Turning Out the Lights at Rams Park : NFL: Trucks will depart this week with football equipment. By Friday, only memories will remain.

The first of 16 trucks will be loaded Monday, the last expected to depart 2327 W. Lincoln Ave. on Friday, and the Rams will be gone.

In addition to the lockers from Rams Park, their longtime practice facility, and from Anaheim Stadium, 100 weight machines, 100,000 pounds in weights, 2,500 pairs of shoes, 300 cases of footballs, two blue-and-gold helmet cars, two video towers, 700 feet in covered fencing, 500 jerseys and assorted desks, chairs and computers will be freighted to St. Louis, leaving behind only memories.

“I can still recall my first Ram game,” said Joe Abad, who has had a 32-year relationship with the team, including the last 16 as maintenance supervisor.

“The old Chicago Cardinals. They beat the Rams in 1949 with no time left on the clock.”

Recent history might suggest that losing became a Ram tradition, but the team ended its 50-season run in Southern California with 376 victories, 319 defeats and 18 ties. The Rams advanced to the playoffs 14 times after Dan Reeves moved the team from Cleveland to Los Angeles in 1946, seven more after Georgia Frontiere honored her late husband Carroll Rosenbloom’s wishes to bring the team to Orange County in 1980.

“The Los Angeles Rams are history,” said team trainer Jim Anderson, who has already purchased a home in St. Louis. “I guess you would say it’s an end of an era, but that’s business.”

Tough business. Rica Zounatiotis, co-owner of Zonos, a family restaurant just down the street from Rams Park, said the team’s departure will mean a 15% loss during the season. Stan Sewell, owner of Lamppost Pizza, said the team ordered 30 pizzas for $400 after each victory. “We’ll lose somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand a week too; we had a big following in here to watch the games on Sundays,” he said.

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Warren Farris, assistant equipment manager for the past 10 years, gave notice to his landlord that he was moving to St. Louis. A few days later, he received a termination letter from the Rams.

“I was shocked,” Farris said. “The team came back last week and gave me the chance to still come to St. Louis, but they had already hired somebody for my job. . . . Besides, I was fortunate enough to get another lease for my house, and the Rams weren’t offering a contract to go to St. Louis. With no guarantees, there’s no way I’m going.”

Ram management delivered a number of termination letters a few weeks ago but reconsidered after negative publicity and essentially offered a position to everyone.

“That was the mandate from ownership; take care of everyone’s individual concerns,” said John Shaw, Ram president. “We have something like 65 people on our payroll, including part-timers and not counting coaches and players, and about 45 will go to St. Louis. A number of our people will continue to work here at our Pico Boulevard offices, and several employees have decided to retire.”

The team said it will pay a couple of million dollars in severance and retirement packages, along with moving expenses.

Don Hewitt, equipment manager the past 28 years, received a termination letter but was advised by Shaw that he had the option of going.

“Yesterday we were going; today we’re staying,” Hewitt said. “I had a guy call me from St. Louis and say it’s the most beautiful city there is. I said what about San Diego? La Jolla? Carmel? Santa Barbara? Monterey?”

Tank Younger, 44 years with the Rams and recently director of player relations, has retired. Mickey Dukich, who has spent 39 seasons filming and videotaping the Rams, is working on a retirement package. Mary Phillips, who worked 37 years as secretary for owners Reeves and Rosenbloom and then for former Coach Chuck Knox in Buffalo and Seattle before returning here in 1992, retired after a tough year.

“I’ve shed a lot of tears,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of my friends leave.”

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The ticket sales and marketing department, for the most part, will not go to St. Louis. The Kansas City Royals’ ticket manager has been hired by the Rams. A trainer from the St. Louis Blues has also been added to the payroll, along with Coach Rich Brooks’ son, Brady, who will work in the equipment room.

Jack Faulkner, director of pro personnel, will begin his 31st year with the Rams but remain in Orange County. “No more practices to watch,” Faulkner said while a flock of crows picked away at an empty field at Rams Park. “I can grade players and relay the information by computer in no time.”

John Becker, who has overseen the Rams’ draft the past three years, will operate from his home in Oregon. Judy Faulk, administrative assistant for Shaw at Rams Park, will remain until the very end and turn out the lights before seeking work elsewhere.

“It was a traumatic thing when the decision was made that we were moving,” Hewitt, the former longtime equipment manager, said. “But I think the most traumatic moment will come when I see the back ends of those trucks as they pull out of the parking lot.”

If Mary Olson-Kromolowski had her way, the team would slip away in the dark of night. Olson-Kromolowski, a secretary overseeing the details of the move, tried to convince team officials to ban the media from Rams Park and keep secret the arrival and departure of trucks.

The fanfare will take place on the other end of the trip.

“We have a celebration planned for Monday, June 26, when the trucks arrive in St. Louis,” said Cliff Saxton, vice president of communications for United Van Lines. “The trucks will leave Anaheim as they load, but they will gather at our headquarters in Fenton [Mo.] and then convoy to downtown St. Louis for a ceremony.”

Ed Wellington, project manager for United in Orange County, said he expects to move 300,000 pounds of goods this week. Boxes have been tagged with seven colors to indicate where they are to go. In jest, Faulkner sat behind his desk this week with a “Do not move” sticker slapped across his forehead.

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A going-away barbecue for players and coaches, suggested by a Ram booster, fizzled when the Rams showed no interest. Coaches have already gone on vacation with orders to return to St. Louis July 12. Players have until July 16, when they will be required to report at Maryville University for training camp.

Ram cornerback Steve Israel made the final local public appearance for the team on April 19 for the Veteran Nurses Assn.

Guard Keith Loneker is the first player making an obvious attempt to endear himself to St. Louis fans. Loneker, who played at the University of Kansas, will have the Gateway Arch tattooed on his right calf.

“Maybe the reporters there will write something positive about me,” Loneker said.

A Ram spokesman said Frontiere is not expected to be on site for final farewells because of previous commitments: cheerleading tryouts in St. Louis.

The final Ram practice in Orange County was conducted Wednesday. Wide receiver Todd Kinchen was seen rooting around in a dumpster Thursday for Ram memorabilia. A guard has been posted at the front gate to keep civilian collectors from doing the same.

The tarp hung on the fences to keep spies from stealing Ram secrets has been removed, allowing the golfers on the 8th fairway at Dad Miller Golf Course to witness the team’s final hours. A pair of security cameras have already been stolen from the premises, but two remain. The monitors have been packed.

The last player left sweating at Rams Park was Jackie Slater, who had more workouts there than any other player.

“They are packing the weights,” said Slater, who will begin his 20th year with the Rams, “but I can still run around out here, and that’s what I’ll do as long as they keep it open.”

Melvin Beavers, a landscaper for the Rams for the past 12 years, will continue to water the practice fields.

“No one has told me to stop,” Beavers said. “I imagine when we lose this contract it will cost us $3,000 a month. . . . I mean I hate to go.”

Todd Hewitt, equipment manager for 17 years and son of Don Hewitt, has had to pack for 80 players, 14 coaches and his own family, while finding time to coach a first-place Little League team.

“The Cardinals,” Hewitt said with a laugh. “I should have known what was coming when we got our team this year and it was the Cardinals.

Hewitt has yet to find a house in St. Louis, but for the next 12 to 18 months he will direct the Rams’ equipment room from the Matthews-Dickey’s Boy’s Club--the team’s temporary practice facility.

“I’m getting boxes delivered that say, ‘Todd Hewitt, Los Angeles Rams,’ and then I open them, and they are St. Louis Rams T-shirts,” Hewitt said. “My worst nightmare is pulling a Los Angeles Rams jacket out of Chris Miller’s bag on opening day and having to use a Magic Marker to put a St. Louis over it.”

Rams Park--Juliette Low Elementary School before the team’s arrival--will be turned over to the owners, the Magnolia School District, in October. Shaw said the Rams will spend $500,000 to buy their way out of the lease, including a year’s rent of $280,000 and much of the remainder to return the facility to the way they found it.

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A late-70s model Mercedes, owned by Rosenbloom before his death in 1979, has been stored in a shed at Rams Park and will be refurbished and given to Frontiere. A van used to ferry players to the airport will be transported to St. Louis, but a car also used for that purpose will be given to Abad, the maintenance supervisor.

“The Rams have been very generous to me,” said Abad, who received a termination letter after undergoing heart surgery. “I received another special letter telling me to only get well and then there would always be a spot for me with the Rams.”

Abad’s son, Randy, helped unload the trucks when they first came to Rams Park. Sons Alvino and Rick will load trucks for departure. Nephew David and his wife, Wendy, who works in player personnel, will accompany the team.

The team picked up the tab for employees to fly to St. Louis to tour the area and seek housing. Chris Clausen, strength and conditioning coach, grabbed the opportunity and will soon close escrow on a new home in St. Louis.

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Johnny Roland, assistant head coach, will move into the St. Louis condo he purchased in 1973 when he played for the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I think the Rams’ personnel are going to be overwhelmed by the reception they receive in St. Louis,” said Roland, who also owns St. Louis radio station KIRL-AM. “You never really miss your water until the well runs dry, and these fans have been mighty thirsty for football ever since the Cardinals left.”

Maybe so, but what about Los Angeles Ram fans?

“I was a die-hard Ram fan, but no more, not as long as Georgia and John Shaw are affiliated with the team,” said Dick Walker, owner of Walker’s Deli near Rams Park. “I’ll root for Buffalo, as I always have, and the five teams that voted against the Rams moving to St. Louis.”

Sewell still hopes to get a Ram practice jersey for the Lamppost Pizza wall before the team leaves.

“I’m kinda lost; I don’t know who to cheer for,” he said.

“Should I still be a Rams fan even though they are across the continent, or do I look for a different team?”