Pride and Joy

As Northwestern football player Rashidi Wheeler was laid to rest Monday, he was recalled as a senior strong safety whose legacy in death would be to bring about change for the protection of fellow football players across the country.

In a step toward that end, Wheeler’s parents said Monday they had hired high-profile Los Angeles attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. to lead the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Wheeler, who collapsed Aug. 3 during a rigorous conditioning drill.

“He’s still a safety,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who presided over the services. “He’s going to save thousands of young athletes.”

The 31/2-hour service at First Baptist Church in Pomona drew an estimated 600, including Wheeler’s former La Verne Damien High teammate Brian Allen of Stanford, elementary and high school teachers and 10 Northwestern teammates and classmates.

They shared poignant memories of the outstanding athlete who always wore a bright smile. “Rashidi had everything. He was smart, gifted and he had game,” Allen said.

Players said his spirit will be present during the upcoming season.

“Four of us who played in the secondary talked through the years about how the day was coming when all four of us would be starting,” Northwestern free safety Sean Wieber said during the services. “That was going to be this year. Don’t think for a moment that we aren’t all going to be out there. Some things will happen out there and it will be because of him.”

Wheeler’s parents had sought refuge in recent days, asking for solitude as they made burial arrangements that included the releasing of 25 doves at his grave site. Afterward, they said they were preparing to fight for answers about what led to Wheeler’s death.

“It is time for a full-fledged formal investigation,” Linda Will, the player’s mother, said after the funeral.

The hiring of Cochran and his Chicago law partner, Jim Montgomery, is the first step of the family’s formal investigation into Wheeler’s death, said Jackson, who helped arrange the union between Wheeler’s parents and the attorneys.

“The family’s not bitter, they’re focused, and they want to pursue all relevant details of this ordeal,” said Jackson, serving as a spokesman for Wheeler’s mother and the player’s father, George Wheeler.

The investigation will center on the chaotic scene that unfolded 11 days ago as numerous teammates collapsed while trying to complete 28 wind sprints ranging from 40 to 100 yards on a muggy summer afternoon. Because NCAA rules bar coaches and others from appearing at training sessions before the formal start of practice, Jackson said, there were too few staffers on hand to properly respond. He recalled the lack of an operable field phone, delaying a call for paramedics as Wheeler reportedly told a trainer, “I’m dying.”

And Jackson noted reports that the use of over-the-counter but potentially dangerous nutritional supplements by Wheeler and several teammates were said to be widespread, perhaps contributing to the tragedy that day.

“The family firmly believes that negligence was a factor and there were a whole range of circumstances that point to that,” Jackson said. “They want to get to the heart of the matter.”

Northwestern President Henry S. Bienen last week announced the university’s own plans for an official investigation headed by William Banis, Northwestern’s vice president for student affairs. But Jackson said that wasn’t good enough.

“We all know the credibility of Northwestern is on the line and their lawyers have the interest of the university to protect,” Jackson said. “The truth is the best weapon. What we need to be asking ourselves is, ‘What can we learn from this to save lives in the future?’ ”

The preliminary cause of death was listed as bronchial asthma, although further tests are pending.

Teammates have said Wheeler used strength-building supplements and one said he witnessed Wheeler’s use of the stimulant drink mix Ultimate Orange before the Aug. 3 drill. Sold over the counter as a way to boost energy and enhance performance, such dietary supplements have been characterized by critics as potentially hazardous, especially for a chronic asthmatic like Wheeler.

“The makers of this Ultimate Orange must be put to questions, as well,” Jackson said.

During his sermon Monday, Jackson said he believed Wheeler would be remembered for “something bigger than the Rose Bowl.”

“Rashidi is the safety man, the last line of defense, and because of what has happened to him, people are asking questions that will defend our young men,” Jackson said. “After all these deaths, we have to ask ourselves, are we intelligent or are we crazy? If you do the same thing over and over again and expect something different to happen, that’s crazy. If we stop and look at what’s happening, we evolve. Well, the whole world has stopped because of the safety man.”

Jackson was not so subtly referring to the demanding drill of wind sprints instituted by Northwestern Coach Randy Walker, who spoke at the funeral but did not attend the burial or reception. Northwestern Athletic Rick Taylor has barred further use of the drill.

Walker was among those who spoke at the services, recalling that Wheeler had been disappointed by being demoted off the special teams early in his college career but worked hard and earned a starting position in all 12 games last season.

“Rashidi was my hero,” Walker said. “He learned early and successfully in life that to be successful, he had to get a little better every day.”

Wheeler’s family plans to return to the Evanston, Ill., campus soon to continue their probe.

Cochran’s list of clients has included Michael Jackson, Sean “Puffy” Combs, Riddick Bowe, wrongfully-convicted Black panther Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, and Oklahoma City bombing survivors.

But it was the so-called “Trial of the Century,” Cochran’s successful defense of O.J. Simpson against charges that he murdered his former wife and her friend, that has made him an international celebrity.

Since then, some believe that fame allows him to get opponents to buckle under or pay up--or risk losing even more with a long, drawn-out court battle.

Jackson predicted more “bombshells,” from players who witnessed Wheeler’s death.

“The last hour of Rashidi’s life is finite, it is not some mystery,” Jackson said. “Investigating it has good, redemptive, punitive value.”