Finding His Destiny : UCLA’s Alexander Says Fatherhood Opened His Eyes After Troubled Past

Tailback Chris Alexander of UCLA already had a name picked out when his girlfriend, LaTanya Drake, gave birth to their daughter 13 months ago.

“I named her Destiny because when she was born, it was like, ‘This is my destiny. This is what I’m going to work for,’ ” said Alexander, a sophomore. “Now I’m a parent. That’s when I started opening my eyes and trying to get my life together. I don’t want my child to grow up having any problems.”

Alexander seemed destined for failure because of legal and academic problems. He also suffered emotional problems triggered by the deaths of his father and older sister.

He was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and battery against a police officer early last year in Hawthorne after an alleged drunken scuffle with his older brother, Michael, a quadriplegic. Alexander suffered dog bites on his legs after the arresting Hawthorne police unleashed a dog on him.

According to the arrest report, Alexander, 5 feet 7 and 180 pounds, resisted four police officers who were called to his brother’s house to investigate a disturbance at 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 18, 1991. Although Alexander was unarmed, he allegedly removed his T-shirt and rolled it into a makeshift rope, then used it in an attempt to choke an officer. Shot with two 50,000-watt Taser darts on his bare chest and back, Alexander, the report said, pulled the wires off the darts and screamed obscenities at the officers.

When a dog was set upon him and bit his right leg, Alexander fought off the dog and was subdued only when the dog bit his left leg, according to the report. Alexander’s feet and wrists were bound, the report said, because he refused to stand up after being handcuffed.

Alexander disputes the arrest report, saying that the police burst through the front door of his brother’s house without warning.

“At first I kind of resisted them because when they shot me with the Taser gun, I didn’t feel they needed to do that. I was trying to tell them, ‘This is my brother,’ and my brother was swatting the little Taser, (saying) ‘That’s my brother.’ They didn’t want to hear that.

“The whole thing didn’t make any sense to me.”

Alexander’s brother, Michael, declined an interview request.

Alexander’s mother, Adelina, arrived on the scene after her son was taken into custody.

“When I got there, they were laughing at what they’d done,” she said. “They told me that they’d arrested this (racial slur) who claimed that he was going to UCLA. And I went up to the officer and asked him, ‘What’s his name?’ and they told me it was Christopher. And I said, ‘That’s my son.’ You should have seen the expression. It was like, ‘Wow! What did we do?’ And I said, ‘Who’s the other guy in the wheelchair? That’s my son.’ ”

Although the charges of resisting arrest and battery against a police officer were later dropped, Alexander was fined $352.50 and put on summary probation for a year after pleading guilty to challenging to fight in public.

Alexander said he chose not to file a suit against the Hawthorne Police Department for excessive use of force because he wanted to put the incident behind him.

Said Adelina: “Chris was more concerned with going to school and UCLA doesn’t like any kids that go there that cause any (negative) publicity. He told me to just leave it alone.”

After reviewing the arrest report, Hawthorne Police Chief Stephen R. Port said the arresting officers followed departmental procedures regarding the use of force.

“They followed policy and procedure,” Port said. “In terms of how they dealt with the situation, I can’t find where there was a problem.

“(Alexander) never filed a complaint against the department.”

Alexander was unable to participate in spring football in 1991 because he was still recovering from the dog bites. He played in three games last season, rushing for 25 yards in five carries.

“For a while, I thought he’d never be able to play football again,” Alexander’s mother said. “He had deep bites. You could see the flesh all the way to the bone.”

Alexander’s legs have healed, but, his mother said, the incident left emotional scars.

“He feared to even be out just riding around for a long time,” she said.

Alexander said he was already under emotional stress because of the deaths of his father and sister and his brother’s injury.

“It seemed like a lot of problems just piled up on me,” Alexander said. “I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I wasn’t playing, so I wasn’t focused. From growing up, I knew that at some certain point in my life I’d be confused about what to do. I’ve always been on my own. I had my mom, but everybody was always gone.”

His father, Harold, died of lung and heart ailments at 61 in March of 1990.

“I think he was a lot like me,” Alexander said of his father. “It was rough for him, too. He had a lot of different wives and was the father of 14. He had to go in the service when he was 16.”

Alexander’s sister, Laura, was killed in a car accident at 23 in August of 1986 when she was hit by a drunk driver who ran a red light. She left a 5-year-old daughter.

“She was like a second mom to Christopher,” Adelina said. “Having Destiny did him a lot of good because everybody he’s ever loved, he’s lost. He’d really given up. When Destiny was born, it was like a new life for him. It was like, ‘This is mine. She’s all for me, so I have to do something for her.’ ”

When Alexander was 4, another sister, Monica, died at 15 of a blood clot in her brain, the result of an attack by gang members.

“I don’t even think Chris knows what happened to her,” his mother said.

Alexander’s only brother, Michael, 27, was paralyzed when he broke his neck during a fall from a second-story balcony in the spring of 1986.

“Seeing his sister die and his brother paralyzed was really terrible for Christopher and all of us, but as time goes by it gets better,” Adelina said.

Alexander also got into academic difficulty and was ineligible for the Bruins’ first two games this season. He was forced to drop two classes after his daughter was born in October of 1991 and he had to make them up in summer school. The season began, however, before his grades were posted and Alexander was ineligible.

“He’s had a lot of different interruptions in his college career,” Coach Terry Donahue said. “I couldn’t imagine dealing with all the things he’s had to deal with myself.”

Donahue met with Alexander before reinstating him.

“Basically, he told me it was time to shape up or ship out,” Alexander said of the meeting. “He told me I had to get myself together. He was getting tired of a lot of stuff from me. I can understand it.

“He was pretty fair with me. He gave me a lot of chances. I looked at this as my last chance to get myself together. I just couldn’t let a good thing go to waste. I couldn’t let myself down.”

After returning to the team, Alexander had to work his way up from fifth string. He played on the scout team, imitating opposing running backs.

After sitting out UCLA’s first seven games, he has played in the last three and started the last two, and Donahue said Alexander probably will start against USC in Saturday’s season finale.

Alexander was thrust into the lineup when the Bruins switched to a one-back offense because of injuries to running backs Kevin Williams and Kaleaph Carter. He ran for 103 yards in 14 carries when he made his debut in the Bruins’ 48-12 defeat at California Oct. 31.

Alexander has rushed for 345 yards and a touchdown. He gained a personal-best 227 yards in 35 carries, and had a 62-yard touchdown run, when UCLA defeated Oregon State two weeks ago at the Rose Bowl, 26-14.

Alexander said the first thing he did after scoring was to look into the stands, where his daughter was sitting with his family. It was her first game.

Alexander said he is motivated by his daughter.

“My priorities are more set now,” he said. “I’m more focused and I’m more disciplined in a lot of things. When I first got here, college life was real fast with the parties.”

Alexander recently moved back into his mother’s house in Hawthorne to escape campus distractions. Teammate Daron Washington also lives with the Alexanders.

Although Alexander’s daughter doesn’t live with him--Destiny and Drake live with Drake’s mother--he tries to spend as much time as he can with her and helps to support her with the veterans’ benefits he receives because of his father’s death.

“It’s rough because I don’t have a job,” Alexander said. “But what little money I get, I try to give to her. Some people don’t realize how much time and money (raising a child) takes. All those diapers add up.”

Drake said Alexander has been a good father to their child. Drake, 20, a student at Los Angeles Southwest Community College, and Alexander share responsibility for raising Destiny.

“He’s been given a huge responsibility, more than the average 20-year old,” she said. “But I really believe it’s had a positive effect on him. We’ve made plans to get married, but it’s hard because we’re both young and we have goals.”

Although Alexander’s daughter is too young to understand football, she got excited after seeing her father on TV during a replay of his 227-yard performance against Oregon State.

“She ran up to the TV and pointed at the TV when they showed me sitting on the sidelines,” Alexander said.