Rededicated Mauldin Surfaces at Valley : College football: Quarterback renowned for athletic prowess back in action after lengthy hiatus.

This is about an athlete who could’ve, should’ve and probably would’ve. But he hasn’t . . . yet.

Joe Mauldin, Valley College’s rejuvenated quarterback, earned All-City Section honors in football for San Fernando High in the 1987 season. He was All-City again, this time in basketball, the following winter.

Track and field rolled around. Mauldin high jumped 6 feet 7 inches. Was there anything he couldn’t do?

He accepted a scholarship to play football at Cal State Fullerton. Titan Coach Gene Murphy called him “the best athlete we’ve ever recruited here.”

All-City to All-American?

Could’ve.

But wait. Mauldin, despite coaches’ scolding and prodding, did not score the NCAA-required 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. He didn’t do badly on the test. He just never showed up to take it.

Forced to go the junior college route, he enrolled at Pasadena City College where he became legend in his first two football games.

“I’m telling you, no one ever made a debut like Joe Mauldin,” Pasadena Coach Dennis Gossard says. “He rushed for six touchdowns and passed for four or five more. He was incredible. I had three coaches tell me he was the greatest athlete they had ever seen play quarterback.”

All-City to All-State?

Should’ve.

Pasadena won its first four games in 1988 but finished 5-5. Mauldin was inconsistent and so was the team. He grew frustrated, Gossard says, and got down on himself and his teammates.

Late in Pasadena’s final game, Mauldin hobbled off the field, removing himself from the game. He says he played all season with a chipped bone in his ankle. After a hit, the pain was too intense to continue, he says.

His teammates wondered. “I think Joe really thought he was hurt,” Gossard says. “But some of his teammates thought he let them down by not coming back into the game. Some weren’t very happy.”

The feeling was mutual. Mauldin left Pasadena, his career stalled.

It was his last football game for almost four years, until tonight, when his premature retirement ends. Mauldin is back in school and back in uniform, once again drawing rave reviews and comparisons.

However, he is not the same old Joe.

He is 6-foot-2, 215 pounds. Twenty-two years old. A man. A father. And he says he is committed--to school as well as football. He has learned he must survive one in order to excel at the other.

“That’s all I’ve been living for, to play football again,” he says.

Mauldin will resume his career at home tonight at 7 against Antelope Valley.

Valley, its program in reconstruction under second-year Coach Jim Fenwick, was among the last places Mauldin figured to land.

He wanted out of the San Fernando Valley and away from some of his friends, the kind who never had a class that couldn’t wait until tomorrow . . . or next week . . . or next semester.

“I didn’t want to be influenced,” Mauldin says. “I wanted (to be) away from everyone I knew because I wanted to stay in school.”

There was a failed attempt to gain eligibility at Glendale College in the spring of 1991. There have been jobs, the most recent as a recreation supervisor in North Hollywood.

Yet here he is, living, learning and playing in the heart of the Valley. The circuitous route took him as far as next door.

“But it’s different now,” he says. “I’m more mature, definitely. Older. And I know the responsibilities I’m going to have in the future.”

He is referring to his daughter, Ikea, who had her second birthday Wednesday. Mauldin thought about her a lot during the summer when he was struggling to earn the eight units he needed to gain eligibility.

A good showing at Valley might result in a second crack at major college football. Even better, it might lead directly to a professional career. A friend, wide receiver Raymond Ethridge, went from Pasadena to the Canadian Football League to the San Diego Chargers. Mauldin has been compared to NFL quarterbacks Rodney Peete and Randall Cunningham. Not by just anyone, but by his coaches, opposing coaches, even Detroit Lions quarterback Erik Kramer.

Kramer, who successfully guided the Lions to the NFL playoffs last winter, spent much of the summer working out with Mauldin.

“Yeah, he mentioned Rodney Peete and Randall Cunningham, too,” Mauldin says. “I’ve heard people say that before. I take it as a compliment. But now it’s time to prove I can really be that.”

Cunningham is generally regarded as the best all-around athlete playing quarterback in the NFL. Yet even Fenwick, who is not given to hype, doesn’t blink at the comparison.

“They’re both very gifted,” Fenwick says. “Joe is big and strong and fast. But, really, he’s probably a lot heavier than Cunningham. He’s so thick and stocky.”

That’s it? The only difference is weight?

“Really, it’s hard for me to say,” Fenwick adds. “I’ve never coached Randall Cunningham and I haven’t been with Joe for a whole season. But I can see why people would say that. He has the ability.”

Always has. Mauldin was so good in high school . . . well, film footage speaks louder than words.

We take you to the fall of 1987, to a game between San Fernando and Cleveland, and let Mauldin’s coach, Tom Hernandez, narrate the play:

“Joe is right-handed and he is rolling to his right, people in his face. So he cuts back and rolls left, all the way back across the field. He’s probably run 60 yards. Then he throws 40 yards downfield across the field, back to the right, never breaking stride. Perfect pass. Touchdown.

“People ask me about Joe, and I tell them about that play. That’s Joe Mauldin, man.”

There was another game, a few weeks later, against Dorsey in the City playoffs. San Fernando has the ball near midfield, but the Tigers trail and the precious final seconds are ticking away. Again, Hernandez describes the action:

“It’s third down and about 20, and at the line Joe calls an audible. He sees one of their linebackers step over so he calls a quarterback sneak. He pops through the line and goes 50 yards for a touchdown. We win the game.”

Hernandez pauses, then adds, “When you get a guy like that, you just let him go play.”

What a coincidence. Valley happens to be installing a new offense, a variation of the run-and-shoot in which the quarterback is allowed to improvise.

Mauldin and football in the open field is like Robin Williams and microphone turned loose in a crowd.

“I love this offense, it’s one of the main reasons I’m here,” Mauldin says. “If you’re on defense, you can never be asleep. It seems like a big play can always happen.”

Try as he might, Fenwick has been unable to prevent visions of such plays from dancing through his head.

“You have a guy like Joe walk in and automatically you start to fantasize,” he says. “Every junior college coach wants either a great quarterback to walk through the door or twin brothers who are 6-6, 260 and play the offensive line.

“We got the quarterback.”