Test of Will

Linda Will adheres to a simple routine each night before she falls asleep. Resting her head on a pillow, she stares at two framed photographs on her bedside nightstand: Rashidi Wheeler as a child; Rashidi Wheeler as a young man.

Depending on the day, those images elicit a range of emotions: heartbreak, happiness, anger, dread.

Mostly, she said, they serve as inspiration as she continues working to gain additional safeguards for the health and welfare of college athletes and improved oversight of teams.

“Rashidi was someone who always had his arm around those who felt discouraged, whether it was the neighborhood kid who was being picked on or the teammate who had just been yelled at by the coach,” Will said. “He was against injustice and he did something about it. That’s why I know he would not want me to be quiet about his death.

“This is the only thing I can do. I have to speak out every day I can. I will expose how my son died and I will make sure this doesn’t happen to the other Rashidis out there. There are a lot of them.”

One year ago Saturday, Wheeler, a senior strong safety at Northwestern University, collapsed while trying to complete a rigorous set of 28 conditioning sprints during a voluntary workout drill. Wheeler, 22, a resident of Ontario and graduate of La Verne Damien High, died upon arrival at Evanston (Ill.) Hospital. The Cook County medical examiner ruled the death was a result of exercise-induced bronchial asthma.

The family’s wrongful death lawsuit against the university is proceeding toward a trial that lawyers say might not occur for two more years.

The university’s attorneys contend Wheeler’s use of ephedrine-containing supplements Xenadrine and Ultimate Punch before the intense drill led to his death.

“The body of medical literature and knowledge is becoming more encouraging regarding the association of ephedrine and adverse health effects,” said Eric Quandt, a Northwestern attorney who has named three companies that make and distribute Xenadrine and Ultimate Punch as third-party defendants.

Will, a retired California Youth Authority correctional officer, insists her son’s death was caused by flawed and slow medical attention during a workout that was a blatant violation of NCAA rules.

She has hired attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. and his Chicago-based partner Jim Montgomery to handle the legal details of the suit, which could net Wheeler’s family millions of dollars.

“Winning that case would tell Northwestern, ‘No one believes your lies,’ ” Will said. “Northwestern wishes this would just go away. Well, I wish it had never happened.”

In the year since Wheeler’s death, Will said she has also become convinced the NCAA is an ineffective enforcer of rules and too reactionary in its policymaking--opinions first raised in the days after Wheeler’s death by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Wheeler family spokesman.

Will said she has written a one-page letter requesting intervention in the form of congressional legislation. She said her letters were mailed Friday to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.)

Montgomery describes Will’s pursuit of reforms as a crusade.

“This is a sincere effort to effect changes,” Montgomery said. “She has created a Web site. She is preparing to contact people in Congress. She has been vocal in the media. She doesn’t only want justice in the lawsuit, she wants major changes within the NCAA.”

Will is most upset about the NCAA’s decision not to additionally punish Northwestern after the university’s self-imposed penalty of six forfeited practices for its violation of timing and filming the drill in which Wheeler died. Northwestern players reported there were consequences to not finishing the voluntary drill. If they didn’t complete it in the designated amount of time, they would have to perform it again during two-a-day official workouts in Kenosha, Wis. Northwestern Athletic Director Rick Taylor instructed Coach Randy Walker to discontinue the drill.

“The NCAA is unable or unwilling to bring serious sanctions against schools that commit major violations like this,” Will said. “We need fear of reprisal among college administrators and coaches. If a school can self-govern, self-impose and self-sanction, that is no sanction.

“That’s why I have to go to the government on this. We’re not talking about a player being given a free bag of groceries or some cash in his pocket. We’re talking about the loss of a life.”

NCAA spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said the organization would not welcome government intervention, calling it “unprecedented.” She said the NCAA is equipped to respond to safety concerns.

“These issues have always been topics on the table for our football study oversight committee since it was formed in January 2001, and out-of-season conditioning, because of its nature, is always a topic being looked at by this association,” she said.

Wheeler died following what was described as a chaotic practice-field scene. A field telephone was inoperable. He received a misdiagnosis of hyperventilation and was told to breathe into a plastic bag. The drill continued as trainers, then paramedics, tended to him.

Will wants mandatory safety standards instituted, including practice fields equipped with working telephones, oxygen tanks, several water stations and adequate medical supervision.

“We need an unbiased body to step in where the NCAA has demonstrated it won’t,” Will said. “I have frustration in that I don’t know who to go to about this, and I think any other parent would feel the same way. I really do think I’ll be successful on this. I think a lot of other people feel this way.”

Florida State linebacker DeVaughn Darling and Florida freshman running back Eraste Autin also died following practice-field collapses last year. The NCAA board of directors approved a measure in April allowing incoming freshmen to participate with returning players in voluntary practices, which are typically coordinated by strength and conditioning coaches and trainers. Previously, the incoming freshmen, like Autin, participated in separate practices and were supervised only for safety reasons.

Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds has reported that the NCAA football issues committee is considering reducing the number of summer and two-a-day practices.

Northwestern junior running back Jason Wright said he and teammates have been given NCAA-approved literature providing information on issues such as the dangers of health supplements and heatstroke and the importance of hydration.

“I’ll bet you they’ll have plenty of water out there this summer, and that would be pleasing to Rashidi--that he is helping people even in death,” Will said. “This is the responsibility I owe to Rashidi, and it’s one I plan on honoring.”

Waging such a public campaign during a grieving process has been burdensome, said Will, who still resides in Rashidi’s boyhood home in Ontario with her youngest son, 14-year-old Hershel Will. He plans to play football this fall as a freshman at Damien.

It has been an eventful year for Will.

She fired Cochran and Montgomery and temporarily united with Chicago attorney Larry Rogers, then rehired her original attorneys four months later. Montgomery said Will thought his firm had erred by permitting her ex-husband, George Wheeler, to become a co-administrator of Rashidi’s estate. She has called George Wheeler “a deadbeat dad,” a charge he has denied.

Will expressed blunt judgments about Walker, Taylor and Northwestern President Henry Bienen. She said all three should be dismissed: Walker because of brutal coaching methods, Taylor and Bienen because of their support for Walker. Will also said she believes it is suspicious that Tory Aggeler, Northwestern’s head trainer, has resigned, although Aggeler said he left for a more lucrative position as owner/operator of an athletic training/rehabilitation center in Durango, Colo.

“I feel good about what I did that day [of Wheeler’s death],” Aggeler said. “The tragedy of this would be to allow that to affect any decision in my life.”

Walker, who coached the Wildcats to a share of the Big Ten Conference championship in 2000 before a 4-7 showing last year, is said by Bienen to have strong job security.

Northwestern spokesmen refused to comment about any issue related to the Wheeler case. Quandt, the university lawyer, said, “I’ve got a lot of respect for someone [like Will] who has suffered that kind of loss. The ending to this story will come through litigation.”

Will said she has been contacted by several Northwestern players and faculty members who demand changes. She said one letter written anonymously by someone she believes to be a player said, “Don’t get tired in your good cause.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact there were so many people there who could have helped Rashidi, and so few did,” Will said. “The way he died--that he was frightened, that he suffered--there’s no getting over that. There’s no closure.

“When I close my eyes for good, there’ll be closure.”