Offbeat Greedy Tries to Fit In at UCLA : Football: Former Servite linebacker, who has played several positions for Bruins, wants to stay in one spot.

LOS ANGELES —  A muscular 6 feet 3 1/2 and 250 pounds, with recently dyed blond hair to go with a two- or three-day-old beard, Garrett Greedy doesn’t exactly go unnoticed when strolling around UCLA.

But when he sits on a campus bench, spitting chewing tobacco into a cup, it’s like an open-air theater. People definitely look.

And that’s all fine for Greedy, a former Servite High linebacker now in his third football season with the Bruins after being redshirted his freshman year. In his own, somewhat off-center world, marching to the beat of a different drum is the natural thing to do.

“I’ve always been different. I don’t mind it,” said Greedy, 21. “The things I do are totally normal to me.”

Calling Greedy unconventional is a sizable understatement, like saying the Dream Team is just another good basketball team. His escapades--not necessarily chronologically or by degree of difficulty--include:

--Jumping from the roof of a three-story apartment building with two of his buddies into an eight-foot-deep swimming pool.

“My two friends jumped off in their underwear,” Greedy said. “I did it in the nude.”

--Skateboarding downhill on a street in the middle of the night while another guy filmed the ride. It almost turned into a “Rescue 911” video.

“I hit a rock or something and went flying and got skinned up pretty bad,” Greedy said.

--Throwing up before every game.

“When I do it, I know I’m ready to play. The sick guys on the team like it. They get psyched up,” Greedy said. “I used to race (BMX) bikes, and I used to throw up before the big races. My dad would rush behind me and take my helmet off so I could throw up.”

Once on the football field, Greedy is far from nervous. There, UCLA opponents have to contend with his kamikaze style of play, a style that has made Greedy a valuable commodity with the Bruins despite changing defensive positions three consecutive seasons.

When spring practices began this year, Greedy figured he’d play outside linebacker. That’s where he started 10 games for UCLA last season after playing five at nose guard in 1990. But on the first day of workouts, Greedy found himself in yet another position--defensive tackle.

The Bruins apparently were overloaded at outside linebacker and thought they could use help on the defensive line, which features several freshmen and sophomores in backup roles to projected starters Mike Chalenski, a senior defensive end; junior Bruce Walker, a junior nose guard, and Matt Werner, a junior defensive tackle from Esperanza. So Greedy was reintroduced to the three-point stance.

“Garrett did a good job for us at outside linebacker,” said Bob Field, UCLA’s defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach. “Going into spring practice, we felt we were stacked a little too deep at that position. Our decision to move Garrett was to try to get our talent distributed evenly on our team. . . . He’s a versatile player. He has limitations like all players do, but his toughness and willingness to work hard are his main assets.”

Despite the accolades, the switch initially didn’t sit well with Greedy.

“It was a shock,” said Greedy, a history major who plans to become a high school teacher and football coach if he doesn’t get a shot in pro football. “I had a bad spring because I had to reprogram my mind (to a new position). But I’ve been thinking about it a lot since then. I’m just going to go out there and play with reckless abandon. I’ve seen where bad attitudes have hurt teams before, and I’m not going to get an attitude here because I’ve been moved.”

Still, Greedy said he was worried at first about how his family and friends would react. He feared they would think less of him. Once they offered their support and help in working through the psychological jolt, Greedy said he began shifting gears emotionally.

“I had a lot of people who helped me put things in perspective,” Greedy said. “It all comes down to being happy with yourself.”

That’s one feeling Greedy enjoyed frequently as one of the state’s top high school linebackers at Servite in the late 1980s.

In 1988, Greedy wrapped up his prep career by helping the Friars win the Angelus League title. He had 100 tackles--27 unassisted--and averaged 1.5 sacks. He also played fullback and cleared the way for tailback Derek Brown, who set a county single-season rushing record with 2,301 yards. Brown is now at Nebraska.

Greedy and Brown contributed heavily to the Servite football fortunes, particularly in the school’s heated rivalry against powerful Encino Crespi in nonleague and playoff games, and against league nemesis Mater Dei.

“Mater Dei had no chance against us,” Greedy said. “We beat them every year except my freshman year. It was a great rivalry, but we basically kicked their butts every year.”

At the time, Crespi was led by running back Russell White, now a potential Heisman Trophy candidate at Cal. Greedy remembers those games well.

“The game I remember most was the Crespi game in the playoffs my junior year. I broke my left wrist tackling Russell White with three minutes left in the game. When I went out, they scored on that drive and won the game. I felt it was my fault.”

Crespi won that 1987 Southern Section Big-Five Conference quarterfinal, 45-38, but Servite won the two meetings between the teams in 1988--a 35-20 nonleague victory and a 41-21 rout in the Division I playoff quarterfinals.

Those were the days when Greedy sported either a shaved head, as Servite football players still do, or had a Mohawk “just to be different.” He still tinkers with his hair, sometimes catching friends and relatives by surprise. But it’s something Greedy said his parents, Joel and Connie, who live in Anaheim, have grown accustomed to--almost.

“I colored my hair a few weeks ago,” Greedy said. “That’s just something I wanted to do. It scared my girlfriend. She didn’t recognize me. My mom did a double take when she saw me. My dad didn’t say anything. He figured he didn’t want to get into it with me.”

After Servite, Greedy took his talent and off-the-wall personality to Westwood, hoping to establish himself as a college player, with an aggressive style patterned after Dick Butkus, the former Chicago Bear All-Pro linebacker. Greedy was redshirted in 1989 before getting some playing time the following season at nose guard. At outside linebacker last year, Greedy made 17 tackles, three in a 24-21 victory over USC.

But now Greedy is listed behind Werner in the Bruin defensive depth chart and he is trying to keep a positive outlook. All he wants, he says, is a chance to play regularly at one spot and to help UCLA reach the Rose Bowl.

“I’d like to play football in the NFL after college,” Greedy said. “But I’ve been moved around so many times in college, it’s hard for (scouts) to figure out where I can play. I’d like to play inside linebacker because that’s like second nature to me.

“But I’m not going to whine. My sister Jill has cerebral palsy, and I’ve worked at the Special Olympics. When I get down, I always think about those kids who are handicapped or have cancer and it helps me put things into focus. That’s why I feel fortunate to be able to play college football.”