Believe It Or Not! -- Fun Football Facts

September 10, 2006
(Editor's Note: This story was written for the Sept. 9 St. Thomas-Loras football game program)

Believe it or not, the 2006-2007 school year has begun. It's already the second game of the Tommie football season.

Here are some fast, fun facts about St. Thomas football -- our edition of Roney's Believe It Or Nots...

.IDOL MATERIAL?: Junior kicker J.T. Koser was among the thousands at Target Center waiting to audition Friday for a spot on TV's American Idol. Koser, who sang the national anthem Sept. 2, has a background in music, voice and theatre. He has a part-time job as a radio disc jockey in his hometown of Rice Lake, Wis, and also has a 3.92 gpa in Entrepreneurship. Instead of singing "I Get a Kick Out of You," Koser had prepared songs by Billy Joel and Aerosmith and a well-known gospel hymn... Koser sang in Italy with the UST Concert Choir... Believe it or not!

.WINS & TWINS: St. Thomas' Don Roney is one of three MIAC head football coaches who is the father of twins. Roney and his wife Shannon have four sons, including 9-year-old Nate and Dan, born the year Don took the Tommie head coaching job... Bethel's 18-year head coach Steve Johnson and his wife Susan have three children, including 17-year-old twins Katie and Maddie, also born soon after Johnson started as head coach... St. Olaf's Chris Meidt is starting his fifth season after serving as Bethel assistant coach from 1995-2001. He and wife Allison have three children, including nine-year-old twins Alexander and Eveline... Believe it or not!

.1958: The last time Loras and St. Thomas played in football, 48 years ago, in the season-ending game in Dubuque, the on-campus library was nearing completion; Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson were babies; John Gagliardi was a veteran 31-year-old head coach at St. John's; and UST assistant coaches Dan Green (age 9) and Dick Rinenart (age 24) had no grey hairs... (Loras dropped football in 1960. After a decade off and a decade as a club sport, varsity football returned in 1979)... Believe it or not!

.EDINA INVASION: The Tommie football roster now includes eight players who hail from Edina... Soph Philip Hollway attended Holy Angels, but the others were Edina Hornets -- senior Josh Bettes, junior Mark O'Connell, transfers Mark Peterson, Matt Anderson, and Charles Chapman, and freshmen Nick Pooler and Rory Tucker. The older group played there under head coach Todd Olson, a former Tommie lineman... Chapman, who joined the squad this week, previously played baseball at an Arizona junior college... UST assistant coach Dan Fogelson also lives in Edina... Believe it or not!

.FAMILY TREE: Tommie starting fullback Don Jaeger
of Elk River is following a family tradition. His grandfather, Minneapolis native Don Jaeger, played on the 1950 Tommie team as an offensive guard and wore #32... Believe it or not!

.TECHNOLOGY: Two upcoming Tommie road games will be available for viewing live on your computer via videocasts -- Sept. 16 at Gustavus and Nov. 4 at Hamline. (Check UST's
athletic website -- www.stthomas.edu/tommies -- for links to access the games)... Believe it or not!

.FAMILY TREE, PART 2: Tommie sophomore DE Andrew Pafko was named after his great uncle, baseball star Andy Pafko. The Chicago Cub outfielder played in four World Series and four all-star games, and finished with 213 homers and 976 RBI in 18 seasons in the majors (Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, Milwaukee Braves)... Believe it or not!

.4 DEGREES OF SEPARATION: Tommie junior LB Brian Maturi is the nephew of Minnesota Gopher athletics director Joel Maturi. Joel was previously a head football coach at Madison (Wis.) Edgewood High School, and among his players was a chubby lineman named Chris Farley, who later would become a Saturday Night Live cast member and star in a movie called, of course, "Tommy Boy"... Believe it or not!

.FORE: It wasn't Chris Farley, but Bill Murray (St. Paul Saints part owner) who became the world's best-known caddy in the film Caddyshack. The art of caddying is something that UST lineman Paul Lyons appreciates. Lyons spent much of his youth on the golf courses in suburban Chicago. He received a caddy scholarship and was named an Honor Caddy at the Royal Melbourne course in Long Grove, Ill... Believe it or not!

.Xs AND Os: New Tommie assistant coach Carson Walch
has an older brother in college football coaching ranks -- Travis Walch, who works one mile away as offensive coordinator at Macalester College. The former All-American players at Winona State are both quickly climbing the coaching ladder... Believe it or not!

.SUPER MEMORIES: Tommie assistant coach Jeff Schuh was a standout defensive end for the Minnesota Gophers and made All-Big 10 in 1980. Schuh later played five NFL seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and one with Green Bay. He played in the Super Bowl with the 1981 Bengals. He also was a graduate coach under Lou Holtz... Believe it or not!

.OLD KENTUCKY HOME: Those rabid St. John Vianney seminarians who don purple shirts and add so much flavor to UST games have a new hero. Ben Kessler graduated, but freshman David Jarboe is the latest seminary-football combo student. The linebacker from Owensboro, Ky., wears #62 and likely will see action today as part of a young linebacker corps... Jarboe may be the first Kentuckian ever to play Tommie football... Believe it or not!

.CLEAN CUT: Some Tommie football fans did a double take this fall when they saw a clean-cut senior Kyle Lemke. Lemke's session at the barber allowed him to donate 14 inches of his former shaggy hairdo to Locks of Love, a group which makes hair prosthetics to children with long-term medical hair loss... Believe it or not!

.CLEAN T-SHIRTS: When the Johnnies visit St. Thomas Oct. 28 for football, a new tradition will be established-- both Catholic universities will sell T-shirts that are 100% complimentary of the opposing institution.... Sorry, don't believe that!!!!

--Gene McGivern