Desmond's Detour -- From The Start, Michigan Receiver Desmond Howard Never Ran The Easy Route To Stardom, Heisman Trophy

CLEVELAND - The two-story, two-bedroom house on Stockbridge Avenue blends into the rest of the modest neighborhood. It's painted white and yellow with green trim, tucked away on the far east side of Cleveland.

Nothing seems special about it. But looks can be deceiving.

This is where Desmond Howard grew up.

His mother, Hattie Dawkins, and her husband, Floyd, still live there with his youngest brother, Jermaine Howard.

Desmond's parents, Hattie and J.D. Howard, made the most of the limited space before they were divorced seven years ago. Hattie ran a day-care nursery out of the den, which now serves as Desmond's trophy room. The four boys were crammed into one bedroom.

Jonathan and Chad, his mother's boys from a previous marriage, shared one bunk bed, and Desmond and Jermaine shared another. They were as close as brothers could be..

Jonathan, 25, is an Air Force sergeant who was a flight mechanic in the war with Iraq. Chad, 24, is a plumber in Cleveland. Jermaine, 17, is an outstanding student and track-and-field runner at Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph.

And there's Desmond, the All-American receiver from Michigan. He won the Heisman Trophy with 85 percent of the first-place votes, the most ever, and on New Year's Day he'll put his rare talents on display against Washington in the Rose Bowl.

He makes it look so easy - the 93-yard punt return against Ohio State, that touchdown catch against Notre Dame - that it's also easy to see only the flash and overlook the substance.

"My favorite Desmond play is one nobody else probably remembers," Cam Cameron, the receiver coach at Michigan, said last summer.

"It was two years ago, and Greg McMurtry caught a square-in route while Desmond was running a post pattern.

"He saw the catch and threw his body into one guy, knocking him over. Then he knocked over another guy, and Greg dropped the ball. Desmond ran up and grabbed it away from the defender."

Enough said.

His parents spent a recent Sunday afternoon driving around Cleveland with a reporter, retracing Desmond's athletic trail. J.D. recalled how practices ran long and into the dark at St. Joe's, with cold winds whipping off Lake Erie. Getting to practice was a chore in itself. Desmond drove his bike with the banana seat two miles each way down some mean streets to practice each night with St. Tim's, a CYO team for eighth- and ninth-graders.

"I could have just walked down the street and played with another team," Desmond said. "But I wanted to play for the best, and St. Tim's was the Michigan of pee-wee leagues."

John F. Kennedy High School was another short walk away, but while Desmond was at Whitney Young Junior High he spotted St. Joseph players entering a gym one night in blazers and ties.

J.D. remembered the moment: "Desmond said, `Daddy, that's where I want to go.' "

Desmond took the long road, the one less traveled.

"I learned the value of sacrifice," Desmond said. "I had to cut loose friends to go to St. Joe's and wake up at 5:30 a.m. You have to sacrifice to be the best and have a plan."

His parents saw to that.

"It started right from the start," said J.D. "Hattie was on iron pills when Desmond was conceived in Montreal. That made him strong from the beginning.

"We fed the boy goat's milk and guinea meat - that's meat from a young chicken - and eating the right things was important to his development."

Likewise, proper support. Desmond loves that his parents, though no longer married, come together for him so often because of football. They openly praise one another for the job each did with him.

"Coming from a family that breaks up does not dictate that you will become a juvenile delinquent," Desmond said. "J.D. and my mother both stressed that you must take responsibility for yourself."

And they took continued responsibility for motivating the children. Desmond was sent on class trips to France and Sweden, and if that meant driving a car with more than 100,000 miles . . . well, sacrifice was a two-way street.

"I owe everything to both of them," Desmond said. "I get my humanitarian qualities from my mom. My love of children came from working with her day-care kids. The competitiveness comes from my father. J.D. is an extremist - a competitor who believes you start what you finish."

J.D. lights up a room when he enters and can make you smile quicker than his son. But he also has a fire inside. Looks can be deceiving.

"I always tell Desmond to get that education because I did not get much," he said.

"That's why I've told Desmond he does not have to go out this year for the pros. You can never spend enough time in school."

Howard will graduate in May, but aspires to a post-graduate degree in sociology. He repeatedly has said he will stay for his final season of eligibility in 1992.

J.D. hopes to send Desmond on a Caribbean cruise to weigh all the options in early January.

Desmond always got his work done first at Gracemount Elementary, and became a fidgety disturbance waiting for the rest to catch up. That was remedied by putting him in enriched courses and placing him in an honors program at Whitney Young. They learned not to question his ambition, but his size always caused doubts.

At 5 feet 9, 176 pounds, he is the smallest player on the Michigan team.

Looks can be deceiving.

Desmond's size was first tested at Gracemount. He played there with his older brothers and their friends on a 30-yard long patch of grass. The out-of-bounds markers were the school wall and a sidewalk, and iron bars two feet off the ground surrounded the field. It was part obstacle course, part football.

"Desmond scored more touchdowns than all the big guys," Jermaine said, "and they would say, `We're gonna get you, Dez!' "

One day they tried to take a touchdown away from Desmond, and he punched Chad in the mouth before running. He streaked down 161st Street for three blocks to Stockbridge and made a quick right to his front steps.

"And that's why that boy got so fast; he had to run away from us and the concrete sidelines," Jonathan said.

Desmond laughed and said, "Hey, give me a head start and it's over."

J.D. used to point to the thugs on the street corners and tell his boys, "That's their education right there, learning to sell drugs. And all they will ever get for it is that fancy car. You will never be there, and years from now they will still be right there."

Now when Desmond returns home, everyone points at him. The neighbors tell their children, "Look at Desmond Howard. Look at what you could become."

Young fans and old friends kept ringing the doorbell to pose with him and ask for autographs. He smiled and made a fuss over each one.

"We went to the car wash," Hattie said, "and I looked at him and said, `Desmond, aren't you tired of this?' And he said, `No, Mom. I'm having the time of my life.' "

MR. TOUCHDOWN

Desmond Howard led the nation in touchdowns with 23 - 19 receiving, two rushing, one kickoff return and one punt return. A look at each touchdown:

TD DESCRIPTION

MICHIGAN 35, BOSTON COLLEGE 13

1. 19-yard pass from Elvis Grbac .

2. 93-yard kickoff return .

3. 8-yard pass from Grbac .

4. 19-yard pass from Grbac .

MICHIGAN 24, NOTRE DAME 14 .

5. 29-yard run off a reverse .

6. 25-yard pass from Grbac .

.

FLORIDA STATE 51, MICHIGAN 31 .

7. 13-yard pass from Grbac .

8. 42-yard pass from Grbac .

. MICHIGAN 43, IOWA 24 .

9. 20-yard pass from Grbac . 10. 2-yard pass from Grbac .

. MICHIGAN 45, MICHIGAN ST. 28 . 11. 7-yard pass from Grbac . 12. 12-yard pass from Grbac .

. MICHIGAN 24, INDIANA 16 . 13. 4-yard pass from Grbac . 14. 6-yard pass from Grbac . 15. 4-yard pass from Grbac .

MICHIGAN 52, MINNESOTA 6 . 16. 65-yard pass from Grbac . 17. 41-yard pass from Grbac .

MICHIGAN 42, PURDUE 0 . 18. 47-yard pass from Grbac . 19. 17-yard pass from Grbac .

MICHIGAN 59, NORTHWESTERN 14 . 20. 64-yard pass from Grbac .

. MICHIGAN 20, ILLINOIS 0 . 21. 1-yard pass from Grbac . 22. 15-yard run off reverse .

MICHIGAN 31, OHIO STATE 3 . 23. 93-yard punt return .