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Kent State reunion honors '72 team
The Flashes won the MAC and reached Tangerine Bowl
KENT
Walt Vrabel, Dan Kukura, Bob Adair and Jeff Wood were part of a 40th reunion of Kent State’s 1972 Tangerine Bowl team that was held in conjunction with the Golden Flashes’ 2012 home opener against Towson (Md.) on Thursday.
Kent beat Towson, 41-21.
The four area men — Vrabel from Campbell, Kukura from Hubbard, Adair from Mineral Ridge and Wood from Warren JFK — played on a team that was coached by Don James, who also returned to Kent this week.
Other former players included current Missouri coach Gary Pinkel and NFL hall of famer Jack Lambert, who was on hand on Wednesday only.
Vrabel said 35 former players returned.
“Pinkel flew in from Missouri because Don James was here,” Vrabel said of Pinkel, a former tight end. Current Alabama coach Nick Saban was also a defensive back in 1972, but he didn’t make the trip to Kent because his second-ranked Crimson Tide — the defending national champ — was preparing for No. 8 Michigan on Saturday night in Cowboys Stadium.
Pinkel then departed after Thursday’s banquet because his Tigers were home to SE Louisiana on Saturday.
Pinkel used to be the offensive coordinator for James at the University of Washington and he also coached at Toledo.
At Missouri, Pinkel recruited Chaney’s Brad Smith, who is now with the Buffalo Bills.
Now out of coaching, James splits his time between Seattle and Arizona.
“Anytime you have a reunion, he said he’d be there because this is where his first championship was,” Vrabel said in paraphrasing James, who spoke to the [current] Kent team on Wednesday night and then gave the 1972 team members awards of their own during a Thursday morning banquet.
“It’s been 40 years since we won, so it was good to see the team again,” Vrabel said of the group that, despite finishing 6-5-1, won the Mid-American Conference championship and reached the Tangerine Bowl.
Four days after Christmas in 1972, however, Kent lost to the University of Tampa, 21-18.
Tampa at the time was coached by former Salem coach Earle Bruce, who later coached at Ohio State. It included such names as defensive tackle John Matuszak (former Steeler), QB Freddie Solomon (former 49er) and TE Paul Orndorff (WWF’s Mr. Wonderful).
Another teammate attending was Gerald Tinker, a former wide receiver who won a gold medal on the 4x100 relay at the 1972 Olympics.
“He brought the medal to the reunion,” said Vrabel, who added, “and there’s more gold in it than today’s medals.”
A Campbell Memorial standout, Vrabel was a defensive tackle who played as a freshman.
“It was the first year freshmen were allowed to play college football because of the Marshall thing,” Vrabel said, explaining that, because Marshall University’s team was decimated by a plane crash in 1970 the Thundering Herd only had freshmen and sophomores.
“The NCAA said that Marshall could rebuild its team with freshmen, so they allowed all freshmen to play varsity sports.”
Vrabel saw limited action in the 1972 season-opener — his first collegiate game — against Akron, then he started the second game against Louisville and the streak continued until his senior year.
He was All-MAC four years and a preseason All-American heading into his senior year, but a knee injury in the seventh game knocked him out of the running.
“I was averaging 18 tackles a game and having a great year, so that kind of hurt,” said Vrabel, who then signed a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles as a member of its practice squad.
Another reunion attendee was former Houston Oilers’ and Browns’ running back Larry Poole of Akron.
Kukura was Kent’s center, Bob Adair was a tackle and Wood played cornerback.
“All of us came back, but we looked a little bit different,” said Vrabel, now 58. “After 40 years it takes a little toll on you but everybody had great stories to tell.”
Because of Saban and Pinkel, Vrabel and his wife, Rita, have seen several Alabama and Missouri games, including the 2011 national championship game in New Orleans.
James and his former Golden Flash players were recognized at halftime of the Kent-Towson game.
“That [1972] was the last time Kent won the MAC and was in a bowl game in the same season,” said Vrabel, now a teacher at Jackson-Milton.
He was the line coach for Jim Vivo when Ursuline won its first state title in 2000. He was also an assistant at Campbell and was Jackson-Milton’s head coach for several years.