To Chase a Dream by Paul "Whitey" Kapsalis & Ted Gregory

Author:Paul "Whitey" Kapsalis & Ted Gregory [Kapsalis, Paul "Whitey"]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782553878
Publisher: Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK) Ltd.
Published: 2015-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6:

THE RUINS OF REDEMPTION

Walking up the hill for my first-ever career start. Flanked by JJ (#11) and Stoyo (#10) with Kenny Godat, I was ready to go.

Of all the big-time athletes who passed through IU — Isiah Thomas, Mark Spitz, Antwaan Randle El, and Lou Saban, to name a few — one of the bigger deals was Pete Stoyanovich. A three-sport high school athlete out of Dearborn, Michigan, Pete chose Indiana because he wanted to play football and soccer. The Hoosiers football coach at the time, Bill Mallory, and Coach Yeagley agreed to let him kick for the football team and play forward for the soccer team.

As pro football fans know, Pete went on to become one of the NFL’s most accurate and consistent place kickers in a 12-year career with the Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs, and St. Louis Rams.

But before all that, he came to Bloomington as a high school senior for a recruiting visit. Although he didn’t stay with Stolly and me, I met Pete and liked him right away, as I’m sure many people did. Picture a young Tom Cruise, an outgoing, super charismatic guy with an enormous amount of talent and drive. Pete and I barely spoke on that visit, but I saw him again a few months later at a soccer tournament, after he’d committed to IU, and told him how much I was looking forward to having him join the team. He acknowledged that he was pretty excited, too, and we chatted for a couple minutes. That was about it.

That upcoming year, Pete’s first, was my lost season in a lot of ways, except that he and I started a friendship that would overcome — and oddly enough, strengthen because of — devastating, unimaginable loss.

One of the barriers to our friendship was his schedule, which was more than frantic, especially for a college freshman. His daily routine was to practice with the football team for a couple hours, then hop on a golf cart and zip over to the soccer field to practice with us for about two hours. His weekends were a blur of airplane and bus rides. He’d regularly play for the football team on Saturday afternoon, then catch a red-eye plane flight or bus ride to meet the soccer team — usually in the wee hours of Sunday morning — and play for us that afternoon. Then, it would be back to his dorm room and a return to the weekday grind of classes, practice, and studies.

Pete’s was such a rare existence that Sports Illustrated stopped on campus for a feature about him. “Often, when I get back to my room on a Sunday night,” he told the magazine in 1985, “I think, ‘What am I doing?’ My weekends go by just like that. I don’t understand why I’m doing this, but as time goes by I’m getting more and more used to it. And, it’s a good feeling to know I can handle it.”

By the next season, Pete had adapted much better.

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