Escape to notoriety

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 10:05 a.m.

Hunkie Cooper was talking about his hometown of Palestine, Texas, a small city of about 18,000 located about 100 miles southeast of Dallas.

"It's a working-class town with a Wal-Mart superstore and five maximum security prisons," Cooper said.

"In the neighborhood we grew up in, you either were in school, in jail or in the graveyard."

Cooper, who stayed in school, became a star in the Arena Football League with the Arizona Rattlers. The former UNLV running back recently moved into a new home in North Las Vegas and also has done color commentary for Rebel football radio broadcasts.

But in perhaps his most impressive performance since leaving Palestine, Cooper has spent the past two years molding the life of arguably the most recruited football prospect to come out of Nevada in the last decade.

Cheyenne High School defensive lineman Lynn McGruder, who took recruiting trips to Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and UNLV, moved into Cooper's home following his sophomore year at Palestine. McGruder is Cooper's first cousin.

McGruder left behind six siblings as well as a mother and stepfather. But the 6-2, 290-pounder, who recently was selected a second team USA Today All-American and became the first Nevada player to be voted to the Sun's Super 11 football team, knew it was something he had to do.

"Mentally, it was one of the biggest challenges of my life, leaving all my family behind like that," McGruder said. "But it was time to step up and become a man and work on the future. If I hadn't done it, I probably wouldn't be here talking with you right now."

Las Vegas, despite its "Sin City" stereotype, has a whole lot more going for it than Palestine.

"I've never really been homesick," McGruder said. "I know what's home. I got friends who are dead, friends who are locked up in the pen. If I had stayed there, I would probably be locked up in the pen now. Or dead. In that town, you're either an athlete or a drug dealer."

Thanks in large part to Cooper's strict tutelage, it's hard to believe that McGruder could be anything but a model citizen.

Despite his huge, broad shoulders and NFL-like body, he speaks softly with a big smile and frequently answers questions "yes sir" or "no sir." He goes to church three times a week and even holds lunchtime prayer sessions with close friend and football teammate Deon Ned at Cheyenne. He shunned the girls and parties on his recruiting trips so he could go off alone and pray about his college decision.

"He's a person who has never been drunk or high in his life," Cooper says.

But McGruder said that if he had remained in Palestine, things might not have worked out that way.

"I was the problem child of the family," he says matter-of-factly. "I was the one my mother would have to come down to school and get. I was 14, 15 years old and still getting a whuppin'. I'd go out and get the biggest switch off the tree. After a while, I said, 'Enough.' "

Cooper, who goes back to his hometown each summer to help run sports clinics, made a deal with McGruder. Make the honor roll your last semester of your sophomore year and you can move to Las Vegas.

"And he did it," Cooper said.

"It was right in the middle of the (Arena Football League) season. But I had made a deal with him. I had Sunday and Monday off during the week, so I drove from Phoenix (to Palestine) on a Sunday and brought him back the next day to live with me."

That's a round trip of about 2,100 miles.

Cooper became McGruder's legal guardian with the blessing of Lynn's mother, Lenice Mims, who runs a beauty salon in Palestine. Lynn's late step-dad is Melvin "Cadillac" Woodruth. His father is Lynn McGruder Sr., a professional gospel singer with a group called "Communications" that tours Texas.

"We're a close-knit family," Cooper said. "They trusted me completely."

"It was very tough, but it was done to better Lynn," Mims said.

"There were problems with the football team here, as well as with the environment. It's a hard decision to let your son go off like that, but I knew it was the right decision."

Cooper made McGruder do chores, go to class and eat the right foods. Thanks in part to diet and hard workouts with Cooper, McGruder went from a flabby 318 at the start of his junior year to around 290 pounds his senior year.

"He raised my level in every aspect of my life," McGruder said of Cooper.

"All he really asked me to do was to make grades. He took me into his house when he really didn't know what kind of person I was. I mean, I could have been a thief or something. But he gave me his love. There's no way I could ever pay him back for all he's done for me."

His mother naturally feels the same way.

"I can't thank nothing but God for someone like Hunkie and all that he's done," Mims says.

"Lynn is a great kid, a respectful kid," Cooper said. "Whoever gets him will be getting a good person."

Not to mention a pretty fair football player.

"I think he will be about 85 percent better next year in college than he was this year," Cooper said. "He runs a 4.56 40, benches close to 400 pounds and can take on the double-team."

Cooper, who installed an extra phone line just to accommodate all the recruiting calls for McGruder, estimates he was receiving "about 150 calls" a night during the peak of recruiting. "And he easily got over 10,000 letters from schools," he said.

Said McGruder: "I never expected anything like this. I knew if I could stay healthy that I probably get to go somewhere to play. But I never imagined the way things have turned out. I've been very fortunate."