1972 is over 35 years ago calendar time but it is at least 100 years in NFL time. My, how things have changed.

In 1972 I was the last pick on the 13th round of the NFL draft selected by the World Champion Dallas Cowboys. I had just turned 20 years old and was about to graduate cum laude as an independent scholar from what we believed was the top small liberal arts college in the world, Amherst College. Few players make it from Division III, where we play eight games a season and no spring games, to the NFL. I wanted to be drafted by an NFL team.

I thought it was possible but settled on the notion that it was not probable as the draft approached. Former Amherst teammate Doug Swift was now a starter for the Miami Dolphins and now goes down in history as a starter on that famous 17-0 team; and they won their Super Bowl unlike this year’s Patriots.

Swifty said to me "Fugett you can make it in this league". Was he being kind, I wondered? Oh I would wonder often late into the night.
Maybe just maybe I would tell myself as I fell to sleep dreaming about scoring touchdowns in the National Football League.
More to Come…