[01/09/01] LORMAN Twenty-five years after recruiting him, Alcorn State finally landed Johnie Cooks.

Cooks, 42, will be a major player in the school’s athletic department, where he will be a special assistant to the athletic director for fund-raising and marketing.

“Everybody from my high school went here,” Cooks said after touring the campus Monday, his first day on the job.

“I was the first one to break that trend,” he added with a chuckle.

The former Mississippi State star from Leland is expected to become the full-time athletic director when interim AD Marino Casem retires.

“I recruited him very heavily,” Casem said from his home in Baton Rouge on Monday. “He was a great player. Everyone was after him, but I thought we had some special networks in the Delta … .”

Cooks, who was the second pick overall by the Baltimore Colts in the 1982 draft, was a three-time all-Southeastern Conference linebacker at MSU and went on to play in the NFL for 10 years. He spent six years with the Colts, then three with the New York Giants, where he was on the 1990 Super Bowl championship team.

“We’ve never had someone from the athletic department in visibility to touch base with the surrounding communities,” Casem said. “His name surfaced as one who could open doors, and create new opportunities for fund-raising.”

University public relations director Ralph Payne said today that details of Cooks’ job have not been worked out. He will have to be approved by the College Board when it meets Jan. 17-18.

Cooks said working with Casem, who was AD at Southern University while it ruled the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Alcorn’s football coach for 22 years, will help him learn about the SWAC.

“I’m really going to pick his brain,” Cooks said.

Alcorn hasn’t had a full-time AD since Cardell Jones resigned from the position in 1995. He was fired as football coach the next year.

Cooks was the assistant AD of administration at MSU for seven years, then left after the 1999 football season to be a legislative liaison for Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.

But government work wasn’t as fulfilling as working with young athletes.

“I like dealing with young people,” Cooks said. “I think I can make a difference to a lot of young people here.”

Cooks said he grew up an Alcorn fan, but his schedule didn’t allow him to see games until this year. He started coming to Lorman to watch the Braves after he heard from a state senator that there may be an administrative opening in the school’s athletic department.

The team’s 0-11 finish didn’t change his mind. Neither did alumni organizations’ threats to stage protests and cut off funds when it was announced head coach Johnny Thomas would be retained.

In fact, those problems helped create the opportunity and made Cooks pursue the job harder.

“It made me more determined,” Cooks said of the Braves’ first winless season in 42 years. “This is the first job I ever really went after.

“It’s a challenge, but I can handle it. I did fund-raising at Mississippi State during cloudy times. They wouldn’t need me if everything was going great.”

Cooks pointed out that Alcorn won five SWAC championships in 1999-2000.

“But football causes so much friction,” he said. “We’re going to have to get Alcorn back to being a big family.”

Cooks said he isn’t sure where he will live. His family wife Maggie, daughter Joni, 16, and son Johnie Jr., 12, will stay in Starkville until June.

Cooks wants to help get Alcorn football back to the level it was under Casem, who led the Braves to four black national championships and five SWAC titles.

“There is so much potential here,” Cooks said. “It’s just a beautiful campus. The growth is unlimited. It’s a gold mine that nobody seems to know about.

“It’s a top program; we just have to let the state know.”

One of the ways Cooks wants to help achieve that is by recruiting the best athletes “black and white,” he said.

“We’ve got to look at the white athletes harder,” he said. “People say it’s hard to recruit white athletes to a SWAC school … but I say, you’ve got to ask.'”