Sports

Summer Olympics 2004

Rising above

His biological father is in prison, but Jimmy Baxter has chosen a different path for his own life. The former USF basketball player never gets into trouble. He is a loving husband and father. And he puts himself in position to make it into the olympics in the high jump.

By PETE YOUNG
Published July 6, 2004

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[Times photos: Chris Zuppa]

USF track athlete Jimmy Baxter has overcome adversity to become a standout athlete competing in the high jump at the U.S. trials.

	Jimmy Baxter's 23-month-old daughter Jadaja tugs at his hand during a family picnic Saturday. He is a husband and father of two girls.

Jimmie Walker completed a five-year prison term in 1980 with a newfound conviction to live an honest, clean life.

He had committed a stream of burglaries as a youth, and authorities said he graduated to armed robberies fueled in part by drug use. Now age 28, Walker had gone through a rehabilitation program that helped cut his 10-year sentence in half.

He was a free man again.

It would last less than two months.

Accused of several more armed robberies - restaurants, pharmacies, service stations - and convicted of two, Walker was sentenced to life plus 90 years.

In those fleeting two months away from prison, however, Walker conceived his only child. But by the time Jimmy Baxter was born, his father had been found guilty by a jury and tagged a habitual offender by Pinellas Circuit Judge Robert Beach.

Walker was incarcerated, for good.

* * *

Jimmy Baxter, world-class high jumper, extends his arm and lifts his hand, spacing his thumb and index finger about 2 inches apart.

He peers through the opening between them.

"That's the difference between 7-5 and 7-7," Baxter says. "That's it, right there. Two inches. That's all. Olympics, or no Olympics."

Two inches. His world might hinge on such a minute distance.

Baxter, 23, is an explosive, 6-foot-5, 210-pound former South Florida basketball standout. He has a double helping of talent plus a pinch of charisma and swagger.

His coach at USF, Greg Thiel, says Baxter is perhaps the fastest and most powerful jumper in the nation; they have shortened his approach to the bar to bridle his speed. Those who know him say his overconfident veneer masks competitive anxiety: He talks a lot to settle his nerves.

If Baxter clears 7-7 next week at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento, Calif., his life could be in for a drastic, uplifting change.

His best in competition is 7-5, and it earned him third at the NCAA Championships in June. But 7-5 might not be enough at the trials.

In 2000 it would not have done it. Charles Austin won the trials that year by jumping 7-71/4. Three were tied behind him at 7-51/4. Two joined Austin on the Olympic team based on fewest misses.

Baxter has been working out relentlessly at 9 a.m., five days a week, at USF, away from his family. His wife, Monica (they were married May 29), and their two daughters have been in Fort Lauderdale, where Monica, a 2002 USF graduate, teaches third grade.

Baxter is taking the final course he needs to graduate while honing his high jumping under Thiel's guidance and the unforgiving Florida sun.

"I'm doing whatever it takes to get over that bar," Baxter said.

The men's high jump preliminaries are July 15, the final is on the last day of the trials, July 18. Baxter and Thiel think 7-7 punches Baxter's ticket to Athens, and perhaps his ticket to a financial windfall through endorsements and appearance fees at track meets in Europe.

If track and the Olympics don't pan out, he will pursue a pro career in basketball. But first, the Olympic trials.

Baxter knows how it will go down.

"7-7, 7-7 and 7-6 with the fewest misses," Baxter said. "Those are the guys going to Greece. The rest are going home saying, "woulda, coulda, shoulda.' "

* * *

Eula Baxter, 42, has raised four boys in some of St. Petersburg's roughest neighborhoods.

A single mom working blue-collar jobs - she works in housekeeping at St. Anthony's Hospital - her family has lived mostly in the Jordan Park and Childs Park areas, and they now reside on 27th Avenue S.

"We struggled living in the projects," said Jimmy Baxter, Eula's oldest son. "It was hard. Lights and water getting cut off all the time. It was my mom and her four boys, so if anything ever happened, it was on her.

"I'd see other kids with brand new this or brand new that, but we always had a roof over our heads, we always stayed clean, had clothes."

Eula's grit and guidance have inspired her eldest. He honors her in a pair of tattoos on each upper arm.

"She struggled with it so much," Baxter said. "She didn't struggle just for me to mess it up."

Nonetheless, statistics say children whose fathers are in prison are much more susceptible to becoming juvenile delinquents and winding up in jail.

Baxter's father has been behind bars for most his life, yet Baxter has no criminal record.

His father never made it to high school, yet Baxter, a 2000 Boca Ciega alum, is poised to graduate from college next month with a dual degree in criminology and Africana studies.

"It's amazing," said his grandmother, Bassie Walker. "He never got in trouble. He always was focused."

The Walker family helped create an environment that kept Baxter from straying.

"They came to my wedding, they come to games, they always have been there," Baxter said.

Baxter's "father" also played a key role.

"Anthony Dials has been in my life since Day 1," Baxter said. "He's not my stepfather, he's my father, the only father I know.

"He introduced me to church, he bought me my first Big Wheel, my first bicycle - you know what I mean? When things were getting bad in the 'hood, I could go to his house and stay there."

Dials, who had a relationship with Eula Baxter, stepped in where Jimmie Walker could not - and never stepped out.

"That's who's been there through thick and thin, through all his sports, through all his pain, through 23 years with no gap," said Eula Baxter, who ran track at Gibbs High. "Jimmy could not only count on him, but that's who helped me raise him."

"He knew that I wasn't his son," Baxter said, "but the way he embraced the situation was farfetched. God put him in my life, without a doubt."

* * *

Jimmie Walker, a.k.a. DC# 023356, is incarcerated at Florida State Prison in Raiford, about 35 minutes north of Gainesville.

Slender, graying and bearing a passing resemblance to his son, Walker, 53, has bounced among at least six prisons by his count. When a reporter visited Thursday, he was genial and talkative about his son, who he hasn't seen in years but has monitored through his relatives.

"A lot of times adversity turns into a blessing, depending on the character of the person," said Walker, hands cuffed, speaking through a glass partition. "Jimmy was in a lot of adversity, that's for sure.

"He was responsible, helping to take care of his younger brothers. His danger years were in Jordan Park. That place was infested with drugs. Infested. He had his share of adversities. He overcame it all."

Baxter visited Walker semi-regularly until about age 11, when Baxter said his interest waned and Walker said he feared becoming an anti-role model.

"It can take just one negative experience to change your whole life around," Walker said. "I would tell him how (my path) is to be avoided at all costs."

Walker said he has seen his son once since then, when Jimmy was 16 or 17. Baxter doesn't remember it.

About eight months ago Walker said his prisoner status was downgraded due to a disciplinary matter, so he is allowed fewer visitors and no direct contact. He hopes his son visits again soon, and he wants to meet his new daughter-in-law, but not until his status has been upgraded.

Baxter said he is amenable to visiting his father this year.

"I want to be able to touch my son, to hug him," Walker said. "I want to just hang out and let him know how proud I am."

Walker has loosely followed his son's athletic exploits through newspaper clippings sent by his mother, Bassie. He is allowed to watch TV a few days a week, and he hopes to be watching July 18, when NBC airs the trials live from 7 to 9 p.m.

"I pray things turn out for him," Walker said. "At this point, he has exceeded my wildest dreams, my wildest imagination. I'm just proud. Sometimes I think about it and I cry."

Walker is asked if he knows about the time in December 2002, when Baxter earned national acclaim for rescuing two trapped motorists at night in a rainstorm on I-275. He knows all about it.

"I think about the times I was a negative impact on the community," Walker said. "He has rectified some of my wrongs."

* * *

The scene: Saturday afternoon, Independence Day weekend, Lakeview Park in south St. Petersburg along the edge of Lake Maggiore.

About 25 to 30 people are gathered for a cookout. Baxter is immersed in family from both sides. Two grills sizzle with barbecued ribs and hot dogs. Pepsi, beer and fruit-flavored sodas wash down the macaroni and cheese and collard greens.

The skies briefly threaten but the rain holds off. It is a picture-perfect day.

Baxter's mom is there, as are the Walkers, numerous other relatives, his wife, Monica, and their younger daughter, Jadaja, who turns 2 on July 24.

His wife and daughters (Jamilia turns 3 on July 27) are with Baxter in Tampa until July 13, when they all fly to Sacramento.

Monica's teacher salary has kept them afloat while Baxter has been a scholarship athlete and student. Now, he is eager to parlay his talent into a comfortable living that provides for his family.

"I can't go to the clubs and do the things that people my age do," Baxter said. "I can't stay out late and drink and smoke and do those things that bring you down, because my kids and my wife look at me as the head of the household. I can't let them down. They look at me as the provider, and since that's the case, I can't let them down."

Baxter eats a little and shares stories with his cousins, but Jadaja grabs most of his attention.

He cradles her in his muscular arms, calls for her when she strays too far and walks her to the playground area to ride the swings and the slides.

[Last modified July 6, 2004, 09:25:23]

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