THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 13, 1995 TAG: 9509130536
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Long : 116 lines
By itself, the name William Gates meant little to many of the Hampton University students assembled Tuesday around a makeshift basketball court in the Williams Student Union.
``Sounds familiar, but you'll have to refresh my memory,'' said Peter Womack, a senior.
``Ummm, who's that?'' asked Colby Turner, a junior. ``One of the Harlem Globetrotters?''
It took pairing Gates' name with the words ``Hoop Dreams,'' the critically hailed film in which he starred, to get the students' eyes sparkling in recognition.
``Oh, that William Gates!'' Womack exclaimed.
Gates chuckled when told of his relative anonymity. He can afford to. For Gates, it's no big deal if the man on the street scratches his head at the mention of his name.
Corporations, it seems, know exactly who William Gates is.
Gates visited Hampton Tuesday as host of the PowerNet '95 Apple Computer/Harlem Globetrotters Black Historical Campus Tour. The 10-stop tour uses the ``Clown Princes of Basketball'' to help introduce college students to the latest technology.
Other sponsors, including the ever-present Nike, have helped Gates establish the ``Hoop Dreams
Foundation.'' Gates plans to kick it off by providing 10 youngsters from his native Chicago $1,000 scholarships and academic counseling.
The popularity of ``Hoop Dreams'' has also made Gates a highly sought-after motivational speaker - that is, when he's not doing promotional appearances for the picture itself. There's even a book in the works, which Gates says will deal with the relationship between himself and his wife, the struggles endured by his mother and other topics he said were barely addressed in the film.
`` `Hoop Dreams' has opened up a lot of doors,'' said Gates, who expects to receive his degree in communications from Marquette University in December. ``My job is to make sure I do the right thing once I step through them.''
In Gates' case, the right thing means helping inner-city kids get the kinds of breaks he received during the making of ``Hoop Dreams'' and beyond.
``A lot of people looked out for me along the way,'' Gates said. ``It's only right that I do the same for others.''
Rather than bemoan the fact that he often went unrecognized Tuesday, Gates, 24, seemed to revel in ``being among my people.'' Decked out in baggy jeans, black tennis shoes, and a Hampton University ballcap, he looked more like one of the students than any movie star. He made no references to his own well-chronicled saga and some students no doubt left the student union without giving a thought about who was on the mike.
But as Gates later pointed out, it's not how many know you but who knows you that counts. For example, it may sound strange to hear that the 6-foot Gates, essentially a spare body for a Marquette team that didn't make the NCAA tournament last season, has an NBA tryout lined up with the expansion Toronto Raptors.
Strange until one realizes the Raptors' director of basketball operations is Isiah Thomas, like Gates a St. Joseph High School alumnus.
``He's a good friend,'' Gates said as he stroked his goatee.
Then there was the time Gates raced from an appearance on ``Oprah'' to Michael Jordan's birthday party. He stayed long enough to extend best wishes, then excused himself. Something about being a special guest at Chicago's hottest comedy club.
``And that was just one day,'' Gates said. ``A lot of people may not know me without `Hoop Dreams,' but there's quite a list of famous people who do.''
Such fame seemed out of the question 10 years ago when director Steve James, a Hampton native, approached the then-14-year-old Gates about appearing in what was designed as a 30-minute PBS documentary.
``I didn't think it was that big of a deal,'' Gates said. ``Then they came back to me and said, `We think we'd like to do a little more with this.' I was like, `That'll work.' ''
More than 400 hours of film were shot in the making of ``Hoop Dreams,'' the documentary which chronicled the struggles of would-be basketball stars Gates and Arthur Agee through high school and a year of college. Still, Gates said he had no clue of the phenomenon it would become until he attended the New York Film Festival.
``It was strange, watching my life up there, with a critic sitting beside me,'' Gates said. ``But when it ended, they gave it a standing ovation. I'm thinking, `Wow, this is New York. Tough town. Maybe we have something here.' ''
The film went on to receive universal acclaim - an inexplicable snub from the Academy Awards folks notwithstanding - while taking in millions at the box office. For Gates and Agee, however, financial rewards were slow in coming. NCAA rules prohibited the two from sharing in the film's profits while they were still playing (Agee played for Arkansas State).
Gates said he read stories by people decrying the case as yet another example of the hypocrisy rampant in big-time college sports. But while he said he believed these writers were singing the right tune, Gates and Agee refused to join the chorus.
``We knew,'' Gates said. ``We knew that down the line, we were going to get paid.
``Actually, Arthur was starting to get mad. His season ended weeks before mine. But we didn't want any problems with the NCAA, so we decided to wait until we were both finished.''
``Payday'' came March 29, or the day after Virginia Tech nipped the Golden Eagles, 65-64, for the NIT title. Checks from the ``Hoop Dreams'' book came first, followed by royalties from the in-theater and home-video take. More than 150,000 titles have been sold.
Gates declined to say exactly how much cash he's earned, but ``anything with the name `Hoop Dreams' on it, I get a cut.''
For Gates, the money has meant security for his family, which includes wife Catherine, 6-year-old daughter Alicia and William Jr., who was born the day before the NIT final. Otherwise, Gates said, little else has changed.
``Oh, we eat a lot better,'' he said with a laugh. ``But that's about it. See this watch? People think it costs big money. This watch costs $15.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
William Gates has become a sought-after speaker since appearing in
``Hoop Dreams.''
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY MOVIES
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