Preston King

Nearly four decades after he fled to England to avoid 18 months in prison for draft evasion, Preston King met Friday with the judge who sentenced him and recently pushed for a presidential pardon on his behalf. "I think it is important for people to see that we do not detest each other," said King, who had lunch Friday at the home of retired U.S. District Judge William A. Bootle, 97. "I want to salute Judge Bootle for his strength of character."

QUARTERBACK Taylor Martinez, Corona Centennial, 6-1, 185, Sr.: In his first year in the Huskies' spread offense, the transfer passed for 2,994 yards and 28 touchdowns to lead Centennial to its first state bowl victory. Committed to Nebraska. RUNNING BACKS Offense Anthony Barr, Loyola, 6-4, 225, Jr.: Helped the Cubs rebound from consecutive losing seasons and reach the playoffs by rushing for 1,890 yards and 20 touchdowns. Rushed for more than 200 yards in four games.

It's long past time that Preston King be allowed to come home. King has spent 38 years in self-imposed exile, much of it in England, rather than serve jail time for a draft-dodging conviction. It was 1960--the height of the civil rights movement--when the Army came calling, disrupting the Georgia native's plans for a graduate education in economics. Now 63, King says he was willing to serve; all he wanted was the same respect accorded the white draftees, who were addressed as "Mister."

Forgive me, but I've found a favorite player to root for this weekend when 15 high school football championship games are played across the Southland. Preston King, 5 feet 10, 175 pounds, is a two-way starter at Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro. He's the leading candidate for Pac-5 Division player of the year even though he has no college scholarship offers.

Forgive me, but I've found a favorite player to root for this weekend when 15 high school football championship games are played across the Southland. Preston King, 5 feet 10, 175 pounds, is a two-way starter at Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro. He's the leading candidate for Pac-5 Division player of the year even though he has no college scholarship offers.

Anaheim Servite quarterback Cody Fajardo and Troy Nicolaus had just connected on a one-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter to force overtime against Lakewood in a Pac-5 Division first-round playoff game Friday night at Cerritos College. So when the Friars decided to go for the victory on a two-point conversion from the one-yard line in the extra period, they went back to the same play. Nicolaus was open again but couldn't come up with the catch and Lakewood held on for a 35-34 victory that moved the Lancers into a quarterfinal against Mission Viejo.

QUARTERBACK Taylor Martinez, Corona Centennial, 6-1, 185, Sr.: In his first year in the Huskies' spread offense, the transfer passed for 2,994 yards and 28 touchdowns to lead Centennial to its first state bowl victory. Committed to Nebraska. RUNNING BACKS Offense Anthony Barr, Loyola, 6-4, 225, Jr.: Helped the Cubs rebound from consecutive losing seasons and reach the playoffs by rushing for 1,890 yards and 20 touchdowns. Rushed for more than 200 yards in four games.

In the annals of the civil rights movement, Preston King isn't even a footnote. But to his family, he is an unfinished chapter. In 1958, when young men were still required to register for military service, the local draft board refused to extend King's deferment to pursue his education. He had been granted time to get a master's degree at the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science. But now, ready to pursue a doctorate, he was told to report for induction.

President Clinton met Friday with Preston King, the Georgia man he pardoned for draft evasion 39 years after King fled to England. King, 63, a political science professor at Lancaster University in England, came to the White House and sat in on Clinton's taping of his weekly radio address. He told reporters later that he thanked Clinton for pardoning him. "I was delighted to go in and meet with him," King said. "I don't want to comment further on it, simply to say that I'm grateful."

President Clinton on Monday pardoned a black American who refused military service and fled overseas after his local draft board, in a racial snub, refused to call him "mister." Preston King, a professor at the University of Lancaster in Britain and father of British Parliament member Oona King, was granted a "full and unconditional pardon" on his draft-evasion conviction, allowing him to return to the U.S. for his brother's funeral this week, the White House said.

Anaheim Servite quarterback Cody Fajardo and Troy Nicolaus had just connected on a one-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter to force overtime against Lakewood in a Pac-5 Division first-round playoff game Friday night at Cerritos College. So when the Friars decided to go for the victory on a two-point conversion from the one-yard line in the extra period, they went back to the same play. Nicolaus was open again but couldn't come up with the catch and Lakewood held on for a 35-34 victory that moved the Lancers into a quarterfinal against Mission Viejo.

Nearly four decades after he fled to England to avoid 18 months in prison for draft evasion, Preston King met Friday with the judge who sentenced him and recently pushed for a presidential pardon on his behalf. "I think it is important for people to see that we do not detest each other," said King, who had lunch Friday at the home of retired U.S. District Judge William A. Bootle, 97. "I want to salute Judge Bootle for his strength of character."

It's long past time that Preston King be allowed to come home. King has spent 38 years in self-imposed exile, much of it in England, rather than serve jail time for a draft-dodging conviction. It was 1960--the height of the civil rights movement--when the Army came calling, disrupting the Georgia native's plans for a graduate education in economics. Now 63, King says he was willing to serve; all he wanted was the same respect accorded the white draftees, who were addressed as "Mister."

In the annals of the civil rights movement, Preston King isn't even a footnote. But to his family, he is an unfinished chapter. In 1958, when young men were still required to register for military service, the local draft board refused to extend King's deferment to pursue his education. He had been granted time to get a master's degree at the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science. But now, ready to pursue a doctorate, he was told to report for induction.

A black man who refused induction into the Army in the 1960s because the all-white draft board wouldn't address him as "mister" returned to the United States for the first time in 39 years Wednesday after receiving a presidential pardon. With tears streaming down his face, Preston King greeted 20 members of his family--some of whom he had never met--at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. King, 63, fled his hometown of Albany, Ga., in 1961 after being sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In the South El Monte factory of B.I.G. Enterprises Inc., sales Vice President Dave King keeps a photo showing heavy damage to Guam's international airport by Typhoon Paka. Among the few structures to emerge unscathed from the fierce 1997 storm: three of the company's concrete-anchored cashier's booths. At B.I.G. Enterprises, the mission is to build security booths strong enough to resist nature's violence as well as man's.