He went in, and, seeing Theotis passed out on the floor, Torii went into a rage, throwing fists at everyone in the room.
That night, Hunter and a friend, Basil Shabazz, a former Pine Bluff star who was a top prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals system, drove to the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
While Hunter visited a cousin in a dormitory, Shabazz fell asleep in the Explorer. Police knocked on the window and Shabazz, thinking he was being robbed, pulled a gun.
Shabazz was handcuffed, Hunter was pulled from the dorm, and a search of the car uncovered a marijuana joint and a pipe sprinkled with crack, which belonged to Theotis.
Torii was released the next morning on $2,500 bail, and charges were eventually dropped, but Shabazz was released by the Cardinals, and his athletic career was eventually cut short by a football injury at Arkansas Pine Bluff.
"Basil made some pretty bad choices," Hunter said, "but I still feel like my dad had something to do with him being released."
Hunter said Theotis, who got hooked on heroin in Vietnam, has disappeared for a week or more at least 20 times over the years. Theotis fathered three children outside his marriage, he was fired from his job in 1998, and Shirley divorced him in 1999.
"You have an understanding of where he might have been when you find out you have [half] brothers you didn't know you had," Hunter said. "But it was tough when he was missing. You'd sit at home, you couldn't do your homework, you couldn't do anything.
"After two or three weeks of searching every corner, asking a drug dealer or a friend if they've seen your dad, it dawns on you that your dad is dead."
After battling drugs and depression for decades, Theotis seems to have turned a corner. Torii moved Theotis out of Pine Bluff, buying him a townhouse in Frisco, Texas, two years ago, and Torii is convinced his dad has been clean for about 10 months.
Theotis, now 56, is at Torii's house almost every day, cooking Southern dishes, picking up 12-year-old Torii Jr. from practice and attending games, and helping him with school projects.
"I feel good, but it's hard," said Theotis, who has Torii's big grin and easy laugh. "I've got to get all the demons out of me, stay positive and take life one day at a time. But I didn't have a few demons. I had a legion of them."
Torii always thought if he made the big leagues, he could cure his father, but Theotis has been in and out of rehabilitation "at least 10 times," Hunter said, with limited results.
