Friday: The Recruit Who Played Six Varsity Sports

I've been in the process of writing a piece for this website about the Texas players who are expected to be selected in this year's NFL draft. I wanted to give a deeper look of just how those players were perceived as recruits.

I'll finish and post that article later this morning; it includes some hard and soft data, and it could spark a conversation that I think will prove interesting and informative.

Well, as I was researching and writing that article last night, it was announced that the University of Texas had placed another former player into the NFL Hall of Fame. Steve McMichael, who his former teammates at Texas affectionately to this day call "Bam Bam", was one of the Longhorns' most dominant defensive linemen ever and went on to be a key member of the 1985 Chicago Bears defense that many consider among the best ever.

McMichael came slightly before my time. I saw him play when I was young, but I didn't really know his back story. So I was curious.

Who was Steve McMichael as a recruit?

I found this from the Corpus Christi Caller-Times:

"Besides playing football, McMichael lettered in basketball, track and field, baseball, golf and tennis."

That's SIX varsity sports. How is that even possible? Golf and tennis?

Baseball seems to have been his second best sport. As a catcher, he was offered a minor-league deal by the St. Louis Cardinals.

**

This morning, I spoke with one of McMichael's former Texas teammates, Les Koenning, to see what I could learn.

First, the Bam Bam nickname stemmed from the old Flinstones cartoon. Like the Bam Bam in the cartoon, McMichael had "muscles everywhere" and he loved the nickname, according to Koenning.

But what about McMichael does Koenning remember the most?

"He was so dadgum tough," Koenning, who was a year below McMichael in school, said. "He was a real type of tough, tough to the core. Strong, too, and just a determination. He had a will to him. He wanted to win no matter what, he was just so competitive, strong and athletic."

Koenning called McMichael and his fellow defensive tackles Steve Massey and Bill Acker the "heart and soul" of the team.

Koennnig even laughed about one memory of McMichael that revolved around spring break. It's not a tale of debauchery that you might normally think.

While Koenning and some of the other players would go home, to the beach, or try to find a job to make some spending money during spring break, McMichael and Acker, who were both from the small south Texas town of Freer, had other plans.

McMichael went went home every spring break to the "Rattlesnake Roundup", where, you guessed it, he would try to catch rattlesnakes bare-handed.

Koenning said McMichael also wasn't much for team speeches, at least not ones from the coaches. But he recalled a time where McMichael addressed the team before a game after the coaches had left the room.

It was a pre-game speech.

"I want everybody on the kickoff team to stand up," McMichael said. They all stood, and he addressed them in front of the entire team.

"Listen here, we're gonna beat the shit out of this team. But y'all better start it right. You better go down there and knock the crap out of them or, you and me, we're gonna have a little talk about it after the game, and you're not gonna like that."

McMichael then sat down. The kickoff team, made up mostly of younger players, remained standing for a few seconds in awkward silence before sitting down.

Suffice to say, the kickoff team gave maximum effort.

**

McMichael's nickname morphed from Bam Bam at Texas to "Mongo" later in life. He was a colorful person. After the Bears, he even took a turn at pro wrestling.

Unfortunately, like so many former football players of his era, McMichael has been fighting ALS for several years. Former Texas players and friends visit him often.

But the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a fitting end for a tennis-playing defensive tackle from Freer, Texas, who was a Longhorn through and through. 

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McMichael becomes the sixth Longhorn to become a member of the Hall of Fame. He joins Earl Campbell, Bobby Layne, Tom Landry, Bobby Dillon and Tex Schramm.