Gridiron Underground by James R. Wallen

Author:James R. Wallen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2019-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

Dave Buchanan went to John Muir High School, which had switched in 1954 from a junior college to a full four-year high school. The most famous student to ever wander the school halls was none other than Jackie Robinson, who went on from John Muir to attend UCLA. In the years that Buchanan attended John Muir — he graduated in 1967 — the black students drew inspiration from the knowledge that the first Black American to play Major League Baseball graduated from their school.

“We wanted to live up to those expectations that he laid out,” Buchanan told me over the phone from his home in Pasadena.

Buchanan, a running back, played college football with the Arizona State Sun Devils and was named the Western Athletic Conference’s offensive player of the year in 1969. He went undrafted in the 1971 NFL draft and, instead, he signed as a free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals.

“What happened with the Bengals is I went all the way through to the last cut. And the running back coach came in to see me and said, ‘Dave, we’re going to put you on waivers. But don’t go anywhere. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have your negotiation rights in the CFL. But don’t leave.’”

Buchanan paused in his narrative to admit that this was just the beginning of his problems in professional football, revolving around the business side of the game, which would be a recurring theme in the narrative arc of his professional career. But back to the running back coach and his pitch.

“We’re going to put you on waivers so that when we get down to the proper roster level — and a team claims you off waivers — we’re going to claim you right back. We’re going to dangle you out there and dangle you back, dangle you out there, dangle you back. And then teams will say, ‘Well, they’re just going to keep doing that. And then we’re gonna put you on the practice squad [or taxi squad …]’” and that’s when Dave Buchanan had heard enough. “I said, ‘I’m a better ballplayer than that’ and I told him, ‘You know what? I’m going to leave. I’m going to Canada and I’m going to make All-Pro and then I’m going to come back.’ But what I didn’t realize is once you leave, it’s very difficult to come back to the National Football League.”

And that’s how he found himself in Hamilton, where he saw limited action over the course of nine games, rushing for 213 yards on sixty-two carries and catching eight passes for another fifty-six yards. But with the 1972 arrival of Jerry Williams — a coach that Buchanan called “a genius” — he forged a career year, rushing for 1,163 yards on 263 carries, and a further 275 yards receiving for nearly 1,500 yards in total offence. And there’s one man in particular that he credited with the turnaround in his performance.

“Chuck [Ealey] was so dynamic it was like he’d always been our starting quarterback. I mean for a rookie or kid to come in there.

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