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I see from the paper this morning that Roger Wehrli (pronounced liked much like whirly), was just voted to the NFL Hall of Fame. That won't mean much to most of you, but it means a lot to me. Wehrli not only played for St. Louis when I when I was living there, he was one of the biggest stars at the university I attended when I was in school. Since he played defense and most newspaper and TV reporters only care about offense that is saying a lot in itself. At school he was on special teams as well as defense for a year and led the nation in yards per punt return. The thing I remember most about his pro career happened before his first season actually started. A guy named Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears was the super running back of whole league of the moment. Once Sayers got in the open field it was difficult to catch him, even with a good angle as it is called. In a preseason game between the Bears and the Cardinals, Sayers managed to break clean and looked like he was going to score easily. With Sayers at full speed, Wehrli overtook him from directly behind, and tackled him long before the goal line. Wehrli is from a very small town in Missouri. His high school was so small that they played 7-man football against other small schools because they didn't have enough boys to fill out regular 11-man teams!
I used to see Roger Wehrli on campus. He was tall and thin. He was quiet and determined looking, not a typical loud-mouthed oaf. The fellow who replaced Wehrli when he graduated was even taller and studious-looking, but was not as great a player. When I moved on to Ohio State, for a term I lived in the same building with Archie Griffin who eventually won the Heisman Trophy twice. Archie is exactly my height, which means, not very tall. But at the time he easily out weighted me by 40 pounds of muscle. Like other running backs I ran into at the time, he always had a don't-mess-with-me look as if he didn't quite trust anyone. It was a wary look not a threatening one, as if for instance, someone in the elevator was going to try to tackle him! There was another All-American I used to see quite a bit at Ohio State. Frankly, he looked too stupid to be in school there. He used to go to the bookstore with his girlfriend. She'd go in and browse. He would patiently wait for her just inside the door. Looking just like most men being reluctant to follow their girlfriends into the lingerie department, it appeared this guy didn't want to be seen looking at books or even magazines.
I used to see Roger Wehrli on campus. He was tall and thin. He was quiet and determined looking, not a typical loud-mouthed oaf. The fellow who replaced Wehrli when he graduated was even taller and studious-looking, but was not as great a player. When I moved on to Ohio State, for a term I lived in the same building with Archie Griffin who eventually won the Heisman Trophy twice. Archie is exactly my height, which means, not very tall. But at the time he easily out weighted me by 40 pounds of muscle. Like other running backs I ran into at the time, he always had a don't-mess-with-me look as if he didn't quite trust anyone. It was a wary look not a threatening one, as if for instance, someone in the elevator was going to try to tackle him! There was another All-American I used to see quite a bit at Ohio State. Frankly, he looked too stupid to be in school there. He used to go to the bookstore with his girlfriend. She'd go in and browse. He would patiently wait for her just inside the door. Looking just like most men being reluctant to follow their girlfriends into the lingerie department, it appeared this guy didn't want to be seen looking at books or even magazines.