Jason Wright beams at the thought of Rashidi Wheeler’s patented locker room dance and Kevin Lawrence suppresses a soft giggle at the memory of his former roommate crushing an empty extra-large pizza box onto the top of an overflowing garbage can.

And the time Wheeler wanted to know if Lawrence would throw down a 20-cent contribution to pick up a roll of toilet paper for the apartment.

“You just couldn’t believe how bogus he was at times,” Lawrence said. “It wasn’t even humanly possible.”

While scandal has enveloped the Northwestern athletic department since Wheeler’s Aug. 3 death on the football practice field, the senior’s teammates are starting the 2001 campaign remembering the details of Wheeler’s life that were lost in a barrage of finger-pointing, legal rhetoric and media scrutiny.

“I remember him just acting a fool in the locker room in Kenosha,” said Wright, recalling the team’s annual trips to Wisconsin for training camp.

That’s the sophomore wide receiver’s first memory of Wheeler — at least in person. The pair grew up in Southern California and suited up for rival high schools, Wheeler for Damien High School in Ontario and Wright for nearby Diamond Bar.

Wright’s first encounter with the man behind the two-time MVP, all-conference, all-region reputation came before a practice last year at preseason training camp in Kenosha.

Wheeler, then a junior, was performing his trademark dance, a crouching, shoulder-dipping, fist-pumping move that was later imitated by teammate Kevin Bentley at Wheeler’s Aug. 7 memorial service.

Wheeler’s antics made him approachable for his younger teammate, and he quickly became a mentor to Wright.

“I was scared of most people and intimidated by most people on the team,” Wright said. “But he was one of those people who just had a friendly smile. I wasn’t afraid to approach him at all.”

Wright contributed to Wheeler’s memorial, a service held at a packed Alice Millar Chapel only four days after the 22-year-old collapsed and died during a preseason conditioning drill.

Nestled in between readings of Wheeler’s poetry and testimonies given by coaches and teammates, Wright sang an emotional rendition of “His Eye Is On the Sparrow.”

Lawrence, also a speaker at the memorial service, remembers the Wheeler he lived with away from the stadium — the Wheeler who liked anime, played video games and always had to win at Monopoly.

“It was always hard dealing with ‘Shidi’ in Monopoly because he always wanted some bogus deal,” Lawrence said. “He was always making sure he was getting more out of it than you.”

Wheeler’s teammates don’t talk much about the strong safety as he was on the field. Caught up in the memories of his fellow SoCal boy’s smile, Wright paused for a moment, realizing that there is rare mention of Wheeler’s 88 tackles last season, third best on the team.

His quiet leadership in the defensive backfield was described by Lawrence as the team’s “X-factor.”

Bentley said: “He was definitely a big part of our success last year, and he was definitely going to be a big part of this year.”

But his teammates miss Wheeler more as a friend than as a fellow player.

“It was exactly like they lost a brother,” coach Randy Walker said. “That’s exactly what it was. Words can’t describe the grief that we all share together.”

UNWANTED DISTRACTION

An invitation to reminisce about Wheeler’s smile seems like a welcome request for some players, many of whom will be asked to chronicle the painful events surrounding Wheeler’s death in court.

Wheeler’s mother, Linda Will, filed a wrongful death suit against NU and a handful of athletic officials three weeks after her son’s death. The case, filed in the Cook County Circuit Court, names Walker, Athletic Director Rick Taylor, and five other football trainers, coaches and officials.

The suit, which does not specify damages, states that the defendants “carelessly and negligently” failed to treat Wheeler, an asthmatic, when he collapsed on the field. The suit also states that Walker and his staff conducted a “mandatory” football practice although NCAA rules prohibit coaches from enforcing attendance.

Will hopes that her case will not only effect change at NU, but also prevent similar deaths at other schools. Although her cause has attracted a national spotlight, the attention may prove an unwanted distraction for Wheeler’s teammates.

Wheeler’s death has been given even more national attention by the arrival of Johnnie Cochran and Chicago partner James Montgomery as Will’s legal counsel, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson as the family spokesman.

The new additions have brought plenty of charged rhetoric.

Before the announcement of the lawsuit, Jackson said the NU football program “tried to skirt the law and the death cop caught them.”

And explaining the reasons behind the lawsuit, Montgomery added that NU acted with “a lack of care and negligence that absolutely contributed to and caused this young man’s death.”

Rapid developments in the case — evidence that Wheeler may have taken a dietary supplement banned by the NCAA and the surprising announcement that the practice was videotaped — have almost trickled to a halt in the last two weeks. But the worst lies ahead for the university.

NU is in the process of preparing an answer to the filed complaint, said Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations. But neither party can continue the process of bringing the suit to trial until Will and ex-husband George Wheeler determine who controls Wheeler’s estate.

A hearing is scheduled in Cook County Circuit Court for October to determine who will be the sole administrator.

Cubbage would not comment on whether NU would settle the case out of court. He also added that the university would release no details of its own internal investigation into Wheeler’s death until the review has been completed.