Trojan Is Quick to Impress

The fastest player in USC football history has a woman’s name tattooed on his chest in letters four inches high: MABLE.

“My mom’s the biggest thing in my life,” tailback Sultan McCullough said. “That’s why I wanted it so big.”

Never mind that his mother spells her name Mabel, though she says she sometimes spells it differently.

“It doesn’t really matter,” she said with a laugh. “That’s my baby. He’s such a sweet young man, it was a joy. They’re into those tattoos now, but I had no idea he’d be doing that.”

McCullough is known for his speed, not his spelling, anyway.

At 19, he already is nearing world class as a sprinter with a 100-meter time of 10.17 seconds as a freshman that qualifies him for next summer’s Olympic trials.

He made his mark on the football field in the Trojans’ opener against Hawaii as a backup tailback, rushing for 83 yards and a touchdown in his first college game after redshirting as a freshman. And he figures to get plenty of carries Saturday against San Diego State at the Coliseum in another early-season warm-up for the Trojans.

“I’ll tell you what, he’s such an amazing athlete,” said USC track Coach Ron Allice, who watched McCullough win the Pacific 10 Conference title in the 100 as a freshman before McCullough pulled up lame in the NCAA semifinals with a hamstring strain.

“He will do very, very well in football, because he’s not only quick, but he’s tough. If you run 100 meters in football, you’re scoring. And can you imagine Student Body Left, Student Body Right, a sweep where he takes the pitch and turns the corner? Watch out.”

For now, his role is as the No. 2 tailback behind senior Chad Morton, a smaller back whose quickness at 40 meters might exceed McCullough’s.

“There’s no question, the impact Sultan made in track gave him a lot of confidence, and it shows,” said Hue Jackson, the Trojan running backs coach and offensive coordinator.

“I think when you’re as fast as he is, your first thought is probably, ‘I can outrun people,’ and you try to get around the corner. But there are 11 other guys taking pretty good angles, and they’re fast too. I think he’s learned you’ve got to push the pile, and make things happen.”

That a McCullough is finally carrying the ball for the Trojans seems like something that’s been a long time coming.

His brother Saladin signed with USC out of Pasadena Muir in 1993 but the Educational Testing Service invalidated his SAT score after a jump of more than 500 points to 1200.

Denied admission to USC, Saladin went to two junior colleges before choosing Oregon when the Trojans made it clear they weren’t interested the second time around.

The McCulloughs have great speed--another brother, Shaheed, the youngest of six, is a defensive back at El Camino College--and they come by it naturally.

Their father, Bruce, who died in 1986 at 46, ran track at San Jose State in the “Speed City” days with 1968 Olympian Tommie Smith and coach Bud Winter. Mabel was a state champion high school basketball player at Booker T. Washington High in Texarkana, Ark., in 1959 before moving to California.

When it came time for Sultan--pronounced SOOL-tawn--to pick a college, Saladin put his own feelings about USC aside.

“Saladin told him if that’s what he wanted, it was a good opportunity and to go for it,” Mabel said. “He never said anything bad about SC just because that’s what he wanted all his life and it didn’t happen.”

Sultan made his own choice.

“It was a big decision because of what happened with my brother, but I’m a man too. I fend for myself,” Sultan said. “That was him. I’m different. He said, ‘You should go here if that’s what you want. Don’t go to Oregon just because I did.’ ”

Saladin rushed for more than 1,300 yards his senior season at Oregon in 1997, but the pro career he hoped for never panned out.

“He’s all right. He just tells me to stay focused,” Sultan said. “What messed him up was, coming out of junior college, SC didn’t want to take him and he went to Oregon. And then his draft year, Akili Smith got in a fight and he got involved, and teams thought he was trouble . . . “

Now the hopes rest on Sultan.

The same year Saladin had his best season at Oregon, Sultan rushed for 2,145 yards and 27 touchdowns at Muir--including one game when he had 317 yards and five touchdowns on nine carries.

His high school track career was marred by the chronic hamstring problems that still dog him, and he was unable to race in the state finals in the 100, a race he was favored to win.

He also had to deal with the controversy surrounding his track coach, Clyde Turner, who last month was sentenced to three years in prison for molesting a 15-year-old athlete in a case that became public with Turner’s arrest during McCullough’s senior track season.

“Yeah, I was shocked, but I couldn’t do anything about it,” McCullough said. “He never missed practice, and then he wasn’t there. I kept wondering where he was, and my other coach finally told me what had happened. I thought, ‘Man, that’s messed up.’ ”

McCullough said he still respects Turner as a coach, and said he and teammates even visited him and “kicked back” after the arrest.

“We treated him like our coach, whether he did all that stuff,” he said. “He did so much good, it’s like people focus on the negative.

“He was always real cool, so when that happened, we felt sorry for him, but I’m grown. I can’t be his lawyer.”

High school and the disappointments of Saladin’s career are all behind now. So is Sultan’s big debut against Hawaii.

“It was cool, but I want it to be a big game,” he said. “A game like that, everybody scores. I mean, I want a long run, or something that matters, like if the score is 14-13. Or if we’re losing and Chad went down and I had to go in. I just want to get better every week.

“My goal . . . with my role in the second spot is hopefully to get 1,000 yards. If I get 80 every game, I’ll get 1,000,” he said.

Track season will have its own challenges--not the least of which is managing to participate in spring practice and train on the track as well.

“If it was up to me, I would just run track in the spring,” McCullough said. “If the [school] president and everybody wants NCAA titles and championships, let me run track. But if they want me to go to spring practice and run track, I’ll do what they want.”

Since he is on a football scholarship, it’s easy enough to see where that will go.

But McCullough is eager to get back to the NCAA track championships and race for the 100 title. And beyond that, his biggest goal is taking a shot at making the U.S. Olympic team, perhaps as an alternate on the 400-meter relay team.

“He’s genuinely capable of that,” Trojan sprint coach John Henry said. “There aren’t many people his age I’d say that about.”

Ever since he was an 8-year-old beating 10-year-olds in races, McCullough was ahead of his time.

“Speed is what I was blessed with,” he said.

Whether his future is in football or track is a decision that might make itself.

“Wherever I can make a living,” he said. “Track’s like a one-man sport. I mean, I don’t want to just make a living. I’m looking at football as something where if you can play, one, two or three years, you’re set for life.

“Track, you have to put so many years in. And I don’t want to be taking any ‘enhancers.’ In the long run, that’s going to be harmful. I’ll just do my best.”

That’s all the woman whose name he wears underneath his jersey would ask.

“She keeps me positive. I want to make it big so I can buy her a big house,” McCullough said. “She’s next to my heart, and when I’m on the field I know that.”

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McCullough Profile

* BACKGROUND: Sultan McCullough is a redshirt freshman . . . 5-11, 180 pounds . . . 1999 Pac-10 champion in 100-meter dash. School says he is the fastest player to wear a Trojan football uniform.

GAME 1 VS. HAWAII

Rushes: 17

Yards: 83

Average: 4.9

Touchdowns: 1