Booker Won’t Be Back to SDSU Team : College football: Once-promising running back from Vista is beset by personal problems.

SAN DIEGO —  Tommy Booker, the San Diego State running back from Vista who could never catch the legend he created in high school, will not return to the Aztecs for his senior season, SDSU Coach Al Luginbill said Wednesday.

Booker, beset with personal problems since he came to SDSU in 1987, ends his career on the same note.

“I want to help Tommy any way I can,” Luginbill said. “He has had so many personal problems weighing him down, and there is not enough room for all three--education, his personal obligations and football.

“My feeling is that football comes last when it comes to decisions regarding education and taking care of things at home.”

Booker, who won SDSU’s starting running back job before the 1990 season opener at Oregon, received permission from Luginbill to miss the Aztecs’ drills last spring while he attempted to get some personal problems worked out. Among other things, he had been going through a divorce.

Booker couldn’t be reached for comment, but in a statement said: “It’s become impossible for me to give the necessary attention to my personal life, my education and my desire to play football. I talked with Coach Luginbill and we agreed that of the three, it was most important to get my degree and get my personal life in order. Something had to give, and unfortunately in this case, it had to be football.”

In three years with SDSU, Booker gained a total of 758 yards in 191 attempts. He scored six touchdowns.

His biggest moment of glory came in 1987, when he ran 65 yards for an apparent touchdown during a 47-14 loss at UCLA. It was called back because of a penalty.

The play, it turned out, was a capsule of what his collegiate career would become. Whenever it seemed Booker was ready to explode, he would sputter. He sprained an ankle in 1987, his freshman year. After that, he worked with the second team in both his freshman and sophomore seasons.

But more problems hit. He pulled hamstring, injured a shoulder and then pulled the hamstring again. And, he had some personal problems and decided to redshirt in 1989.

He came back strong early in 1990, gaining 113 yards in SDSU’s opener at Oregon. But he suffered another ankle injury and missed most of the season.

He never could recapture his high school glory, when he was a Parade magazine first-team All-American and as rated as the top recruit in the nation by the Dallas Morning News. He was also ranked as the fifth-best high school senior in the country by the National High School Recruiting Service.

“I have had, I think, a great relationship with Tommy Booker,” Luginbill said. “He’s a young man whom I feel is totally misunderstood. He and I tried every way we could to work it out, but it just didn’t come to that.”

Booker’s departure leaves SDSU with four viable candidates for time in a one-back offense. Senior T.C. Wright and junior Larry Maxey came out of the fall splitting time as the No. 1 back.