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  Bob Lutz  

Shocker football has hero in Long

In 1963, Bob Long caught nine touchdown passes for the University of Wichita, a record that may not be broken.

Especially if the Shockers don't bring back football.

Long, though, didn't come to WU to play with a pigskin. In fact, he didn't play football until his senior year. He came to Wichita to play basketball as part of a pipeline from McKeesport, Pa., that included Ron Heller, Lanny Van Eman and Jim McNerney.

Long's story about how he became a Shocker football player is a great one. It's also interesting to hear him talk about playing for Ralph Miller and Vince Lombardi, two coaching icons.

Long, 67, is being inducted this weekend into the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame, Western Chapter. When I received the e-mail from a publicist notifying me of that news, I nearly discarded it.

Great. Old Shocker going into a Hall of Fame. Good for him.

But I decided to give Long a call and I'm glad I did. He's one of the most successful Shocker football players -- even though he played just one season.

And he wouldn't have played that season had it not been for the watchful eyes of a couple of WU assistant coaches who saw him tearing up an intramural game one afternoon while the Shocker football team was working out on an adjacent field.

"I was a really good intramural football player," Long said. "Our basketball team at the time entered an intramural team into the league there at the university. We played flag football and Dave Stallworth was our quarterback."

Stallworth, according to Long, could heave the football a long way. In that particular game, Long remembers catching seven touchdown passes.

"It was easy for me," he said.

Eventually, football coach Chelo Huerta convinced Long to spend one season playing football. Long parlayed that into a seven-year NFL career that included a Super Bowl victory for the Green Bay Packers in 1967.

Long, who played sparingly for the basketball team during a hoops career that saw him score 25 points, didn't get off the bench for Wichita during its season-opening 33-13 win over Arizona State in 1963. On the plane trip home, he wondered whether football was really for him.

"I knew I didn't want to just sit on the bench," he said. "Some friends of mine on the team talked me into staying around for another week."

During a 22-16 loss to Boston College, Long did get off the bench, but only in the fourth quarter.

"In the third game, I caught two touchdown passes," Long said. "I didn't really know how to block at all, but I was a pretty quick learner. I was a basketball player, so I had good hands and I was pretty tall."

Long originally thought he was headed for the San Diego Chargers after his season at WU, but when he went to San Diego to work out, the Chargers were looking at another receiver, Lance Alworth, who became one of the game's greats.

"I knew that might be pretty tough," Long said.

So, as a 21-year-old kid, he had the gumption to call Packers general manager Pat Peppler to gauge his interest. Long knew Green Bay's receiving corps was relatively old, so he thought he might have a chance to crack the roster.

Turned out, he did. He played in 35 games for the Packers during his four seasons, then finished his career with stops in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Washington. He had his best season for the Redskins, and Lombardi, in 1969, catching 48 passes for 533 yards.

Long was raised by a tough father, Bernie, who worked in the western Pennsylvania steel mills. His high school coach, Don Early, was the same. No nonsense.

So Long was prepared for Miller, then Wichita's basketball coach, who ruled with an iron fist. And he had no trouble playing for Lombardi, another demanding disciplinarian.

"Ralph Miller, I want to tell you, there was nobody tougher than Ralph Miller," Long said. "It was his way or the highway and he demanded that.

"Lombardi was probably the greatest motivator of all-time," Long said. "He took average players and turned them into all-pros and Hall of Famers. He was the greatest motivator I ever met, but sometimes he motivated by fear.

"There were times he got so mad at players, he couldn't remember their names. Not with the Bart Starrs and Ray Nitschkes, but with some others. When he called you 'Mister,' you knew you were in trouble."

Lombardi forced players to compete with injuries that probably should have kept them out of games, Long said.

"And, even in the cold of Green Bay, he never allowed us to wear gloves. Never," Long said.

Long has lived in Brookfield, Wis., since his days with the Packers. He developed real estate and has raised more than $2.5 million for various charities. He had a stroke 18 years ago, but said his health now is good.

"My goal is to live to be my football number, 80," he said. "I have had an unbelievable life and career. And I still have a great affection for the people in Wichita and what they did for me. Make sure you write that, OK?"

Eagle sports columnist Bob Lutz co-hosts "Sports Daily" from 9-11 a.m. weekdays on KFH, 1240-AM and 98.7-FM. Reach him at 316-268-6597 or blutz@wichitaeagle.com.