrelated omen: In a speech at a corporate party before the ceremony began, Mayor Tom Bradley said: “You are going to be treated to some of the finest entertainment in the country.”

Bradley also said: “In 1984, I said I was going to everything (event) that had their door open. And I did. In (the) 1932 (Olympics in Los Angeles) I had to jump a fence to get in. Richard Nixon hitchhiked from Whittier to get to it. He went over the fence first. So I was just following the president.”

Where’s the tofu?: Before the ceremony, the athletes were treated to a full-course meal in a huge tent placed in the parking lot behind center field.

“This meal is perfect,” said Tom Henske, a soccer player from New York. “Look here. It has strawberry, cantaloupe, rolls for carbohydrates and chicken instead of red meat.”

Brian Bates, Henke’s East teammate, said: “I give it two thumbs up.”

More pre-ceremony: Ronald Reagan spoke with the athletes for about 10 minutes before the ceremony and was interrupted several times by applause, including a standing ovation at the end of his speech.

When he was finished, Reagan and wife Nancy were presented with two festival jackets--the same as the athletes were wearing--by shooter Deena Wigger and boxer Oscar de la Hoya.

Chants of “put it on, put it on” prompted the Reagans to do just that. Ronald Reagan helped Nancy slip hers over a classic coat dress; then she helped him put his on over his dark blue suit.

Reagan officially opened the Festival, which was dedicated to him. He did not, however, wear his athletic jacket.

Just good stuff: Ten years ago, in Miami, policeman Pat Burns decided to try to teach inner city kids how to box.

At the end of his shift, he pulled up to a park with a bag full of boxing gloves. He hung the bag on a tree and a few boys started boxing with him.

“After about three days word got out that I was there, and a lot of kids started showing up,” Burns said. “So I went to the police chief and proposed a program. He liked it.”

Burns now has 400 boys in the program and runs four gyms. At least 27 boxers from his program have been on the U.S. team. He is here as coach of the North team.

More good: Sgt. Archie Perry, who boxes for the U.S. Marine Corps, faced a few scheduling conflicts earlier this year. When the Persian Gulf war broke out, his unit was sent from Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Japan, where they were on call for duty in the Gulf.

The war ended before his unit got the call. Instead, Perry got to come back to the United States for the boxing national championships, in which he placed second.

“If the war wouldn’t have ended, I wouldn’t have been able to compete,” said Perry, a super-heavyweight at the Festival. “But, there really isn’t a question. When you fight for the Marine Corps that is where you want to be. If our mission is to fight, then that is where we need to be.”

Miscellany: Tisha Walker, of Thousand Oaks, one of the medal favorites in women’s figure skating, withdrew because of a back injury. . . . USOC officials said middle distance runner Sydney Maree, a South African native who became a U.S. citizen to run in the 1984 Summer Olympics, has entered the track and field competition.

Times staff writer Randy Harvey contributed to this story.