CHAPTER FIVE1981

Prologue/Jan. 1981 – Got; to meet Vince Dooley of Georgia when he was named the 1981 Kodak Football Coach of the Year

GEORGIA’S VINCE DOOLEY NAMED KODAK COACH OF THE YEAR

Miami Beach, FL – The heck with Snow White, Cinderella … even the Ugly Duckling. Vince Dooley, head football coach at the University of Georgia is living a fairy tale he can hardly believe.

Today, Dooley was named the choice of his colleagues in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) as Kodak Coach of the Year in the University Division.

This culminates a season in which:1. A once-in-a-coach’s-lifetime, freshmen by the

name of Hershel Walker shows up at Georgia and runs, through, under and over all opposition.

2. Georgia meets eleven regular season opponents and emerges as the nation’s only undefeated, untied major college team with the help of a 93-yard pass play with only seconds remaining in one of the games.

3. Mighty Notre Dame is conquered in the Sugar Bowl thanks to two of Notre Dame’s players forgetting to field a punt on their own two-yard line.

4. Georgia is a consensus choice as national football champions.

So, the coach of he year award, sponsored by Eastman Kodak Company since 1960 and announced at the AFCA’s annual convention currently underway here, goes to Dooley at the pinnacle of his career as coach of the Bulldogs.

Indeed, Dooley has been around for a while. He’s the fourth ranking member of the “Survivor’s Club” in NCAA Division I.

With the exception of Alabama’s Bear Bryant (23 years); Houston’s Bill Yeoman (19 years); and Tennessee State’s John Merritt (18 years); Dooley has been at his present school longer than any coach in Division I … 17 years.

While standing the test of time is one measure of success, winning is another … and that Dooley has done very well holding an overall record of 130-56-6. He has been in 12 bowl games in 17 years.

Dooley’s talents as an organizer and administrator were recognized when he was also named Georgia’s athletic director in July 1979.

He is currently chairman of the AFCA Ethics Committee, member of the Board of Trustees of the AFCA and chairman of the Georgia Easter Seals.

A football star at Auburn University, Dooley graduated in 1954 and then spent two years in the Marines. He rejoined his alma mater in 1956 under his old chief, Ralph Jordan. In 1964, Dooley was named head football coach at Georgia.

Dooley will receive his award, tonight at the annual Kodak coach of the Year Banquet from Kenneth M. Mason, vice president and general manager of Kodak’s Motion Picture and Audio Visual Markets Division.

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Epilogue – Herschel Walker played for Dooley, two more years, winning the Heisman Trophy as a junior in 1982 and then moving on to the pros. It was tough duty putting Walker’s name in the lineup every week, but someone had to do it.

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Prologue/Mar. 1981 – Danny Ainge of Brigham Young won the Eastman Award that went to the top college basketball player of the year as selected by the NABC.

We started a tradition for this award … announcing the winner at a press conference at the famed “21 Club” Restaurant in New York.

What made the Ainge press conference a bit different is that he brought his young daughter Ashlee along. That led to a ton of media coverage. I’ve enclosed a photograph below showing Ainge and his daughter at the press conference.

BRIGHAM YOUNG’S DANNY AINGE NAMED EASTMAN AWARD WINNER BY COACHES

New York, NY – Maybe Danny Ainge ought to reconsider his decision to concentrate on professional baseball.

Ainge, age 22, became a hot basketball property today when he was named winner of the 1981 Eastman Award, given each year to the top collegiate basketball player, as selected by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

Announcement came at an 11:00 a.m. news conference at the famed “21 Club” here.

A super smooth, high-scoring guard, Ainge has been the guiding force that has propelled Brigham Young University’s (BYU) into the national limelight over the last four years. And in his spare time, the Eugene, OR, native has been spending his summers playing professional baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays and its AAA farm Club, the Syracuse Chiefs.

Winning the Eastman Award, combined with his great play in the current NCAA Tournament, will lead many to wonder how he would do in pro basketball.

Ainge and Ashlee cutting basketball-oriented cake

Epilogue – Ainge ended up concentrating on basketball spending many years with the Boston Celtics before moving on to several other NBA teams. He is currently serving as President of Basketball Operations for the Celtics.

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Prologue/May. 1981 – Occasionally, I still got to do some non-sports stuff. The news release below about Kodak Park shows what a massive company Kodak was in 1981. Keep in mind the company had another huge manufacturing operation at Kodak Elmgrove.

KODAK PARK TOUR HAS CHANGED A LOT OVER THE YEARS

Rochester, NY – What do Walt Disney, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Ed Sullivan, Harold Lloyd and Congressman Barber Conable have in common?

They are among the celebrities that have been taken on a tour of Eastman Kodak Company’s largest manufacturing division … Kodak Park … by Clayton C. Alt.

Alt recently retired from Kodak after more than 32 years of handling tours at Kodak Park.

“We started out as a two-person department with each of us taking a few people on short walking tours of the Park,” Alt said. “Now, there is a staff of five full-time people and an auxiliary staff of 30 part-time people who take some 40,000 people through the Park each year.”

Alt has seen Kodak Park grow from 400 to 2,000 acres while gaining its own intra-plant railroad and fire department in his 32 years as tour guide and then tour director.

Today, there are more than 195 buildings at Kodak Park.

“Now we use buses to get around,” said Alt.Anther change in the tour is the use of a 10-minute

multi-media presentation at the beginning to give visitors some idea of the enormous scope of Kodak Park and the products manufactured there.

“I’ve found the celebrities to be very down to earth, very gracious and quite impressed with Kodak Park,” Alt said.

“Walt Disney came here after having spent some 40 years making movies using lots of our film. He was quite surprised to see what effort it took to create top-quality movie film.”

Alt and his tour staff have handled many, many questions over the years.

“Gee, do you know so and so who works here?”“No, but then there’s 30,000 of us working here at

present and unfortunately we don’t know everybody.”“Can we take a roll of film from the packaging

line?”“Sorry, every roll is tabulated by a production ticket

and we’d mess things up real good if we took one.”“Can I buy a roll of film?”“We sell all of our film though dealers. We can give

you a list of several here in Rochester.”“Do you have blind people in your dark areas?”“There are blind people who work at Kodak but it is

not common for them to work in our dark areas. Actually, these areas appear pitch black to you, but those working in them can see to some degree. For safety reasons, some sight in those dark areas is important.”

And so on.

Over 32 years, some people on the tours have been lost. In every case they were found … usually so absorbed in a particular operation they simply neglected to move on when the group moved on.

What are Alt’s retirement plans?“Pretty much stay around Webster, Keuka Lake and

Rochester. Our family is located here. My wife and I will do some traveling, of course.”

You can bet as they travel, they will be taking in some industrial tours.

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Epilogue – Kodak Park, of course, has a lot fewer buildings today since several were spectacularly blown to bits and removed. It has morphed from Kodak Park into Eastman Business Park open to many other companies but still run by Kodak.---------------------------------------------------------

Prologue/July. 1981 – Carl Byoir And Associates was one of the advertising/public relations agencies I worked with over the years. We, meaning Kodak, were such an important account for them they would assign one, sometimes two people, to maintain a full-time presence in our department.

Bob McEwen was one of the Byoir people who had an office at Corporate Communications. He later left Byoir and joined Kodak. Then he went on to even greater heights. More on that later.

Anyhow, McEwen was a Georgetown graduate and was a huge Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Dodgers fan.

That was too much for a Syracuse University graduate like me who was a Buffalo Bills and New York Yankees fan.

So, I got hold of some Byoir letterhead and created a memo to McEwen from Bob Woods, the top honcho at the time at Byoir.

SUBJECT: YOUR JOB!

I am sending this to you by express mail because I feel it is extremely critical it reach you as soon as possible.

The point I want to emphasize … UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES are you to mention you are a Cleveland Browns, Los Angele Dodger, Georgetown Hoot fan while you are working at Kodak.

If word were to leak out that you rooted for even one of these teams, no less all three, I’m afraid it would have a devastating impact on our relationship with Kodak.

It will be extremely difficult to be a closet rooter. I’m afraid you must.

Henceforth you will root for the Rochester Red Wings, Rochester Flash, Rochester Amerks and Syracuse Orange.

I hate to be nasty about this, but the Kodak account is just too important. God, for me to miss the Corporate Communications picnic would mean life isn’t worth living.

Therefore, I must warn you that failure to change your public rooting habits will lead to immediate reassignment to Chicago where you would report to Charlene. Charlene knows how to take care of people who root for the wrong teams.

She has been known to spend 24 non-stop hours, or as long as it takes, in a closed conference room talking about the teams you should be rooting for.

So, indeed, things could be worse. Can you imagine publically having to root for the Bears and Cubs?

I’m not worried. I know this memo will get to you in plenty of time.

By the way when is the Corporate Communications’ picnic this year?

Epilogue – As I said, McEwen went on to much bigger and better things.

He has held senior management positions at three of the world’s leading public relations firms and counseled scores of Fortune 100 companies. A playwright, writer, editor, reporter and basketball coach he has spent a lot of time in Chicago … rooting, I presume, for the Bears and Cubs!---------------------------------------------------------

Prologue/July. 1981 – About this time the Brighton-Pittsford Post … an outstanding weekly newspaper under the guidance of owner Andy Wolfe and sports editor Tom Murphy … began publishing some of my trip reports.

Here is the opening explanation of the material that follows:

“Fairport resident James M. Albright recently spent a week at the National Sports Festival III in Syracuse for Eastman Kodak Company. He handles sports information for Kodak. This is Albright’s account of that week.

A PEEK AT A WEEK AT THE NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL

Syracuse, NY – The lithe young man glided so smoothly over the ice you could not hear the normal scratching sound that mere mortals emit when they skate.

“Swooosh” … he whips by and then suddenly he is in he air. One, two, three turns of a slight body and then a perfect landing, hands held high as if posing the question … how was that.

The crowd reacts with a roar.The young man is U.S. and world figure skating

champion Scott Hamilton and he is in the midst of what he later terms, “the best performance of my life.”

And it took place last week just a hop, skip and triple salchow away at the National Sports Festival in Syracuse.

I was there as part of the crew sent down by Eastman Kodak Company. Kodak was “Official Photographic Consultant” to the National Sports Festival.”

I went down to work with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) publicity people as well as the some 500 media on hand.

My luggage was barely settled in my room at the Hotel Syracuse when I had to whip off to a reception for coaches and officials being hosted by Kodak.

The reception was put together under the guidance of Charlie Harris, Kodak’s director for sports promotions. Kodak’s Pete Todd was busily engaged in making sure the potted plants, chairs and all the other paraphernalia were in the right spots when I arrived.

Many of those attending the reception were good Kodak customers and we wanted things to go right.

They did.

As tired as I felt late that evening, I had to place it in perspective after talking with Jim Marchiony, sports information director (SID) at Georgetown University.

The USOC had brought in 21 SIDs to help with the expected huge media turnout. They were among some of the hardest working individuals at the festival going 10-12 hours a day, if not longer.

After introductions, I suggested to Marchiony he looked tired.

“Well, it’s been about 14 hours today,” he said, “and yesterday was about 20 hours since I had to fly back to Washington to handle a press conference about the Georgetown basketball team moving to a new facility to play basketball this winter.”

I had to admit working 34 out of a possible 48 hours had to be a bit rugged.

But to be sure, there will be someone back at Georgetown who will say to Marchiony upon his return, “Man, what a racket you’ve got … getting to goof off up there in Syracuse at the Sports Festival.”

The next day, I got to know the Carrier Dome like few other people get to know it.

One of the things Kodak hoped to do was provide the USOC and The Syracuse organizing Committee (SOC) with a panoramic color photograph of the opening ceremonies. UPI had also expressed an interest in a black-and-white version of the same photograph.

The question was where was the best spot in the Carrier Dome in which to set up our equipment. Kodak photographer Norm Kerr had drawn the assignment.

He and I spent hours looking high, looking low, literally looking under seats. Finally we settled on THE SPOT.

We put signs all over it that indicated in rather blunt language, “Hey you other 180 photographers that are going to be here, this spot belongs to Kodak.”

Around 9:00 p.m. the time came to take the shot. The 3,000 athletes, coaches and officials were nearly all in place. The band was playing madly. Flags were waving. Some 25,000 people in the stands were roaring.

Kerr bent over, hardly daring to breath since it might jiggle his camera. He reached for the cord … and … poof … all the lights in the stadium went out!

Would you believe the entire rest of the program was done using a simple spotlight on the speaker’s podium.

We did get a black-and-white shot that UPI did send out but, unfortunately, we were unable to obtain a good color shot.

I did not really feel I was under some kind of hex until the next morning.

My plans called for going to the crew races on Onondaga Lake and do a story on Jeff Bilbrough who is Central New York sales representative for Kodak’s Consumer/Professional & Finishing Markets.

Bilbrough’s son Ben was actually on one of the crews participating in the Festival.

The story was a natural. I could just see the headline, “Hard Working Father Busy Selling Kodak Film While Son Wins big Race.”

I showed up bright and early. Just as I’m about to start taking notes, a gentleman in an official–looking suit wanders up holding a megaphone.

“Ladies and gentleman,” he shouts into the megaphone, “The races have been canceled by the Coast Guard since someone forgot to have a scuba diver on hand.”

At this point, I’m ready to head back to Rochester and forget the whole thing. But I hung in there and some five hours later the races were allowed.

My headline went away, however, since Bilbrough’s son finishes third in his race and his father certainly doesn’t continue selling Kodak film while his son is racing. Despite that, the story turns out pretty good.

Friday was not yet done, however. At 10:00 p.m. Kodak, along with the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce and American General Life Insurance Company are hosts of a reception for the media.

This, for some strange reason, comes off with hardly a hitch.

We take some 500 instant photos of attending media people and give it to them inserted in a post card containing the message, “Here it is late at night at the National Sports Festival and I’m still working away gathering information on the many Kodak Sports Programs.”

This probably didn’t work very well if they sent them to the home office as most of them had a drink in their hands and some kind of food poking out of their mouth when we took their picture.

The biggest problem at the reception occurred when it takes several seconds to find our official photographer to take a picture of ABC correspondent Eric Heiden.

Heiden, as many of you probably are aware, was a pretty darn good speed skater in his day.

Our photographer is located taking a shot of this cute chick and is quickly maneuvered into action in front of Heiden. The deed is done before Heiden has a chance to take more than two sips from the bottle of Genesee Beer he’s holding.

On Saturday, I went to visit a mountain. The name of this mountain was Pat Ewing. Ewing is the highly touted high school basketball player who will be attending Georgetown University in the fall. He’s so tall they practically have to plow snow off the top of his head before every game.

Ewing is playing on the East Squad and the East Squad is walking all over the Midwest Squad. The East is up by 20 points before you know it. But then, to me, the most impressive play of the game occurred.

Time had been called because of a foul. There was a wet spot on the floor in front of Ewing.

There’s this kid with a towel that’s supposed to take care of the wet spots.

He saw it … and promptly walks between Ewing’s legs and wipes it up. Then he proceeded back through Ewing’s legs to his spot off the court.

Now, that was impressive.Sunday is spent at a typewriter cranking out

stories. Sunday evening all 3,000 athletes, coaches and officials have been invited to a cookout. I’ve never seen 3,000 people at a cookout before. So, I decide to give it a look. (Besides, I can’t ever remember a time when I would miss a meal … most particularly if it was free.)

To make it more fun, it was raining cats and dogs … or, I probably should say it was raining basketballs and hockey pucks.

The only one there with an umbrella was Georgia football and track star Herschel Walker.

I suspect Georgia football coach Vince Dooley flew in with the umbrella when he heard it was raining just to make sure his super running back was protected from the elements.

I don’t know if it was because he’s a super nice guy or because of the umbrella, but Walker was surrounded by several girls.

Since I had met Walker in Los Angeles last year after he had been named to the Kodak All America Football Team, I decided I’d like to see him in action. I was able to do this on Monday when Walker ran as a member of one of the 4x100-meter relay teams.

Boy, he ran like he was being chased by all those girls and if he were to be caught he’d never be allowed to carry a football again.

He can fly.Considering he was about 60 pounds heavier than

any other sprinter there, you can understand why he is such a great football player.

Still, my greatest thrill of the entire week happened watching Scott Hamilton. If there’s a better skater in this world, it would have to be Superman and that’s only because Superman can fly a little higher than Hamilton.

Tuesday was my last day in Syracuse.I was saying goodbye to Mike Moran, assistant

director of public relations for USOC.“You know,” he said, “I think the National Sports

Festival is growing into a major event. It bothers me somewhat, though, how the media places such importance on what big names are participating or not participating.

“It’s got to be remembered, the goal of these festivals is to give younger less-known athletes a chance … the one’s that will be blossoming at Olympic time.

“They probably won’t have big names until AFTER the next Olympics.”

I guess he’s right. There was a hockey player named Mike Eruzione who participated in the last National Sports Festival. Whoever heard of him before the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

And now look at him.A painting he did and donated to USOC was on

display in Syracuse. To be sure he is no Rembrandt. But the painting has been sold for $30,000.

I probably met the next Mike Eruzione in Syracuse.Sure wish I knew who it was.I’d like to get him or her to do a painting for me

before the next Olympics.

Epilogue – Ewing went on to star for Georgetown and the New York Knicks. Herschel Walker went on to make the Kodak Team two more times. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Mike Moran went on to become the director of public relations for USOC

I never got the painting I wanted.

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Prologue/Oct. 1981 – Kodak was not known for its employee diversity until a conscious effort was made by the company to improve this.

Charlie Frazier was an exception, as you shall see. It was my job to present his story so that Kodak came out of it all right.

FORTY YEARS AT KODAK FOR CHARLIE FRAZIER AND STILL COUNTING

Rochester, NY – At age 60, Charles W. Frazier looks like he could take on his favorite all-time ball player, Jackie Robinson, in his prime and beat him in a foot race. Oh, there is a touch of gray in Frazier’s curly black hair … but no wrinkles, no bulge at the tummy, no slouching of shoulders.

What happens when some of his 20-21-year-old compatriots in Eastman Kodak Company’s Steel Fabrication Department at Kodak Park decide to go against Frazier in ping-pong during the lunch hour, you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.

You know how the word gets around.“Hey, Frazier, who works over on the burning shape

cutting plasma machine, just celebrated his 40th year with Kodak. He’s 60 years old.”

An easy mark right?As Frazier says, “When one of them beats me at

ping-pong, they expect a trophy … maybe a newspaper story!”

They obviously don’t beat him very often.His family, his church, his company and his sports

are the major ingredients in Frazier’s life. He has mixed and stirred well. He stands tall. He stands proud.

Indeed he was standing tall and he was standing proud with his wife Catherine and his supervisor at the party Kodak recently gave for its employees who are celebrating 40 years with the company when suddenly a man in a well-tailored suit was standing before him.

“Hi Charlie, my name’s Colby Chandler.“You remember me? I used to play second base for

one of the Kodak Park softball teams. I sure remember you. You were mighty fast going around those bases.”

Frazier says he just gulped. All he could think of were those nervous guys who used to cover second base as he would come flying in with spiked kicking feet held high.

The fact that one of them was now the president of the company had never occurred to him before.

“I quickly changed the subject,” said Frazier. “But later, I got to wishing I had asked him which team he played for, when, and so on. Someday I may do that.

“I sure hope he doesn’t have any scars on his lower legs!”

Actually, the high point of Frazier’s softball career came 30, maybe 35 years ago. For reasons Frazier can’t remember, his Kodak Park interplant team got to play the Kodak Park national champion team featuring Shifty Gears.

Apparently Gears was being his normal awesome self. He had struck out the first nine batters he had faced. And then Frazier came to bat.

“I’m not crazy,” said Frazier. “No way I’m going to hit the ball hard. So I laid down a bunt.”

What happened next was so unusual it was written up in Kodakery.

Gears fielded the bunt, turned and fired the ball to first base. But, lo and behold, Frazier had not only reached first base, he had already made the turn and was heading for second.

The first baseman then made the mistake of throwing the ball to second.

By the time the ball got to second, Frazier was on his way to third base. The shortstop, who was covering second base, then turned to throw to third. But he stopped just in time. Instead he threw the ball home.

Indeed Frazier had turned around third and was on his way to the plate. He saw the throw … stopped … and went back to third.

Gears never forgot it. He often said he had never seen anything like it and doubted he would ever see anything like it again.

Sports, certainly has been a very important part of Frazier’s life. And so has his church … the Memorial A.W.E. Zion Church on Clarissa Street.

“Me and that church go back a long way,” said Frazier. “I was a charter member of the first black boy scout troop in Rochester. It was sponsored by the church. I think the troop will be celebrating its 50th year next year (1982).”

And then there is his family.

When Frazier was over at Madison High School, his father no longer could find work. It was the depression. Frazier got a paper route for the old Journal-American and when that folded, with the Times-Union.

It was the first route given to a black kid in Rochester.

Father, mother, brother, sister and Charlie were able to survive because of it.

After graduation from Madison in 1939 came two or three manual jobs. However, he was going to night school at Madison in an effort to learn a trade. Some of his teachers were Kodak people. They came to think highly of Frazier.

On September 15, 1941, Frazier went to work at Kodak Park.

These were different times. Frazier met resistance from some of the older workers in his department. Things were said that shouldn’t have been said.

“I went home one night,” Frazier said, “and began moaning about my lot in life over dinner. Hey, these were steel mill people I was working with. They were not what you would call tender or timid. And they didn’t expect those they were working with them to be tender or timid.

“Still, I was putting up with a lot. And I was wondering if I should stay or not.”

It was no contest as far as Frazier’s mother was concerned.

“Stick it out. Prove you belong.”“I wanted to show I could do the job,” he said. “”I

wanted to show I could be accepted.”Now some 40 years later, Frazier is mighty happy

he stayed.There were also two very important events that

showed Frazier he made the right decision.

After being with the company a few years, Frazier went to a retirement party for a gentleman who had been one of those who had given him a hard time in the beginning. Frazier will never forget what that retiree said to him.

“Charlie, it has been a sincere pleasure working with you.”

The second event occurred in 1949.That’s when Frazier and his mother and father

moved into a home he had bought on Tremont Street. It was the first home ever owned by his family. To his mother it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

“I’m glad I listened to her.”Frazier feels lucky. He points to Jackie Robinson.“When Jackie retired from baseball, he said he’d

like to see a black person in the third base coaching box. Now, of course, there are not only black coaches but black managers.

Unfortunately Jackie didn’t live long enough to see his dream come true.

“I’ve lived long enough to see many black people working in my profession,” said Frazier. “And not only that, there are black foremen, black engineers, etc.

“I am able to look at the third base box of my profession and see a black person.”

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Epilogue – I don’t know if Frazier ever got to check with Colby Chandler on what team he played for. If he did get together with him, I hope he asked him to pull up his paint legs to see if he had any scars on his legs.

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Prologue/Nov. 1981 – The 1981 Kodak All-America football team featured a couple pretty decent quarterbacks, Jim McMahon of Brigham Young and an up-and-comer Dan Marino of Pittsburgh.

It also featured Herschel Walker of Georgia, Marcus Allen of Southern California and Anthony Carter of Michigan. Allen joined us the day after winning the Heisman Trophy in New York City.

1981 KODAK ALL-AMERICA TEAM

OFFENSE

Center DAVE REMINGTON Nebraska Jr. Lineman ROY FOSTER USC Sr. Lineman KURT BECKER Michigan Sr. Lineman TERRY CROUCH Oklahoma Sr. Lineman SEAN FARRELL Penn St. Sr. Tight End TIM WRIGHTMAN UCLA Sr. Wide Out ANTHONY CARTER Michigan Jr. R, Back MARCUS ALLEN USC Sr.*R. Back HERSCHEL WALKER Georgia So. R. Back DARRIN NELSON Stanford Sr.*Q. Back JIM MCMAHON Brigham Y. Sr. Q. Back DAN MARINO Pittsburgh Jr.

DEFENSE

Lineman HARVEY ARMSTRONG SMU Sr. Lineman GLEN COLLINS Miss. St. Sr. Lineman KEN SIMS Texas Sr. Lineman BILLY RAY SMITH Arkansas Jr. Lineman JAMES WILLIAMS Nebraska Sr.*Line Back BOB CRABLE Notre Dame Sr. Line Back JEFF DAVIS Clemson Sr.

Line Back SAL SUNSERI Pittsburgh Sr. D. Back FRED MARION Miami Sr. D. Back STEVE CORDIE Fresno St. Sr. D. Back TOMMY WILCOX Alabama Jr.

*Repeat member of team

Epilogue – Marcus Allen was the first college running back to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a college football season.

I estimated that the offense had gained seven miles on the football field. The defense was well represented by Bob Crable who I determined was “most enjoyable” despite being from Notre Dame.

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Prologue/Nov. 1981 – The Brighton-Pittsford Post ran my report on the four days I spent with the Kodak team.

THE AFFAIR AT THE REGISTRY

Phoenix, AZ – Fog in Fresno, a rendezvous in Washington, D.C., a missing duffle bag in Los Angeles, critical documents in Alabama, the disappearance of a key person in Utah, and a search for a much sought-after object of art in New York city.

Is this a mystery story?

No. Those are simply some of the obstacles that had to be overcome to gather the 23 members of the 1981 Kodak All-America football team here from Dec. 3-6 for a weekend of honors, fun, relaxation and media interviews.

Let us start at the beginning.In the beginning there was a mountain. His name

is Dave Rimington. Rimington is 6’3”, and weighs 285 pounds and plays center for the University of Nebraska.

Rimington and his fellow Kodak All-American from Nebraska, defensive lineman Jimmy Williams, were the first to arrive at the posh Registry Resort Hotel here.

Rimington, only a junior and a Nebraska country boy, summed up the location, with its gently waving palm trees and sunny, 70-degree weather, rather well.

“I’ll take one of those palm trees … and one of those.”

The thing is, he probably could have pulled them out. Luckily, we were able to talk him out of trying.

We knew Ken Sims, the defensive lineman from Texas (6’6”, 270 pounds), was going to come in late so he could attend a dinner put on by the Pigskin Club in Washington, D.C. but why hadn’t USC’s offensive lineman Roy Foster (6’4”, 265 pounds) gotten off the plane from Los Angeles as he was supposed to?

Tim Wrightman, UCLA’s’ 237-pound tight end, did get off the flight and he sheepishly supplied the answer as to where Foster was.

“Uh, Roy sort of left his duffle bag containing his uniform in his car and when he went back to get it, the plane took off.”

Indeed each player was supposed to bring his uniform for a team photograph. Foster ended up coming on the next flight.

“That’s a Trojan for you,” UCLA’s” Wrightman said about archrival USC’s lineman.

But Foster was to turn the table on Wrightman as we shall relate shortly.

Little Steve Cordie (5’9”) from little Fresno St. was also late in arriving. Cordie, who may be little but plays defensive back like a snarling Tasmanian Devil, had to wait for fog to lift before he could leave.

Alabama’s defensive back, Tommy Wilcox, had also indicated he couldn’t come right away as he was right in the middle of dealing with some critical documents … his first semester final exams.

USC’s super running back, Marcus Allen, was in New York City seeking an object of art known as the Heisman Trophy.

However, where was Brigham Young’s answer to the sub-machine gun … their quarterback, Jim McMahon?

The other quarterback who had made the team, Dan Marino of Pittsburgh, had arrived.

I had been with McMahon and Allen in New York on Nov. 24. On that day we had announced who had made the Kodak All-America Team. Arrangements had been made for the two to appear with Bryant Gumbal on the “Today Show” and to meet with the always-important New York City media.

At that time, McMahon had been really hurting. He had great difficulties sitting or walking, having taken a blow against his back in the last game against Utah.

It was only suppose to be a bruise.Was it possible he was now laid up and couldn’t

come to Phoenix?No. A call to Brigham Young determined McMahon

was to be honored at the same Pigskin Club Dinner as Sims. He, like Sims, would be coming to Phoenix after that.

When McMahon arrived, the first thing I did was ask about his back.

“Oh,” he said, “when I got back to Utah from that first trip to New York they took some x-rays. I guess I have a couple of cracked vertebras. I feel real good now. They’re healing very nicely.”

Of course, there was considerable media interest in the team. We kept the players hopping from newspaper people to radio people to television people, back to newspaper people and so on.

Then Marcus Allen and Herschel Walker of Georgia came in.

Allen was fresh from accepting the Heisman Trophy and Walker had just finished ripping through Georgia Tech for over 200 yards on national television.

To meet the demand for interviews for these two, we set up and held a press conference. We tossed McMahon in as well.

This went on for about 45 minutes and then the three of them were told, after they signed a few (actually almost a hundred) Kodak All-America Team footballs, they could relax out by the pool.

A little later, Allen was out by the pool, all right, but he was doing an interview for “ESPN”. Ken Sims was waiting off to one side to also do an interview. When the reporter had finished with Allen he motioned for Sims to sit down.

“Hey, let me do the interview,” Allen said.The articulate Allen has some thoughts about doing

some broadcasting someday.And so he did the interview. It went quite well

except for the ending.“This is Marcus Allen reporting for ESP.”Can you imagine a television network that might be

able to show your long-deceased Uncle Joe. We figure, however, the ESP Network could show Allen having a great pro career.

It took about 20 of us from Kodak and our public relations agency Carl Byoir & Associates (as well as Byoir’s Phoenix affiliate, Moser, Whitehead, Inc.) to make sure all went smoothly for the 23 players.

The Kodak people included Fairport’s Charlie Harris, who heads up sports promotions, as well as Brighton’s Ken Mason, vice president and general manager of the company’s Motion Picture and Audiovisual Markets Division.

It also included two extremely hard working sports specialists from Kodak known as Val Trenchard and Pete Todd. These two quietly and effectively did a thousand different things over the four days the team was together.

Last year, Todd had lost his glasses and had to spend the entire weekend wearing his prescription sunglasses. On the first day of this year’s weekend, he again was wearing his prescription sunglasses.

“Did you lose your regular glasses again?”Tood slowly lifted his sunglasses. And there was a

very nice shiner on his right eye. In the running around to get players from the airport to the hotel, Todd had managed to bump heads with his boss, Harris. Luckily, his boss came out of it without a scratch.

And Todd was very careful not to refer to his boss as being hard headed.

Two events arranged for the players were a desert trip and a golf tournament.

We kept telling Oklahoma’s 275-pound behemoth, Terry Crouch, that there wouldn’t be anything to drink while the team was out in the desert.

It almost got to the point where it looked like Crouch … who seems to drink orange juice a gallon at a time … might refuse to go. So we had to admit there would be a cooler on the jeeps containing refreshments.

“Besides,” I told him, “you’re big enough to grab any cactus and squeeze out some cactus juice.

“Cactus juice is good for a growing boy!”Most of the players had never played golf before.

So the golf tournament was a unique experience for many of them.

We noticed a husband and wife walking down the first fairway toward the clubhouse after several of the players had driven off. When asked, they said they owned one of the homes along the first hole.

“We’ve never seen so many golf balls coming into our backyard. We’re heading for an air raid shelter.”

Low gross score for the nine-hole tournament was the 48 achieved by Notre Dame’s linebacker, Bob Crable.

Most gross score was a 72 by Michigan’s wide receiver Anthony Carter. Of course, a couple of players decided to call it quits after six holes when they ran out of golf balls (they were given a couple dozen) and we never did find out what their scores were.

One of the nights there was a cookout in the hills overlooking Phoenix. You know, grilled steaks, a roaring campfire, a Western band … the whole bit. Near the end of this affair, it was necessary to whisk Crable and Kurt Becker, an offensive lineman from Michigan, to a television interview.

As we were driving toward the interview location (everything in Phoenix is hundreds of miles apart … a lot like Los Angeles) when a gentleman in the car in back of us became upset at us for some reason or other.

This gentleman (?) went roaring by with fist extended out of his window and obviously yelling some unkind things about us.

Becker watched as the guy whipped by and drawled, “I kinda wish he’d stop. I’d like to see what would happen if I jumped out.”

Becker is 6’6” and goes about 278. I never felt safer.

Then there’s Sean Farrell, the 6’3”, 276-pound gorilla from Penn St. But Farrell is not your average gorilla. He could talk an Eskimo out of his electric blanket in February.

Farrell fully intends to obtain an MBA while he’s pursuing his pro football career.

Remember, we said Foster of USC was to get back at Wrightman of UCLA. Well, there was a catalyst. That catalyst was Farrell. But we’ll get back to that shortly.

First, let us dispense with some space invaders as well as Pac Man.

If you’re young these days, the electronic games are all the rage. (Actually us old timers can just as easily become addicted to these machines)

We had about four of these games available for the players and anyone else in the group that wanted to try them.

It soon became apparent if these kids decide not to take up pro football, there’s always the professional Pac Man circuit.

Pac Man, Space Invaders, Asteroids … none of them stood a chance. The best of the best were Rimington and Billy Ray Smith of Arkansas. Smith “only” goes 6’3”, 228 but what eye and hand coordination. (Although the best I ever saw was last year ... George Rogers of South Carolina. He was amazing to watch at the machines.)

This year’s champion, however, was Rimington. When things weren’t going right, he’d simply slam his fist on the machine and it would begin cooperating immediately.

There were many other memories from the weekend … like Marino being named captain of the offense and Sims being named captain of the defense at the awards banquet.

And there was Glen Collins from Mississippi St. riding out to the airport with us as we were leaving and saying it was the best weekend he had spent in a long, long time.

Now we will tell you how Roy Foster and Sean Farrell did Tim Wrightman in.

During one of our daily 7:30 a.m. staff meetings, the telephone rang. Sean Farrell was on the other end. Remember, I told you he could talk an Eskimo out of his electric blanket in February.

Farrell explained he wanted us to be aware he had called Wrightman at the request of Foster and told Wrightman that Kodak had arranged for President Reagan to greet the team.

He told Wrightman he had to get into a suit and tie and be in the Kodak Suite by 8:00 a.m. Of course, no one had come close to wearing a coat and tie up to that point. (They did later for the awards banquet.)

Our meeting continued. Shortly before eight, the door to the suite opened, gently.

There stood Wrightman in a very spiffy three-piece suit.

Not a bad lineup for our press conference. Left-to-right: Marcus Allen, USC; Jim MaMahon, Brigham Young; and Herschel Walker, Georgia. Allen had been named winner of the Heisman Trophy the day before

Epilogue – I’ve always admired and appreciated Jim McMahon for showing up first in New York City and then in Phoenix with two broken vertebrae. He really was in considerable pain in New York while doing Kodak a huge favor by being there.

Another interesting fact about this team is the Remington Trophy named after Dave Rimington. Since 2000 it has been given annually to the nation's top collegiate center. Since 2003, a Rimington Trophy has been awarded to the top center in each division of college football.

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