Class Dismissed

Principal Daniel Webb glanced around his office at El Segundo Middle School.

“I think this was a gift shop,” he said. “You could buy a Raider jacket.”

Upstairs, over there, was Al Davis’ office.

Now those are classrooms.

The once-abandoned school that served as Raider headquarters for 13 years is a school again.

Where Marcus Allen once took handoffs, there are soccer nets and a softball field.

Student artwork lines the spick-and-span walls. A French horn case lays outside one door, and from within come the sounds of beginning musicians.

“For the most part, nobody even cares or talks about how great the Raiders are doing,” Webb said.

“There is absolutely nothing to indicate the Raiders were ever here. There might be a decal in one of the windows. It seems to me I saw one someplace.”

Around El Segundo--the second Southern California city in two years to watch its former team march toward the Super Bowl--there is precious little interest in the team that was headquartered here from 1982 to 1995.

The Raiders even practiced here one final season after moving back to Oakland, commuting to games in the Bay Area in 1995.

“I remember driving past,” said Tim, a sixth-grader who sat cross-legged with a group of other boys in the school courtyard as they finished their apples and chocolate milk. “There was, like, a tarp over the fence. You could see a tower and they had a camera up there. We used to look through the fence.

“I’m happy they left. My mom said one time she was driving and the coach almost hit her. But I like the coach now [Jon Gruden]. I think he’s a nice guy.”

The Raiders are not remembered as good neighbors, largely because of a dispute over the school, which became an eyesore after the Raiders left until it was refurbished and reopened in 1999 to handle rising enrollment.

“The only thing that was upsetting was the way they left the old junior high,” said George Stevens, owner of the Stick and Stein Eatery and Sports Parlor and once the host of many a gathering of players such as Ted Hendricks and Matt Millen at his old Stick and Stein Saloon.

It wasn’t until 1997 that the Raiders and the school district reached a deal for the remaining years on the $15,000-a-month lease, the team agreeing to pay $346,000.

It still required millions from a bond issue to bring the school back up to standard, 20 years after it was closed because of declining enrollment in 1979.

Sam, another sixth-grader, heard all about that.

“I think they’re traitors because they trashed the school when they left,” he said. “It looked bad. The field was messed up. There was equipment all over the place.”

Considering some of the sophomoric things that went on at Raider headquarters, maybe it’s appropriate it’s a school again.

One of the more charming adolescent moments was when quarterback Todd Marinovich reacted to becoming the starting quarterback in 1992 by saying, “I’m stoked.”

It went downhill from there, of course.

Another time, defensive lineman Scott Davis got into a fight with teammate Greg Biekert, then disappeared for a couple of weeks.

Then there was the running feud with reporters, who once entered their workroom to find all their computers turned upside-down, but otherwise unharmed.

The Raiders even painted an orange line on the concrete from the parking lot to the press room and practice field to show reporters where they could go--specifically excluding the locker room.

These days, there’s a red line between the cafeteria and the playground.

“They can’t take food onto the basketball courts,” the principal said.

Around town, there are still a few places where the Raiders are held in some esteem.

Dave Staley, the owner of Village Liquor, has turned down every offer for the neon Raider beer sign in his window.

Once a season-ticket holder, he has a photo of the 1991 team on the wall, a couple of signed L.A. Raider banners, even a 1977 Oakland Super Bowl banner.

“They played like their old selves this week,” he said. “But it’s still Al Davis. I don’t think anybody wants them back here.

“The players were very nice. They’d come in, look at magazines, sign autographs. Lyle Alzado, Marcus Allen.

“When they were down here, I was for them 100%.”

The Raiders’ departure didn’t cost him much business, he said.

“I sold more to coaches and trainers, not players,” he said. “I lost a lot more business when Hughes laid off all those people.”

A couple of doors down, at Big John’s Village Coffee Shop, there isn’t a scrap of Raider memorabilia to be found.

“We’re actually glad they’re gone,” said the owner, who prefers to be identified only as Big John. “They were rude, demanding and egotistical, from Al Davis all the way down. As a citizen of El Segundo, I’m glad they’re gone.”

Since the Raiders left, the Lakers and Kings have moved into their own El Segundo practice facility.

Big John has a King poster and calendar on the wall.

“I’m a Kings’ fan. They are great neighbors,” he said. “Wonderful coach, wonderful team. We’re very lucky.”

Oakland has the Raiders. Oakland can keep them, Big John said.

“There probably is somebody who cares,” he said. “Their mothers.”