Alexander: Former UCLA DB Oscar Edwards is still giving back

As a high school football player at J.W. North in Riverside and then a college defensive back at UCLA, enough time ago that it wasn't always considered a non-P.C. expression, Oscar Edwards went by the nickname "Dr. Death." In other words, when he struck you, you felt it for a great, long while.

Times have changed, a lot. 5 years later on, Edwards actually does have a doctorate, in company administration from Grand Canyon University, after receiving his bachelor's in Economics and an M.B.A. from UCLA. He is a coach to small company owners, teaches classes at Long Beach City College and L.A. City College, and is an enthusiastic supporter for entrepreneurship and a believer in storytelling to not just spread out a message but to specify one's purpose in life.

He's paying it forward in a variety of methods, and though he's a homeowner of L.A. County he has actually preserved his ties to the Inland Empire. Edwards belongs to a committee that grants an annual scholarship named after longtime North principal Horace Jackson, to go to a finishing senior citizen who shows a dedication to education and inclusivity.

This year's $3,000 scholarship will be presented Thursday to Oscar Alvarez, who will be a first-generation college student in his household and ultimately plans to study engineering or a STEM-related program. He will initially attend Riverside City College, and a specific aspect of this award is that it's intended to be used at a neighborhood college as a suggestion of the outsized if forgotten role that two-year organizations play in the college system.

" The primary focus was that much of us (on the scholarship committee)-- in fact everyone-- went to neighborhood college," stated Edwards, who played football at Riverside City College prior to transferring to UCLA, where he bet Dick Vermeil's Rose Bowl champs in 1975 and was a captain and a Kodak and AP All-America protective back on Terry Donahue's first Bruins team in '76.

" There was a sense that the entire transfer experience at community college impacted all of us in a way that we felt that was an important bridge for kids who possibly were trending, had possible, but perhaps weren't the leading trainees but had actually possible if provided a chance to be and focus grounded," he said.

" That's practically what we felt community college provided for everybody. And it enabled us to sort of get a more powerful identity academically, and likewise in regards to what our objectives were for the future, versus going directly to the big U and being a freshman on a huge school and really not knowing. Community college offers you the possibility to arrange your things a lot better."

Navigating the college system is not easy economically, even for those who choose community college. A lot of trainees with capacity need to work to help pay for school, and the concept of offering "bridge funding," as Edwards put it, is developed to ease a few of that burden.

" I understand now, raising my own (3) kids and seeing how, from various settings and class and the groups I've been on, everyone does not have access to the very same level of resources," he said. "So it does take a neighborhood spillover impact to lift (those) in some method who represent potential and who have some goals. And that's actually what we're working with, those young people (for whom) this may just be a difference-maker, in regards to them getting that rise and having enough to be inspired and to go further."

If such a scholarship program encourages high school trainees to think about that pathway, it might likewise motivate those who have already taken that course to focus on it and help pay it forward also.

Strong neighborhood colleges impact a great deal of individuals in their surrounding communities. While Riverside's current enrollment is over 20,000, it's a safe bet that a large percentage of the 325,000 who currently live in the city have been touched by the school, whether it's having actually gone to RCC themselves, had kids who knew or participated in the school somebody who had.

And perhaps Riverside is an extreme example, but I suspect that neighborhood colleges throughout Southern California-- Orange Coast, El Camino, Long Beach, Pasadena and the rest-- connect to their surrounding communities in methods we do not even understand.

" We're simply doing the little that we're doing at J.W. North," Edwards said. "But the neighborhood colleges, if they had resources to sort of aid simply do the same thing we're doing, (could) help those kids that show some promise and need that bridge of financial support to keep them concentrated on that course.

" Many of them are originating from economically marginalized families. You understand, the option is, ‘‘ Okay, do I feed myself today and my household or, you know, do I not attempt and consume to put some money towards going to school?' … … Either they have that assistance or they do not. And after that if they do not, although they have some promise, then they decrease a different path."

And yes, the question needed to be asked during our discussions: How does the erstwhile Dr. Death feel about football now?

" I'm simply pleased that I was blessed to leave it early enough to be around, due to the fact that a lot of people I know are not around," he stated. " I'm appreciative. I made a decision."

After playing at UCLA, Edwards signed as an undrafted totally free agent with the Rams, got injured, got released and returned to school. Years later, his earliest boy focused on basketball, and his younger kid used up football in his senior year at Bishop Montgomery High, playing wide receiver, and went to LA Harbor prior to a concussion drove him out of the sport 4 video games in.

" I feel bad in some cases when I go out and speak," he said. "I didn't know the damage at the time, however I know that I assisted promote that attack because I was doing it. As I talked to kids later on I stated, ‘‘ You don't want to do what I did.'

" I delight in the video game, I like the game, but I believe there's a much better method to play the game, a more secure way. And kids and their moms and dads who are worried should examine those methods to learn how to play better."

jalexander@scng.com