BIG MAN ON CAMPUS

SPINNING THE BOTTLE

Stanley Drayton was eight years old when his oldest brother, Dale, left home to go to Kent State in 1979. "I wish I was born first," he told his mother, "because I want to go to college now. I want to be somebody."

When Stanley finally went off to school nine years later, he chose Allegheny College in Meadvilie, Pa. As a junior in 1991, the 5'9", 170-pound tailback rushed for a Division Ill-record 27 touchdowns. Last Saturday, in a 32-0 defeat of Case Western Reserve, he ran for two more, bringing his career total to 40. Says Allegheny coach Ken O'Keefe, "Stan doesn't think anything more of himself than he did the first day he walked in here."

Perhaps Drayton is so humble because he has been humbled so often. At Whitney Young Junior High in Cleveland, he was only an alternate on the 4x100-meter relay team. The anchor? Desmond Howard. Then, at an invitational track meet at Notre Dame two years ago, Drayton was intimidated by the sprinter in the lane to his right: Raghib (the Rocket) Ismail. After that race a coach branded Drayton the Bottle Rocket, and it has stuck.

Off the field Drayton has soared. He is vice-president of a campus group called the Advancement of Black Culture, and this summer he clerked at a law firm in Washington, D.C. Thirteen years after uttering his wish, Drayton is somebody.

PHOTO

JOHN D. HANLON

This TD against Case was the 39th of Drayton's career.