His NFL Dream Nearly Turned Into Nightmare : Football: Former Banning High and USC standout Leroy Holt had his rookie season with Miami Dolphins end when he suffered a neck injury.

By STUART MATTHEWS

Aug. 19, 1990 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Just like every other time he had been knocked down in his life, Leroy Holt got right back up.

And like every other time, Holt knocked someone down with him.

But today, rehabilitating at home in Hawthorne, the former USC and Banning High standout winces whenever he thinks of the goal-line scrimmage play that nearly put him into a wheelchair.

“I picture it every day, over and over in my mind,” Holt said.

It was the July 31 at the Miami Dolphins’ training camp, and Holt--a rookie fullback--was lined up as the lead blocker in an intense two-yard-line drill.

Holt plowed through between tackle and guard, clearing a hole for free agent tailback Mark Higgs to hurdle the line of scrimmage for a touchdown.

But Holt ran into veteran linebacker John Offerdahl--a four-time Pro Bowler.

Both fullback and linebacker lowered their helmets and pads. But Offerdahl got his a little lower.

The crushing collision sent Offerdahl sprawling onto his back, and snapped back Holt’s head.

The 5-foot-10, 224-pound Holt popped up and played the next three downs. Later he went over to the sidelines to put some ice on what he figured was merely a stiff neck.

After all, Holt had never been injured before--not as a veer-option rusher at Banning, nor as a blocking back at USC.

“I thought it was nothing,” Holt said. “Maybe just a pinched nerve.”

But next day, Holt couldn’t move his neck at all. In the next few days, he felt more and more sharp pain in his lower neck.

On the sixth day after the injury, Holt went to Miami for in-patient care and X-rays.

“The doctor asked me if I wanted the good news first or the bad news,” Holt said.

Holt wanted the bad news first. The X-rays showed two chip fractures in his lower neck, between the 4-C and 5-C vertebrae.

He would be out for his entire rookie season.

Then the good news: Holt would miss only one year, then he could play football again with no restrictions.

The doctor told Holt how much worse the injury could have been. If the break had been one vertebrae higher in the neck, Holt likely would have been paralyzed.

Holt’s powerful neck muscles had saved the rest of his body. They absorbed most of the impact to Holt’s spinal canal, preventing a crippling fracture.

“That’s when I realized that I was blessed,” Holt said. “I am one of the very few lucky guys who can say they have another chance. I’m still walking, I’m still moving my arms. A lot of guys don’t walk away from something like this.”

In college, Holt was known for toppling defenders with wicked blocks, or hammering through them when he carried the ball.

“Leroy was convinced that he was invincible,” Trojan tailback Ricky Ervins said. “I know I thought he was.”

Holt came out to the Trojans’ summer practice on Wednesday in his hard neck brace--which he will wear 24 hours a day for the next three months--to reassure his buddies that he will be all right.

“It was a real shocker to find out he got hurt,” Ervins said. “I mean, he used to just run over people. He’d come back up out of a hit that would break anybody else down. I’d ask him if it hurt, and he’d always say, ‘Nope.’ ”

Holt was the Trojans’ offensive captain last season and a three-year starter at fullback.

“I was the big bruiser from SC,” he said. “I was always screwing my head in there, knocking people over and being gutsy. I never thought about being injured.”

He wore No. 39--like former USC fullback Sam (Bam) Cunningham--because he wanted to be remembered as a solid blocker.

But Holt was also a dangerous ballcarrier. He gained 1,667 yards in his career, most of them the hard way--on off-tackle dives.

As he senior, Holt didn’t lose a yard rushing all year and broke loose for a career-high 160 yards in a 31-15 victory over California, including a 55-yard touchdown run.

Earlier in that game, Holt’s crunching block on a pair of Cal defenders sprung Ervins for a 10-yard touchdown run.

Holt was beloved by USC’s younger players--especially Ervins, who said Holt was like “a big brother” to him.

Holt became known for his fiery pregame speeches in the Trojan locker room.

“During games he’d come into the locker room and started crying and get everyone all worked up,” Ervins said.

Before USC’s 50-0 victory over Arizona State in 1988, Holt got so fired up that he threw a folding chair across the locker room, which hit linebacker Delmar Chesley in the forehead.

“That was the hardest hit I took that game,” Chesley said. “Leroy’s the inspirational guy for the team. Some of the younger guys are a little nervous before the game, but Leroy gets everyone fired up, from Coach (Larry) Smith on down to the managers.”

The marks of leadership have followed Holt, even at Banning, where he gained 1,200 yards as a senior.

When Leroy speaks, people listen.

“That’s just me,” Holt said. “I don’t know why guys cling to me. I try to show by example. You have to prove something before you can speak.”

Holt had already proven his mettle to the Dolphins before the injury.

He was picked in the fifth round by Miami in this year’s draft--the 137th selection overall--to give quarterback Dan Marino some more bulk around him in the backfield.

“I wasn’t completely satisfied with what we got out of the fullback position in 1989,” Dolphins Coach Don Shula said. “We saw that Holt was a tough inside runner and a good blocker at USC. We thought highly of him and traded up to make the deal.”

Holt began making a name for himself at Dolphins’ camp as early as mid-June.

By the end of July, the Miami coaching staff had settled on Holt as a blocking and receiving specialist. Holt had worked his way up to second-string fullback, behind journeyman Tony Page, a seven-year NFL veteran.

Before the injury, Holt figured he was just a step behind Page for the starter’s spot.

“I was finally at the level I’ve always wanted to be and I was on my way,” he said. “I was doing everything they expected of me and I was just at my peak when this happened.”

Clarence Shelmon, the running backs coach at USC, thinks Holt can make it all the way back.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Leroy will make it in the NFL,” Shelmon said. “People get into a lot of physical things . . . times, weights and heights. But the bottom line is can you play football.”

Holt is still drawing his rookie salary and the Dolphins’ insurance is taking care of his rehabilitation. For three months, Holt will be at home, receiving treatment from neurologist Robert Watkins at the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood.

After that, it’s back to Miami to begin a strengthening regimen that will bring Holt’s shoulders and neck back up to their pre-injury levels.

“I have a bright future in the NFL,” Holt said. “I think I can serve a lot of years in the league. It’s still there. When I come back, I’m going to still go out there a hungry man, not a timid one.”

Since he’ll be home until November, Holt is trying to work out a schedule at USC where he can take his remaining classes. He’s only a semester away from a degree in history, but he would have to have his final exams moved forward before returning to Miami.

As a student at USC, Holt was discovered to have a learning disability and an eye problem that made it tough for him to read. He took extra tutoring and worked with former USC and NFL player Marvin Cobb through the school’s learning resources program to become a good student.

Once thing is for certain--the lesson that Holt learned July 31 will stick with him forever.

“You always think that it can’t happen to you,” he said. “This has put a lot of things into perspective for me. I know that football is going to end someday for me.

“I always thought that the game was my entire life. It wasn’t. When I saw those X-rays, it all flashed before me. I started thinking nine-to-five.”