‘Gives me chills’: Clay Cundiff follows grandfather Ed Kriwiel’s footsteps in Chicago
There’s a good chance Clay Cundiff felt a tingling sensation Saturday when he stepped foot on Soldier Field in Chicago.
Cundiff, a Wichita native and 2019 Bishop Carroll graduate, is a sophomore tight end for the No. 18-ranked Wisconsin football team, which played No. 12-ranked Notre Dame that morning in a marquee college football game broadcast on Fox.
This was the game Cundiff was eagerly anticipating since the summer, not because of the opponent, but because of the location.
Soldier Field is the same place his grandfather, the legendary Kapaun Mt. Carmel football coach Ed Kriwiel, threw the game-winning touchdown pass to lead his public school team to a win over the top Catholic team to win the Chicago City Championship on Dec. 2, 1944 in front of some 65,000 fans.
Nearly 77 years later, Kriwiel’s grandson played on the same field.
“My mom (Sarah Kriwiel) talks about that story a lot, about how he won the championship and was named the MVP and got carried off the field,” Cundiff said about his grandfather, who died in 2007. “It’s a really big thing for our family. So me getting to play (at Soldier Field), I know he’ll be watching from above with a big smile on his face.”
Ed Kriwiel leads Tilden Tech to Chicago championship
Bring up Kriwiel’s name in Kansas and he’s recognized as arguably the greatest high school football coach in the state’s history. He is the City League’s all-time wins leader and in seven different Kansas halls of fame, mostly because of the two-decade dynasty he built at Kapaun Mt. Carmel that led to nine state championships in football. In the spring, when he was Kapaun’s golf coach, he won 20 more state titles.
But long before his fame as Kapaun’s head man, Kriwiel was a star football player himself in Chicago for a public school called Tilden Tech.
By his senior year, Kriwiel had become the starting quarterback on a loaded team. He shared the backfield with two future professional players in Bill Gay, who won two NCAA championships at Notre Dame, and Mike Swistowicz. Even then, Tilden Tech was considered the underdog when it defeated Fenger, 16-14, to win the City League title.
Back in those days, the winner of Chicago’s City League and Catholic League met at the end of the season for a city championship game hosted at Soldier Field that mattered more than any state title. It was called the Kelly Bowl, named after a Chicago mayor, and it drew more than 100,000 fans some years.
Sarah Kriwiel, Cundiff’s mother and Ed’s daughter, still remembers her father telling her stories about the game.
“I remember him telling us that he played in front of like 65,000 people at Soldier Field, but back then as a kid you don’t understand what that really means,” Sarah Kriwiel said. “Now I’m going to these Wisconsin games and there’s 85,000 people there, more than the Chiefs play in front of. It really puts it in perspective. It’s like, ‘Wow, that was pretty incredible for a high school game.’ But it was different times back then.”
Kriwiel became the star player in the 1944 Kelly Bowl when he perfectly lofted a deep touchdown pass to Gay in the end zone for a third-quarter touchdown that would prove to be the game-winning score in Tilden Tech’s 13-7 win over Weber High. It was the first time a Chicago public school had won the city championship in four years.
Kriwiel went on to be a star quarterback for Wichita State and win countless high school state championships. But according to his daughter, his time at Tilden Tech remained close to his heart.
“My dad would share a lot of stories about playing football back in Chicago,” Sarah Kriwiel said. “He’s in the Tilden Tech Hall of Fame and he stayed close with a lot of those guys his whole life. He would fly back to Chicago for reunions. He loved it.”
The special connection between Clay Cundiff and Ed Kriwiel
Kriwiel saw his grandson play football only one time before he died in December 2007 when Cundiff was in the first grade, but it’s a memory that Sarah Kriwiel will always cherish.
Cundiff was actually not old enough to play in the Wichita City League — the cut-off was for second-graders — but he was so much bigger than his peers that other parents believed he was older.
“He was so big, he would score all of the touchdowns,” Sarah Kriwiel said, laughing. “Just give it to Clay and let him run it in. I tried to teach him humility and tell him, ‘Don’t think you’re going to run for a touchdown every time. It’s not that easy.’”
It was no coincidence that once Cundiff found out there was a junior team called the Bears, he wanted to play for them. Cundiff says he was too young to remember, but his mother says he was adamant on playing for the Bears because his grandfather was an avid Chicago Bears fan.
So when Ed Kriwiel heard his grandson was a standout football player himself and he played for a team named the Bears, of course he wanted to come watch.
“He was getting old (81) and he was on oxygen at the time, but I picked him up and we drove out to the football field and he got to watch Clay play one football game before he died,” Sarah Kriwiel said. “It gives me chills just talking about it still.”
Cundiff wasn’t afforded much time with his grandfather, but his legacy has lived on in his life. That’s in large part to Cundiff’s mother, who has no shortage of stories about her dad who just so happened to be a legendary football figure to everyone else.
To this day, Cundiff keeps a picture of himself and his grandfather on his night stand in his bedroom.
“I don’t really remember much when I was young, but when I got older and went through high school, I had a bunch of people tell me how much of a legend he was in Wichita and how football meant everything to him,” Cundiff said. “He was a great man and a great man of character and that’s something that I strive to follow.”
Clay Cundiff ready for his shot at Wisconsin
Now in his third season at Wisconsin, Cundiff is ready to start becoming a factor for the Badgers.
After redshirting his first season and not playing in last year’s shortened season due to the coronavirus pandemic, Cundiff, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound tight end, saw his first game action and caught his first pass, an 18-yard grab, in Wisconsin’s 34-7 win over Eastern Michigan on Sept. 11.
He actually caught a touchdown pass in the game, but it was ultimately negated due to a penalty. Even though it didn’t go down in the official books, Cundiff said he hopes it’s a sign of things to come.
“Last game was the first time I’ve played a lot in a college football game and I’m hoping that will continue into this weekend,” Cundiff said. “So far, it’s been going really well up here. I love my teammates and friends and coaches and I’ve got a great circle around me. I’m planning on hopefully getting some more playing time and showing what I can do.”
In the stands, Sarah Kriwiel went from elation to devastation when her son’s touchdown was wiped off the board.
But in the days since, it’s hard not to think about how special it would be for Cundiff to catch his first collegiate touchdown pass at Soldier Field for the Badgers in a top-20 showdown.
If his number is called, Cundiff will be ready.
“Clay still calls me every Friday night and says, ‘My day will come and I’ll be ready for my chance,’” Sarah Kriwiel said. “He studies the plays. He does everything he can do to prepare himself for his chance and that’s all he can do. I think Clay still pinches himself that he has this amazing opportunity. We’re just so excited for him.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
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