LINING UP IN THE CFL : Pringle Sees the World, Settles on Sacramento : Former Kennedy Star Finds His Niche in His 3rd Pro League

Mike Pringle knows his place.

It is on a football field.

Anywhere on a field.

Pringle, a star running back at Kennedy High before graduating in 1985, has forged a career despite a college affiliation--Cal State Fullerton--that gave him national attention for single-game rushing.

He has succeeded despite giving in to a legal system that accepted his reluctant no-contest plea after an assault charge.

He is wearing a championship ring from an NFL training league that he says he wouldn’t trade for a year’s experience with any NFL team.

Yes, Mike Pringle is alive and well and happy in his world, a football field in Sacramento playing in a league based in Canada.

Pringle has struck gold with the Gold Miners, the first U.S.-based team in the expansion-minded Canadian Football League.

His no-nonsense style has made quite an impact on those who have worked alongside him. He is certainly respected.

“I feel privileged to coach his position,” said Bob Mattos, the assistant in charge of running backs and special teams, Pringle’s areas. “He doesn’t know half-speed. He’s a smart football player; he gets the maximum out of his ability.”

Pringle has worked himself into the starting lineup in the backfield through his special teams play. He was the Gold Miners’ special teams player of the week two weeks in a row, earning a berth in the backfield in place of Robert Hardy, who had a bad back.

Pringle rushed eight times for 61 yards and had a 25-yard touchdown run in the team’s first victory, 37-26, over Saskatchewan last month. In three starts at fullback, Pringle has gained 126 yards in 22 carries with one touchdown. He has caught 15 passes for 152 yards.

Within the week, Hardy was released.

“We feel very comfortable with Pringle,” Mattos said. “He’s a hungry football player. He’ll be tough to beat out.”

Mattos said Pringle (5-foot-9, 190 pounds) is probably the Gold Miners’ most well-conditioned athlete. That’s a real plus in a league that has roster limits of 37, starting lineups of 12 players, a wider and longer field, and three downs to make a first down.

“Nobody’s going to give you anything,” Pringle said. “I have to make the most of it whenever I touch the ball. Knowing that has made the transition easier. I can make the most of it so I can get (the ball) again.”

Quarterback David Archer is glad Pringle finally made it to the starting backfield.

“He’s a throwback,” Archer said. “He’s one of those hard-nosed type of players. When he gets hit, you can see a smile on his face.”

It is no wonder, then, that Pringle adores the old Oakland Raiders and running backs such as Mark van Eeghen and Pete Banaszak. They are his type of running back.

“Nothing real fancy,” Pringle said. “They just did their job and they won games.”

Of course, that’s the bottom line. With a 2-5 record, Gold Miners might still be getting accustomed to the Canadian game.

“We’ve been saying that too long; there are no excuses,” Pringle said. “You’re out there to win and compete. You have to be accountable each game.”

Slotback Carl Parker, who like Archer was a teammate of Pringle’s on last year’s World League champion Sacramento Surge, says that comment is typical of Pringle.

“He never makes excuses,” Parker said. “I know the competitor he is. I’m sure he was not happy just playing special teams. But he’s not the kind of guy that’s going to sit there and pout and say, ‘I should be playing.’ ”

Atlanta made Pringle the second player selected in the sixth round of the 1990 NFL draft. He led the team in kick returns during the exhibition season, but injured his ribs and spent most of the season on injured reserve. He was activated for three games late in the season but was released after the next summer’s training camp.

Then the World League of American Football was formed, and the Surge drafted him in the second round. The league changed its name to World League its second season and Pringle led the team in rushing in 1992 and helped the Surge win the World Bowl.

The World League folded, and the CFL moved into Sacramento. A football career lives on.

“He has the ability to play at any level, and it’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time,” Parker said. “It’s just a numbers game.”

That’s something Pringle knows about.

On Nov. 4, 1989, Pringle had the game of his life in Fullerton’s 45-10 victory over New Mexico State. He rushed for 352 yards in 31 carries.

Coach Gene Murphy kept Pringle out of the game during the final five plays to play some reserves.

The postgame statistics showed that Pringle was five yards shy of the existing NCAA single-game rushing record, a record he most assuredly would have broken had he remained in the game.

On Monday, in a training room, Pringle was told a review of game play-by-play uncovered a five-yard statistical error and that Pringle had tied Washington State’s Reuben Mayes’ record of 357 yards.

“That day was my best memory at Fullerton,” he said.

The following Saturday, Indiana’s Anthony Thompson rushed 52 times for 377 yards, almost before the NCAA could add Pringle’s accomplishment.

Pringle finished his career with one NCAA record, though--most yards in two consecutive games, 626 yards (vs. New Mexico State and Cal State Long Beach).

His 2,690 all-purpose yards for the season is second to Barry Sanders in NCAA history.

Off the field, the memories weren’t always so good. He was implicated in an altercation outside a nightclub in which an off-duty police officer shot a Fullerton teammate, defensive end Clarence Siler.

A fight between two women next to Pringle’s new car began the scuffle. Pringle says his involvement ended when he got the women away from the car.

“I took off running like everyone else,” Pringle said. “I was walking back to my car, and they asked me if I knew what happened. I told them I saw who pulled the gun, and the next thing I knew they were arresting me.”

At the time of his court date, Pringle was in the Falcons’ training camp trying to begin an NFL career. He pleaded no-contest to assault charges and was sentenced to three years’ informal probation and ordered to pay a $250 fine.

“I was in a situation where I couldn’t go to court,” he said. “How am I going to fight something while I’m trying to make the team?”

And under different circumstances?

“I would’ve pleaded not guilty because I was not guilty,” he said.

The ironic twist: Pringle was a criminal justice major.

But like everything else in his life, Pringle has moved on.

“I worked with the hand I was dealt,” he said.

He found a spot on a football field. He found a home.