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Melvin Ross was a runner; now, here comes the son

COLUMN FRY E-mail: Click here

By DARRELL FRY

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 24, 2000

TAMPA -- He is running. First to the right, then to the left, before breaking free, galloping at full speed as if he's trying to outrun the wind.

He can hear the cheers from the crowd as the yard markers pass beneath his churning feet. His heart is pounding under his jersey, his chin strap flapping in the breeze. They are screaming his name -- Go, Ross! -- as they have done throughout this unprecedented season.

When he finally is tackled -- after gobbling up another huge chunk of yardage -- he hardly acknowledges the cheers. He respectfully hands the ball to the nearest official and humbly returns to the huddle.

And that's when 61-year-old Melvin Ross, his heart still racing, sits back down in his seat, always careful not to knock over anybody's soda.

It's like that every Friday night during high school football season, when a father sitting in the stands with his football memories and a son on the field making his merge into one.

As Gaither High running back Lydell Ross has run past the Hillsborough County record for career rushing yards this season, Melvin has run stride for stride with him, gaining every one of the 4,771 yards credited to his son heading into Gaither's region semifinal tonight against Delray Beach Atlantic.

Of course Melvin has run with his son. After all, Lydell's dazzling season -- he is averaging 213 yards a game -- is all too familiar to him. It's a close copy of his prep days, when he could take a handoff to the right, cut left and almost outrun the wind.

That was back when Ross was a star running back for South Bend (Ind.) Central High and a prep All-American.

"I was more or less just like Lydell," he said. "I see myself in him, especially in his ability to cut and change directions, but he's much better than I ever was."

The elder Ross figured to go on to an equally stellar college career. He settled on Indiana University, and he was a starter right away. But one season into it, the running stopped. Ross went down with a severe knee injury.

Torn cartilage. He was looking at surgery and several months of rehab.

It was more than he could endure. He was young, after all. Football had been a blessing, but it never defined him.

So, he took himself out of the game for good. He withdrew from IU and joined the military, first the Marines and then the Air Force. Whatever dreams he had of making it big in football were left at IU.

He eventually married and had four children, three boys and a girl. The youngest son was a natural from the time he was a tyke, speedy and fearless, like his old man.

Melvin, not surprisingly, made him a running back. And on the youngest's first carry in organized pee wee football, he took a quick pitch right, raced around the end and pedaled his little 8-year-old legs as fast as he could until he reached the end zone.

How appropriate he was named after Lydell Mitchell, the former Colts and Chargers star running back from the 1970s, whom Melvin briefly met once.

And how eerie that Lydell suffered a severe injury his sophomore year -- a hyperextended toe three games into the season -- that halted his high school football entrance after he barely got through the door.

Lydell, though, wouldn't be deterred. He sacrificed that season to get healthy, running and lifting weights tirelessly in the off-season, often at the crack of dawn.

"I always wanted to be the person who stood out from the rest," Lydell said. "I wanted to put more effort into it than anyone."

Lydell came back for his junior season, lined up in the Gaither backfield and politely but forcefully asked for the ball. They gave it to him.

Again and again and again.

And, with the exception of Hillsborough High, no one has been able to catch him.

He rushed for 1,993 yards that season. This season he ripped King High for 306 yards. Trampled Wharton High for 290. And got Tampa Bay Tech for 264.

In Gaither's 10 regular-season games, Ross totaled more than 200 yards seven times. Last week, in the region quarterfinals against Boca Raton Spanish River, he was held to 199.

Entering tonight's game, he has 2,349 yards, a season county record that pushed him past Earl Reeves' career county record of 4,591.

And just think: He's only 16. "I think I inherited some of his abilities," said Lydell of his dad. "Not all of it is from him, but some of it is."

When the playoffs end for Gaither, Ross will have his pick of schools. On his short list are Florida, Ohio State, Tennessee, Notre Dame and Auburn.

Where he goes doesn't matter so much to Melvin Ross. Wherever Lydell ends up, Melvin will be there -- heart pounding, eyes blazing and still racing the wind.

And gaining on it.

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