FAREWELL TOUR

Players who will never be forgotten

By Ron Bracken

This is the first in a series of eight columns on what amounts to a farewell tour that will cross the retirement finish line on June 30. In the coming weeks, I'll share with you what I consider my favorite players, coaches, athletes, events and people from these past 41 years. There are far too many to include in one last column and probably too many even for eight.

The operative word is favorite. There is no way I'd attempt to pick a 10-best in anything because the second 10 would probably be as good as the first. So in the coming weeks, it will be about those people and events who have made indelible impressions that will leave here with me. It's purely personal and entirely subjective.

First up, those Penn State football players who occupy special branches on my memory tree, some because of their character, some because they were characters.

...

It was in the tiny hours of Jan. 2, 1986, and John Shaffer was pinned against a cyclone fence outside the Penn State locker room at the Orange Bowl.

He didn’t have to be there. In fact, some of his teammates urged him to blow off the post-game meeting with the media because they knew how it would go. There would be probing questions about his ineffective, three-interception performance that led in no small way to the 25-10 loss to Oklahoma in a game that decided the national championship. It was the first game Shaffer had lost as a starter in a career that went back to seventh grade.

What virtually none of the media pack knew was that Shaffer’s mother was in the midst of a serious medical situation at the time and he never told them. No way he wanted to have that construed as a contributing factor.

Instead, he manned up, answered the questions, even the brutal ones, and then went off into the night. I’ve never forgotten that show of courage and character and those were key ingredients in his leadership ability that helped him lead the Nittany Lions past Miami a year later.

Greg Buttle was one of the most outspoken players to ever have played for Joe Paterno. As good as he was on the field, and he held the tackles record until Paul Posluszny took it from him, he was equally as good in the postgame sessions where simple questions were given entertaining and sometimes even controversial answers. He was in his element among the media of that time and thought nothing of asking a writer to help him take off his jersey and shoulder pads after a game. Of course that was in the era when the locker room was open to the media.

Like Buttle, Trey Bauer was one of those New Jersey linebackers who always had an edge to them. And while he might not be considered one of the all-time greats at the position, he was definitely one of the all-time great quotes. He was so outspoken that in the days leading up to the 1987 Fiesta Bowl game with Miami, Penn State kept him away from the media until the last pre-game press conference because it was so concerned about what he might say in an already superheated environment. In retrospect, it was probably not a bad idea.

The thing I remember most about John Cappelletti is not his Heisman Trophy-winning senior season when he ran for over 200 yards in three of his last four games but instead, the humility he displayed all throughout his career. He was soft-spoken, which was in direct contrast to his rugged running style, quick to give his linemen credit, and was respected and generally loved by his teammates. And, like Shaffer, he kept the illness of a member of his family — brother Joey — to himself rather than have it become a focal point. His Heisman acceptance speech, in which he devoted the trophy to Joey, was one of the shining moments in Penn State football history.

John Ebersole, a defensive end on the 1968-69 teams, was a rogue, a renegade and a vastly underrated football player during his time at Penn State. There have been few players who have instilled fear in their teammates the way he did. As tailback Charlie Pittman has said, when the first offense scrimmaged the first defense, he always wanted to know where Ebersole was. It was Ebersole’s misfortune to play on a team which boasted defensive stars like fellow Altoonan Mike Reid, Steve Smear, linebackers Denny Onkotz and Jack Ham and safety Neal Smith. There just wasn’t enough publicity to go around. On another team, he would have been the superstar.

Speaking of Smear, there have been few more humble players on Paterno’s teams. He played defensive tackle at 225 pounds, which was somewhat small even in 1968 and ‘69, but he teamed with Reid to give the Nittany Lions one of their all-time great tackle tandems. The fact that he was elected a co-captain as a junior speaks volumes about the respect he had from his teammates.

Pozluszny fits the mold of those earlier greats who coupled great ability with a healthy dose of integrity and class. He may have been comfortable with the media but you always sensed that he’d prefer that the spotlight be focused elsewhere. The great ones are like that in most cases.

Few of the players I’ve dealt with over these years embodied that integrity and class more than the Suhey brothers. Larry, Paul and Matt, for as good as they were, always humbly accepted praise, usually deflecting it toward others. They were confident but never cocky, a trait they undoubtedly picked up from their father, Steve, with whom I had the chance to spend a number of afternoons in the Beaver Stadium stands watching scrimmages and learning more about the game than I could have in a classroom.

Jack Ham was another great one who let his actions speak for themselves. And even now, as a Pro Football Hall of Famer, he’s the same friendly, self-effacing guy I knew when he was blocking punts and playing linebacker, never too full of himself to stop and sau chat when our paths cross in the press box.

And lastly, because there has to be an end to this soon, my all-time favorite Nittany Lion is Matt Millen. The thing I always liked and admired about him was that he was his own man from the time he showed up as a precocious freshman. He answered questions honestly, said things he knew would probably get him crossways with Paterno but that he felt needed said, and was at the same time a humble kid from Hokendaqua who wasn’t afraid to ask for a ride from the practice field to the dining hall or wherever he was going. He was comfortable in his own skin, unafraid and unassuming. I’ve never met anyone like him.

Next week: My favorite Penn State football games.

Ron Bracken is sports editor at the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4641 or rbracken@centredaily.com.