Margery Duhig Card, artist, nature lover and Francophile, passed away from heart failure on February 10 in her home in Pacific Palisades. She was 86. Margery’s birth on March 3, 1924 in Taft, California coincided with the bloom of California wildflowers that she grew to adore. She and her sister Barbara (Deedee) were third-generation natives of this state. Their father, Walter Duhig grew up in Napa and found a good business supplying stainless steel to the growing oil industry near Bakersfield. Margery’s mother, Frances Hall, had acted on stage in New York and in silent films in Hollywood. By the mid-1930s the Duhig family moved to Beverly Hills. It was at Beverly High that a French teacher inspired Margie and she developed a love for the French sense of beauty. In the summer of 1941, Margery moved north to Stanford University, where she made good friends at Kappa Alpha Theta and met the love of her life, Frank Card. ‘Do you know the way to the English department?’ she asked that cute fellow in the Block S letterman sweater. He said he didn’t know but later kicked himself for not asking her to the Howdy Dance. He raced back down the hall to her, which led to a long relationship, cemented by Coke dates in the Eucalyptus Grove. They were married on February 12, 1943 at All Saint’s Episcopal Church of Beverly Hills. Living in Santa Monica, Margery devoted herself to her baby boys Dave and Tom while Frank worked as president of Walter’s supply business, Duhig and Co. She contributed time to St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church and Children’s Hospital charity. Shortly after their third child, Cathy, was born in the mid1950s, the family moved to Pacific Palisades. Along with time at St. Matthew’s and PTA work, Margery enjoyed the Garden Rakes club (Pacific Palisades and Brentwood garden club), learning to appreciate California’s natural beauty. As her children grew, Margery began to explore a deep passion: Art. She started with classes at Rustic Canyon Recreation Center followed by advanced courses at UCLA Extension. Margery and fellow artists coupled teacher-led studio sessions with plein-aire landscape painting of the local mountains and beaches. Her own children and grandchildren became some of her favorite subjects. And she encouraged them to find their own artistic expression, no matter the medium. Each felt her unconditional support and heard her generous praise. For 50 years Margery painted and studied painters. She contributed to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and joined their trips in search of fine art. But the best art Margery found was in her beloved Paris. The color, the flavor, the precision and the passion of the French continued to affect her. Margery and Frank were married for 68 wonderful years. She is survived by Frank, their children David (wife Cris) of Pacific Palisades, Thomas (wife Barbara) of Encino and Catherine (husband Scott) Marquard of Menlo Park; her sister Barbara in Berkeley, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. A memorial service for Margery will be held on Sunday, February 20 at 2 p.m. at St. Matthew’s, 1031 Bienveneda. Remember Margery D. Card with a donation to the Theodore Payne Foundation (supporting California native wildflowers and seeds,10459 Tuxford St., Sun Valley, CA 91352-2116), or a gift to the Outreach Fund at The Parish of St. Matthew, 1031 Bienveneda, Pacific Palisades, 90272 (310-454-1358) or by planting California Poppy seeds.
Sandra Green, a resident of Pacific Palisades since 1984, passed away on February 8 at the age of 68. Sandra, known professionally as Sandra Silverstein, Sandra Silverstein Green and Sandra Silverstein-Green (she gave the hyphen to her husband as an anniversary gift), was born ‘Sondra’ Berkowitz in 1942 in Borough Park, Brooklyn.’ Daughter of Max and Frieda, and sister to Val, Cynthia, Barbara and Elaina, Sondra lived with her family in a small flat, with the five sisters sharing a bedroom. She was part of the generation who had the calling to do good works in this world.’ Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from New York University, Sandra was the first person in her family to attend college; she was president of the NYU Social Work graduating class in the turbulent 1960s. In the early 1970s, Sandy was the white, Jewish blonde with attitude working in the Venice ‘ghetto’ with at-risk girls. She guided social-work students at USC and worked as a consultant to nursing homes and as a school counselor.’In her private therapy practice she worked with troubled kids, dying AIDS patients, broken families, warring couples, and psychotics getting medications from their doctors while benefiting from talk therapy. Sandy had the skills and heart to have helped many people over the years. With her joy in living, Sandy was not afraid of death, and faced her myriad health problems with an attitude that was much admired.’Her search for a spiritual anchor gave her comfort in difficult times.’In the last months, even though ill, she painted and made drawings.’She enjoyed laughing with her friends, making them and her husband feel good although it was apparent to all she was dying. She leaves her sisters, nieces and nephews, friends, pets, and her husband of 26 years, Doug, all of whom were fortunate to have known her. In lieu of flowers, spend money on yourself, as Sandra would have prescribed.’Go to a play you wouldn’t ordinarily see, attend a concert at Disney Hall, catch an unusual museum exhibition. May you live as well as Sandra Green.
Claudia Dianne Tatum, a former resident of Pacific Palisades, passed away on January 28. She was 66. She was born in Monroe, Louisiana, to Claude and Johnnie Crenshaw. The family moved to Germany in 1955 and then in 1958 to Victorville, California, where Major Crenshaw was stationed at George Air Force Base. Claudia married Thomas Tatum in 1963, and they eventually made their home in Pacific Palisades, where they raised their children Cindy, Cheryl and Michael. Claudia was very involved in Girl Scouts, PTA and the YMCA for many years. In 1995, Claudia moved to Truckee, California, and opened several businesses. A few years ago she moved back to Southern California, making her home in Malibu. Claudia enjoyed many things: cooking, entertaining, her horses, gardening and reading. Most of all, she loved being surrounded by her family. Her home was a gathering place for friends and family and there was nothing she enjoyed more. She will be deeply missed by all who loved her. She is survived by her children, Cheryl Tatum of Fairfax in Northern California, Cindy Tatum of Pacific Palisades and Michael Tatum (wife Jenny) of Pacific Palisades; ex-husband Tom Tatum; grandchildren Jordan, Finnegan, Piper, Dylan, Will and Violet; and siblings Sandra Crain, Steve Crenshaw (wife Pam) and Joni Payne (husband Jerry). A memorial was held at the Bel-Air Bay Club on February 13. Donations may be made to the Scleroderma Research Foundation on the day of the memorial.
Large posters were displayed in drinking establishments throughout Santa Monica. Courtesy Bruce Henstell
When gambling kingpin Tony Cornero Stralla, captain of the infamous Santa Monica Bay floating casino S.S. Rex, walked into Santa Monica Bank in the late 1930s to make a sizable deposit, the bank president accepted the request, with one stipulation. Cornero had to supply a truck to transport the cash because they didn’t own anything sturdy enough to carry that much weight–bags and bags of silver dollars! This was a trifle to a man who was millionaire by the age of 25. Cornero was born of tough and hardy Piedmont stock, ‘not,’ he bragged, ‘in the part of Italy that breeds guitar players, opera singers or the lower brackets of racketeers.’ He was tough and hardy, indeed, but the Piedmont in him had also bred a racketeer of the highest order, says Ernest Marquez in his new book, ‘Noir Afloat: Tony Cornero and the Notorious Gambling Ships of Southern California’ (Angel City Press). In Cornero, Marquez found the ideal protagonist to tell the history of those wild and untamed years when vice was rife, corruption was unparalleled and there was an endless supply of gambling fools. The book reads like a ‘true crime’ novel, following the relentless battle between crooked opportunists and eager law enforcement officials bent on cleaning up corruption. Marquez, whose previous book on Santa Monica Beach fueled his interest in the gambling ships, describes a Los Angeles in the 1920s and ’30s, when jobs were scarce but where the dream of making it big never died. Casino-type gambling was outlawed within California borders, but not on the open sea beyond the three-mile limit. Numerous gambling ship operators seized on this loophole and managed to lure customers to visit these floating casinos. They offered free water-taxi service from shore, as well as free dinner and drinks, and saw the risk pay off. A dozen gambling ships operated from 1927 to 1939, each with its own operator, who for the most part strived to remain anonymous to avoid the law. Not so with Tony Cornero. ‘He never denied what he was doing,’ Marquez says. ‘He was an intelligent, charming person’kind and ruthless at the same time.’ Cornero immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1904 and settled in Los Gatos. By 15, he was already a mischief; he was convicted of robbery and sent to reform school. He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve, but was discharged after six months for violating orders and remaining AWOL for various periods. At 20 (during Prohibition), Cornero was smuggling liquor from Canada into the United States and became the acknowledged king of Southern California rumrunners. Adventures appealed to this risk-prone entrepreneur, who was well known by law-enforcement authorities. By 25, he was riding high. He was living in a Beverly Hills mansion he bought for his mother, close to Bugsy Siegel’s house. ’The mayor of Beverly Hills tried desperately to drive these gangsters out because it wasn’t good for the city to have so many being killed,’ Marquez says. But, soon enough, the feds caught up with Cornero, convicting him of violating the national Tariff Act and the National Prohibition Act, and he spent two years at the McNeil Island penitentiary in Washington. Cornero, never at a loss for a new opportunity, plotted his next move and turned his attention to Nevada, ‘where gambling was a way of life.’ All of this was just a prelude to the extravagant venture aboard the Rex, Cornero’s most ambitious project yet’a floating palace. The ship was once a beautiful, four-masted windjammer that after decades of service Cornero purchased in 1937. He stripped her masts and dismantled her superstructure, replacing it with a 300-ft. long deckhouse, the future casino area. He set up his water-taxi service at the Santa Monica Pier and opened for business in May 1938. Cornero, always eager to promote his latest venture, wrote his own advertising, declaring publicly his honest business practices and pledging that he would pay ‘$100,000 to anyone who found aboard the S.S. Rex a falsely run game.’ The ship’s layout was straightforward: the lower deck accommodated a 500-seat bingo parlor and horse-race betting in the stern. The grand casino on the upper deck featured 11 roulette tables, eight dice tables, blackjack and faro games. The bar took up one entire wall, while the opposite wall was lined with 150 slot machines. Two dining rooms and a dance floor made for an exciting and romantic evening. Marion Davis reportedly enjoyed ”slumming’ by spending the evening on the gambling ship,’ Marquez says. No doubt Cornero was in it for the money, but he was also capable of the magnanimous gesture, Marquez says. ‘It was not unusual for him to reimburse a distraught wife when he saw that her husband had lost an entire week’s salary at the tables.’ For 10 years, Cornero battled efforts to rid the Southern California coast of floating casinos, insisting that his operation was outside the state’s jurisdiction. The L.A. District Attorney’s office and the Santa Monica police claimed that the three-mile limit extended from an imaginary line drawn from Point Dume on the north to Point Vicente on the south. Cornero argued that he was beyond the three-mile limit. The court would decide. Cornero might have rested while appeals were drafted and the jurisdictional question was passed all the way up to Congress, but he hadn’t reckoned on the eagerness of California’s Attorney General Earl Warren, who viewed gambling ships as ‘evil incarnate, and their elimination as a moral imperative.’ He did not regard the jurisdictional boundary as relevant. His tack was to charge the operators as a public nuisance that ‘led people to an idle and dissolute life, caused citizens to lose their regular employment and attracted pickpockets, bunco men, thieves, racketeers, gangsters and gunmen.’ Warren pursued a vigorous crackdown, particularly against Cornero, charging Warren Olney III, chief of the criminal division, with the task of eliminating all four gambling ships operating off Southern California. Marquez’s chronicle of the events of the summer of 1939 read like an adventure novel, albeit factually supported by newspaper accounts from the Los Angeles Examiner. Cornero managed to stave off Warren’s attempts to take over the ship using wits and patience. Warren and his deputies were relentless in their pursuit. ’Noir Afloat’ represents 20 years of research and study. Marquez relied on the history collection at USC and the National Archives maritime documents, as well as a valuable collection of gambling ship paraphernalia: photos, poker chips, advertisements, dice and menus. ’Putting it together was the challenge,’ Marquez says. ‘I was thinking of writing the book as a straight chronology, but even though there were never more than three to four ships out there at one time, I thought it would be too difficult to go from one to another. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t write; I failed English and barely got out of high school.’ But he kept going and eventually ended up with 750 pages of manuscript, which he cut down to 250. There are also two appendices’the first, the history of every gambling ship from its construction to mothball, and the second, about the men involved in the gambling ships. At 86, Marquez is busier than ever. He plans write the history of his family’the original owners of the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, comprising what is now Santa Monica Canyon, Pacific Palisades, and parts of Topanga Canyon. Marquez will talk about ‘Noir Afloat’ on Monday, April 18, at the Annenberg Beach House, 415 Pacific Coast Hwy. Meanwhile, the book is available at Village Books on Swarthmore.
The 2011 Mautner Memorial Lecture Series will present two free lectures on climate change by Dr. James E. Hansen, a leading scientist in the field. The first, ‘Climate Sensitivity,’ a research lecture, is oriented toward academics and scientists, but is also open to the public at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, February 22 in the Ackerman Grand Ballroom at UCLA (parking lot eight). The second, ‘Human-Made Climate Change: A Scientific, Moral and Legal Issue,’ offers a more accessible discussion of the topic for non-scientists, and will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, February 23, in the Grand Horizon Room of Covel Commons at UCLA (parking lot SV). Hansen is adjunct professor of earth sciences at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Since the late 1970s, he has worked on studies and computer simulations of the Earth’s climate for the purpose of understanding the human impact on global climate. The lecture series is sponsored by Pacific Palisades resident Marguerite Perkins Mautner through the College of Letters and Sciences in memory of the late Leonard Mautner. Reservations (at https://eventsrsvp.ucla.edu/Mautner2011) are recommended early.
Mira Bartok, author of the bestselling memoir ‘The Memory Palace,’ will appear at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, February 17. Bartok tells the story of growing up with her gifted but schizophrenic mother, so desperately ill that her daughters must break nearly all contact with her, communicating only through letters to a post office box for 17 years. ’Even now, when the phone rings late at night, I think it’s her. I stumble out of bed ready for the worst,’ the first chapter begins. ‘ The last time my mother called was in 1990. I was thirty-one and living in Chicago. She said if I didn’t come home right away she’d kill herself.’ After the author, an artist, suffers a debilitating brain injury in a car crash, she tracks down her mother in hopes of recovering some lost memories. She and her sister find a storage locker filled with notebooks, letters, drawings, newspaper articles and objects belonging to her mother and Bart’k is flooded with recollections. She is inspired to paint a memory palace’a visual map to remember people and events. The original works are interspersed throughout the book, along with passages from her mother’s writings. Publishers Weekly recommends the story with this review, ‘a haunting, almost patchwork, narrative that lyrically chronicles a complex mother-daughter relationship.’
’24’ Producer Gordon Debuts Thriller Novel at Village Books
Palisadian Howard Gordon will discuss and sign copies of ‘Gideon’s War,’ at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 25 at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore. Gordon, who served as executive producer on the television series ’24,’ makes his novel debut with an action thriller centered on themes of political intrigue and international terrorism. Simon & Schuster published the book. In the story, Gideon Davis, world renowned as a peace negotiator, discovers, to his horror, that the U.S. government’s most-wanted terrorist is his brother. ’True to form of my eight-year experience with Howard Gordon on ’24,’ ‘Gideon’s War’ is a rip-roaring thriller,’ Kiefer Sutherland said.
Gregory Alper’s ‘Palisades Panoramas’ on View at Village Books and Caf’ Vida
Artist, composer and musician Gregory Alper will sign copies of ‘Palisades Panoramas,’ a collection of 40 of his photographs, at 7:30 p.m. on February 24, at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore. A series of the panoramas, interpretive shots of Pacific Palisades, are also on exhibit at Caf’ Vida, 15317 Antioch, through March 30. Alper did not use a wide-angle lens for this work, but panned across the horizon with an ordinary camera and then edited multiple shots together. He believes the technique creates a dynamic effect that more closely mimics the motion of the eye. The images are printed on canvas to enhance the painterly feel of the work. For his father’s 80th birthday, Alper edited photos of his father and himself, taken over many decades, combining images from different shots into a single composite. This time-bending exercise inspired Alper to create a series of composites from other subject matter, two of which will be included in the exhibit at Caf’ Vida. For more information, go to alperdigitalart.com.
Storytime for children ages 3 and up, Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real. Mira Bart’k discusses ‘The Memory Palace: A Memoir’ about the 17-year estrangement of the author and her homeless schizophrenic mother, and their reunion, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18
‘The Young Victoria’ with Emily Blunt screens, 1 p.m. at the Palisades Branch Library, 861 Alma Real. The 2009 film follows the accession to the throne and early reign of Queen Victoria and her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Theatre Palisades presents ‘The Diviners,’ 8 p.m. at Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Rd. The show runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8, Sundays at 2 p.m. through February 20. For tickets ($20-$16), call (310) 454-1970 or visit theatrepalisades.org.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19
Village Green monthly gardening and maintenance, 9 to 11 a.m., at pocket park at Swarthmore, Antioch and Sunset. Bring shears and gloves. Contact Marge Gold at (310) 459-5167 or visit www.palisadesvillagegreen.org. The Culinary Historians of Southern California will present ‘Drinking with Shakespeare and Jane Austen,’ 2 p.m. at the Palisades Branch Library, 861 Alma Real. Writer and food historian Richard Foss will discuss traditional English beverages from 1600 to 1800. Contact: (310) 459-2754.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20
John Malcolm, general counsel to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C. will speak on human rights and religious freedom, 9 a.m. in the Founders’ Living Room at St. Matthew’s Episcopal church, 1031 Bienveneda. All are welcome and admission is free.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24
Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting, 7 p.m. at the Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real. The public is invited. Palisadian Gregory Alper displays his book, ‘Palisades Panoramas,’ 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. For more information, go to www.timedimensionalart.com
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25
Palisadian Howard Gordon will discuss and sign copies of ‘Gideon’s War,’ 7:30 p.m. at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore. Gordon, who served as executive producer on the television series ’24,’ makes his novel debut with an action thriller centered on themes of political intrigue and international terrorism.
BACK IN BLACK: Defending Northern Trust Open champion Steve Stricker tries to get out of a bunker last year at Riviera. Ranked No. 8 in the world, the 43-year-old already has two top-ten finishes to his name in 2011. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
With the forecast predicting rain, as it seemingly always does in the middle of February, there maybe one excuse to watch this weekend’s Northern Trust Open from home. But with a talented field that blends tour veterans, exciting up-and-comers and loads of major champions, there is a bevy of reasons worth watching in person. The tournament tees off today at Riviera Country Club and runs through Sunday. Of the current top 10 in the world, half will be playing this week: two-time Northern Trust Open champion Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Paul Casey, Luke Donald and 2010 champion Steve Stricker. Currently ranked No. 8 in the world, Stricker sounded more than ready to come back and defend his title. ’Riviera is one of the great places we play on Tour,’ he said during the tournament’s press conference in January. ‘To have won there is pretty special. It’s at the top of my list as far as wins go.’ The 43-year old is looking to become yet another back-to-back winner of the event. Mickelson won in 2008 and 2009, while Mike Weir also completed the feat in 2003 and 2004. Mickelson and Weir are just two of the field’s 22 major championship winners, including Angel Cabrera, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh and Padraig Harrington, who’ve each won multiple major titles. Some of the hottest players of the 2011 Tour season will also be on display at the Riviera. The entire top 10 of the PGA Tour’s money list is in attendance, including Mark Wilson, who is fresh off recent wins at the Waste Management Phoenix Open two weeks ago and Sony Open in Hawaii in the middle of January. The diminutive 36-year-old’who clocks in at 5-foot-8 and 145 pounds’has earned more than $2 million in 2011 and tops the list of fresh faces worth watching over the course of the tournament. A more lumbering up-and-comer is Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas, who at 26 has quickly become something of a PGA sensation despite having only seven career starts. Four of them have come in 2011, where he’s already won the Bob Hope Classic and finished third in the Farmers Insurance Open. A forceful presence thanks to his 6-foot-2, 230-pound frame, Vegas has an equally powerful story, coming to the states nine years ago, speaking no English and immigrating from a country where President Hugo Chavez infamously denounces the sport of golf and closed a number of courses as a result. Vegas, who ranks in the top 25 in driving distance, is just one of the game’s big hitters to watch. In fact, the top three longest drivers in the game’Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson and J.B. Holmes’are all in the field. Each averages better than 310-yards per drive, the only three players on Tour to do so. That trio’s strength will be on full display on one of Riviera’s signature holes, the 315-yard par 4 10th. The beautiful but compact hole was the fifth-shortest par 4 on Tour last year, with its tiny green within reach from the tee for the game’s ambitious drivers. Interestingly, No. 10 is also the Kodak Challenge Hole selected for the Northern Trust Open. Created to celebrate golf’s most majestic holes, the 2011 Kodak Challenge chooses a single challenge hole for every tournament’and the player with the best cumulative score at the end of the year wins $1 million. Between No. 10’s intrigue and the dynamic field of players, there are certainly plenty of excuses to catch the Open in person this weekend, rain or shine.
BALANCING ACT: Globetrotter “Special K” Daley makes use of his head by spinning a basketball on it in front of hundreds of St. Matthew’s students. Daley, a Panama City, Panama native, has been a Globetrotter since 2004. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
It’s not every day that kindergartener Charlotte Landis gets to spin a red, white and blue basketball on her finger, let alone at 9:45 a.m. on a school day at St. Matthew’s. But that was the case last Thursday, when hundreds of students congregated at the school’s gym, the Sprague Center, to watch and cheer two members of the world famous Harlem Globetrotters, ‘Special K’ Daley and ‘Wun The Shot’ Versher. ’This is the highlight of being a Globetrotter,’ said Daley, a seven-year team veteran whose position is listed as Showman. ‘The connection we get to have with these kids is really special.’ For the last decade or so, various Globetrotters have performed at elementary schools across the country. This year’s five-month North American tour spanning 220 cities, 46 states and six Canadian provinces will bring a mixture of basketball skills and comedy to hundreds of schools. Daley and Versher packed a great deal into their hour-long performance, spending the last few minutes showing off their patented spinning and twirling basketball tricks to the tune of the team’s classic, whistling theme song ‘Sweet Georgia Brown.’ ’It’s amazing to be face-to-face with young minds of today and give them something positive, as well as entertaining,’ said Versher, a 16-year Globetrotter, who was with the team in 2000 when they were inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and in 2002 when they named Pope John Paul II an Honorary Globetrotter. Amidst the positive message and tricks, the St. Matthew’s students were positively smitten with the atypical class assembly. ’Oh my gosh, they had a blast,’ St. Matthew’s lower division principal Jane Young said. ‘They were all in heaven.’ The Globetrotters will take on the Washington Generals at considerably larger venues next month, playing at Ontario’s Citizens Business Bank Area on February 24 at 7 p.m., Anaheim’s Honda Center on February 26 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and the Staples Center on February 27 at 12 noon. Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com, the respective area box office, or by calling 1-800-745-3000. Information on group tickets can also be found at www.harlemglobetrotters.com BALANCING ACT: Globetrotter ‘Special K’ Daley makes use of his head by spinning a basketball on it in front of hundreds of St. Matthew’s students. Daley, a Panama City, Panama native, has been a Globetrotter since 2004. Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer
Palisades running back Malcolm Creer laughs while addressing hundreds of students at lunch in the Pali gym on February 2. Creer will be attending Colorado next year on a football scholarship. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
A unique and memorable high school football career culminated last Wednesday at 11:50 a.m. during lunch at Palisades High’a career that almost never was. Across the country, hundreds of future college football stars took center stage at their respective high schools on February 2 for National Signing Day. At PaliHi, the stage belonged to Dolphins star running back Malcolm Creer. Over 200 Pali students flooded the Dolphins’ gym. Creer’s uncle, Jabari, took pictures and video with his camera phone. Even the online football magazine Deep Coverage documented all the action with a professional camcorder. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Creer sat at a table amidst it all, facing a sea of supporters, teammates and family, taking everything in with a beaming smile. Banners from football powers Colorado and Washington draped his table, building the suspense. After briefly thanking everyone for coming out, Creer started a one-man fashion show. ’It all started with Pali pride,’ he said, referring to his dark blue Palisades hoodie. Then he took it off to reveal another Pali shirt. Then a Michigan shirt. Three articles of clothing later, he was left displaying a black shirt with gold letters that revealed his decision: He’ll be attending the University of Colorado on a full football scholarship. Creer’s mother, Donna Jones, was understandably aglow from the storybook ending to her son’s high school career. ’The last two months have been a dream,’ she said. ‘The whole thing is so miraculous. He was so under the radar. But every time he put his hands on the ball, it was like ‘ ‘Wow!” Coming into the 2010 season, Malcolm was just as his mom described, flying well under the radar following a modest junior year when he led the Dolphins in rushing with 660 yards. But last fall, he suddenly became a Division I prospect. Rushing for 1,270 yards and 19 touchdowns, Creer even saw a couple of his most impressive highlight videos go viral’including an 108-yard interception return and a long, infamous touchdown run that featured a spinning cartwheel to keep his balance and vicious stiff-arms. Yet only a few short years ago, Creer’s football career wasn’t just under the radar’it was non-existent. As a freshman at Pali, Malcolm hadn’t played a down of organized football in his life, choosing the hard court over the gridiron from elementary school on. ’He was a basketball kid all the way,’ his mother said. ‘All the way.’ Starting at age seven, Creer made basketball his passion. His father, Eric, had played at Morningside High School and it wasn’t long before Malcolm was following in those footsteps. Between a handful of local Park-and-Rec leagues, playing for his grade school and in pick-up games, his basketball pursuits kept football at bay. ’I’m surprised he (focused on) basketball for so long,’ Eric said. ‘Even as a little kid, he was big, always built for football. He’s a natural.’ Fast-forward to his sophomore year at PaliHi, where that football nature started to take shape. A former classmate, Conner Preston, Pali’s quarterback at the time, told Creer and his older brother, Michael, to give football a go. Malcolm, preoccupied with playing high school basketball, wasn’t convinced. ’He told me I had the size to play football,’ Creer said, ‘but I just laughed it off.’ Preston, who later transferred to Serra and is headed to SMU next year on a football scholarship, kept making his argument. And eventually, he persuaded both brothers to give football a shot. That season, they endeared themselves to the program and then-coach Kelly Loftus. ’I fell in love with the Creer family through Michael,’ Loftus told the Palisadian-Post. ‘Then I met Malcolm. And I thought, ‘Shoot, you’re varsity material right now, just ’cause I know your family.’ Loftus’ instincts were spot on. ’He was just a stallion,’ Loftus said. ‘He’s always been the same (size). If he had played football as a sophomore with the JV team, he would’ve had 100 touchdowns. ’I may have done him a disservice by not letting him play as a sophomore with his peers. But on the other hand, I might have done him a favor.’ By his senior year, the highlights and 100-yard, multiple-touchdown games started to pile up and so too did the Division I schools interested in Malcolm, including Nebraska, Washington, Idaho State and Eastern Washington. A Washington scout even showed up at a Pali-Fairfax basketball game in January, in part to see the defense and energy that make Malcolm a key reserve for the Dolphins. But in the end, Colorado won out. ’I have a warm feeling about fitting into the program,’ Creer said. ‘Meeting with the coaches, they gave me the feeling that I could fit in and they’d push me to my full potential. I can get used to the cold quickly. It shouldn’t bother me a bit.’ That warm feeling’in spite of the Colorado cold’was brought on in large part by the high level of interest the Buffaloes showed in Malcolm from the start of the recruiting process. ’I was already set for Colorado,’ he said. ‘Washington was just using me as a fall back plan. But I wasn’t a fall-back plan for Colorado. I was just their main guy, and that’s why I chose Colorado.’ As a Buffalo, Creer joins a program buoyed by Colorado alumni. New head coach Jon Embree and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy both played football for Boulder, and have injected optimism into a program that finished 19-39 the last five years and will join the Pac-10 this fall. But for Malcolm, who is already taking classes at Santa Monica College to learn sign language and is interested in becoming a teacher, it was clear he needed to go somewhere that valued getting an education as much as getting into the end zone. Which is exactly what he’ll get in Boulder. ’The thing (Coach Bieniemy) and Coach Embree push is academics,’ Creer’s mother said. ‘They say, ‘You better believe as a football program, we’re going to use you. So you better use us. Get your education. Do well in the classroom and the rest will take care of itself.” With a core GPA of 3.0, education has always been something that Malcolm has taken care of himself. As such, the prospect of getting a free education through football was something that hardly occurred to him for the majority of his high school career. ’I’ve always just played football for the fun of it,’ Creer said, ‘and planned to get to college through academics.’ Though that plan didn’t materialize, if Malcolm’s celebratory signing-day ceremony and scholarship to Colorado are any indication, things turned out exactly the way they were supposed to. And a football career that’s still in its infancy couldn’t look brighter.
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