Star Struck : It Takes a Bigger-Than-Life Athlete to Captivate Los Angeles

It’s nothing new. This is a city built on stars, and if they’re somebody else’s, well, get them here, where they can shine even brighter.

The star system, which has just brought Shaquille O’Neal to the Lakers, is as old as Southern California and as new as its soccer team. You wonder why it’s called the Galaxy?

Hollywood knew, and that’s why Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were hijacked from Broadway to bring credibility to motion pictures.

Jerry Buss knows it. So do Bruce McNall, Jack Kent Cooke and Peter O’Malley.

Tex Schramm and Pete Rozelle taught them.

Schramm knew sports fans, like moviegoers, wanted stars, and he was ready to pay to get them.

Schramm was general manager of the Rams in 1952 when they sent 11 players to the Dallas Texans for Les Richter, the first pick in the regular NFL draft.

It was the first big Southern California sports deal and the most players dealt for one player in the history of sports.

And it was only the first in a line of transactions that have brought such stars as Ollie Matson, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Kirk Gibson, Darryl Strawberry and Reggie Jackson to L.A.

The Rams’ publicist was Rozelle, later the NFL commissioner. Schramm handed Rozelle a star in Richter, a player former UCLA Coach Red Sanders called, “the first 240-pound acrobat I’ve ever seen.”

He was also not going to sign with the Texans, who had just come into being when singer Kate Smith sold the old New York Yankees to some people in Dallas willing to pay $170,000.

“Pappy Waldorf was my college coach and sort of a surrogate father, and he told me to make sure that I got a job from one of the owners because there just wasn’t much money in pro football,” said Richter, now the general manager of the new racetrack in Fontana.

None of the 17 owners of the Texans would offer Richter a job, nor would the club add a $500 signing bonus to its offer of a $5,000 contract, so he told Coach Jimmy Phalen, “If you want to get any football from me, you’d better trade me to the Los Angeles Rams or the San Francisco 49ers.”

The deal was made a few weeks later, and the Rams presented a $7,500 contract, plus the $500 bonus.

“I couldn’t get to the pen fast enough,” Richter said.

One of the owners, Edwin Pauley--he of UCLA’s pavilion--proffered a job in his real estate development business--a property eventually became Riverside International Raceway, which launched Richter’s career in auto racing--and the Rams had Richter, a star.

Rozelle had someone to promote.

“We discussed all aspects of the trade, and we just felt like he could help us win,” Rozelle said. “Yes, he was a star, and it was good as a public relations director having a star. We felt it was quantity for quality, but mainly, we felt he could help us win.”

So could Matson, Rozelle believed. Rozelle was general manager in 1959 when the Rams sent five players and four draft choices to the Chicago Cardinals for Matson, a fullback and, at the time, the NFL’s best.

“He was a great, great player,” said Sid Gillman, then the Ram coach. “That was Pete’s deal. He was my general manager and he engineered it all the way.

“We really weren’t losing much, just a lot of numbers, and Matson was a star, a great running back and pass receiver.”

The next season, the Rams were 2-10 and Gillman was fired, but Matson was third in the NFL in rushing.

And then, there was a new team in town. The Lakers brought stars with them from Minneapolis in Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, and they also brought success in the West, but no NBA championships as the Boston Celtics dominated the 1960s. The Lakers believed they were a tall player short.

Enter Chamberlain. Exit Jerry Chambers, Archie Clark and Darrall Imhoff to the Philadelphia 76ers on July 9, 1968.

He was the Big Dipper, the NBA’s leading scorer and top impact player, and Cooke, who had bought the club from Bob Short, had a new building, the Forum, to fill.

It was an easy match, and all it took was money.

“Wilt Chamberlain has signed a five-year contract with the Lakers, and Mr. Chamberlain has been kind enough to renew my contract as president of California Sports Inc.,” Cooke said.

The five years was for $1 million, big for the time but cheap for a championship, which came in 1972.

Chamberlain got old, and West retired in 1974. Happy Hairston could rebound, but his star was something less than a twinkle in the L.A. sky.

The answer was in, of all places, Milwaukee.

Abdul-Jabbar had starred at UCLA. He wanted out of Milwaukee, which he had led to an NBA title, and the price was Elmore Smith and first-round draft picks David Meyers and Junior Bridgeman. The Bucks even threw in Walt Wesley.

Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA’s most valuable player for a 40-42 team in 1975-76 that was too heavy for him to carry on his back.

He needed some Magic, and in 1979 he got some.

Earvin Johnson came through the draft, a 19-year-old who had led Michigan State to an NCAA championship, and the first pick in the draft.

He was compensation when the Lakers lost Gail Goodrich to the New Orleans Jazz as a free agent, and even then the Lakers had to win a coin flip with Chicago to draft him.

They got another NBA champion, and the beginning of Showtime.

Don’t forget the Showtime, said former King owner McNall, who learned from Laker owner Buss.

“There’s no question about it,” McNall said. “What we’re seeing [in the Lakers’ signing O’Neal] is Jerry Buss recognizing something that I think you have to have in this city--a guy with star quality. Through the ‘80s, the Lakers had it and lost it.”

McNall, who pleaded guilty of four counts of fraud and no longer is associated with the Kings, learned at the feet of the master.

“It was Jerry, even before I bought into the Kings, who talked with me about getting Wayne Gretzky,” McNall said.

The price was two players, three draft choices and $15 million. McNall said you can’t pay too much for a star.

“[Signing O’Neal] is different, because Jerry owns the [Forum] and can do some things to generate revenue to pay him,” McNall said. “I never had that luxury.

“And when we got Wayne, we not only promoted him, we had to promote a whole sport in Los Angeles. Shaquille O’Neal is one in a long line of stars the Lakers have had.”

And the Kings no longer have Gretzky or McNall.

“I think you can see what happens in this town if you don’t have a star,” McNall said. “You see it to some extent with the Clippers and you’re probably going to see it next season with the Kings.”

But maybe not with the Dodgers, who are singular in Southern California.

They had Gibson and Strawberry, stars at opposite ends of a Los Angeles galaxy.

They were free-agent signings who brought their stardom along, Gibson from Detroit and Strawberry from the New York Mets.

“Both of those signings were relevant, in my judgment, to the ability of the players,” said Fred Claire, the Dodger vice president who engineered both deals.

“You recognize that the player has star appeal, but it doesn’t mean anything if the player doesn’t perform.”

One did. The other didn’t.

“In the case of Kirk Gibson, we won a World Series and he was the most valuable player,” Claire said. “He was exactly what we had hoped.

“In the case of Darryl, he was really a player in the prime of his career and we got one good season out of him, but over the course of his career as a Dodger . . . you would have to say he didn’t make it.”

There was no problem recognizing the star appeal that Reggie Jackson brought to the Angels when he escaped New York in January of 1982.

A survey of American athletes rated him the most recognizable--Mr. October, home run hitter extraordinaire. The Angels bought both.

He gave them credibility and an American League West championship in his first season, leading the league in homers with 39.

Alas, he left Mr. October in New York. Jackson hit only .111 with one homer in the American League championship series, which the Angels lost in five games to Milwaukee.

And now, there is O’Neal, the newest in a long line of imported stars and one who now can trace his lineage to Richter, who laughs when he remembers Rozelle and the signing process with the Rams.

“Pete told me, ‘We’re even going to buy your shoes for you for the first year you play,’ ” Richter said.

O’Neal will bring his Reeboks along to the Lakers.