Our friends from the "Left Coast" happened to be in the Midwest recently, a gathering of their clan of sorts in Illinois. So Sally and I made arrangements to meet up for dinner with Mild Bill and Tina in Milton, saving them some windshield time in the process.
This got me thinking about the pride of defunct Milton College (which closed it's doors in 1982), quarterback Dave Kreig, one of two Milton College alumni to ever make it to the NFL. (The other, in case you're wondering, is Dave Kraayeveld, who played defensive end and defensive tackle for Seattle in 1978.)
Kreig of Iola, Wisconsin (and D.C. Everest High School, Schofield), made Seattle as an undrafted free agent. He spent 12 of his 19 NFL seasons with the Seahawks (and is part of their Ring of Honor). He also played with Kansas City, Detroit, Arizona, Chicago and Tennessee, finishing his career with 261 touchdowns, over 38,000 yards and leading the way to 98 wins.
As a college freshman in 1976, he entered a game in mop-up duty and completed four passes, three for touchdowns. He graduated in 1980 -- which brings me to "the rest of the story".
As a sportswriter in the Fox Valley, then with the Neenah-Menasha office of the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, I covered a lot of sports, and athletes, in the two cities. I got to be pretty close with several of the Menasha High School guys, from football to basketball to baseball. Was sorta adopted by several of them, and we remain friends years (and years!) later.
Anyhow, we're in Milton. I'm thinking of the college and Kreig and then it seemed to me that one of the Menasha guys, Randy "Raps" Ropella started off at Milton College before finishing at my alma mater, UW-Oshkosh.
So I reached out to Raps on facebook. Lo and behold, I was right. In fact, Raps wrote "1979 season Milton College. (I) started the last game of his (Kreig's) career at center. So I had his hands on my butt to end his college career. You still have a great memory. (I) left for UW-O 1980-81-82 seasons."
No comments:
Post a Comment