Speaker 1: Art originals. This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 2: It's twenty twelve and players at Culver Stockton College in Canton,
Speaker 2: Missouri are gearing up for football practice. Canton is a
Speaker 2: college town, but not a big one. Nestled near the
Speaker 2: Mississippi River, the population is less than three thousand. Their
Speaker 2: source of athletic pride is the Culver Stockton Wildcats, but
Speaker 2: times have been tough. During the previous season, they went
Speaker 2: just one and ten. It wasn't so much sport as
Speaker 2: human sacrifice. But there's a sense their fortunes can be
Speaker 2: turned around, maybe with some new blood. At practice, a
Speaker 2: freshman named Mike Davis looks around and spots an older man,
Speaker 2: a very very big man six foot five and two
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety five pounds, And Mike starts to wonder
Speaker 2: if maybe this giant has a son who's going to
Speaker 2: be playing here, hopefully a kid who has the same
Speaker 2: oversized proportions.
Speaker 3: And I'm looking around the wave room, you know, just like,
Speaker 3: who's this guy's got a kid here?
Speaker 1: Like, whose kid is this guy's.
Speaker 2: Mike's head coach looks at the guy, then back at.
Speaker 3: Mike, and he goes, oh, no, that's that's Andy he's
Speaker 3: actually gonna be playing for us, And at that point
Speaker 3: my mind blew a little bit and I was like, well,
Speaker 3: that's that's a grown man.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I asked him, like, how
Speaker 1: old is he goes, Oh, I was thirty eight.
Speaker 2: Thirty eight is older than the coach, older than the trainers,
Speaker 2: older than almost everyone in and around the team. That's
Speaker 2: how Mike and every other player learns about Andy Staton.
Speaker 2: Andy is the newest nostwn for the Wildcats and a
Speaker 2: man who's about to get a second lease on life
Speaker 2: by returning to a game he walked away from almost
Speaker 2: twenty years prior. It's an opportunity to provide a better
Speaker 2: life for himself and his kids and close a chapter
Speaker 2: on a story he never quite finished. But as a
Speaker 2: midlife crisis goes, this one is going to.
Speaker 1: Hurt a lot.
Speaker 2: This is very special episodes and iHeart original podcast. I'm
Speaker 2: your host, Danish Schwartz and this is old Man on Campus.
Speaker 4: Welcome everybody. This is a little different episode this week
Speaker 4: because we are in the same room. The three of
Speaker 4: us have never been in the same time zone before
Speaker 4: and now were sitting.
Speaker 5: For breathing the same air.
Speaker 4: Breathing the same air, and it's the air at the
Speaker 4: Super Bowl.
Speaker 6: I know everyone I told that I was going to
Speaker 6: Vegas this week looked at me like, like I told
Speaker 6: them I was going to Mars. Because I am the
Speaker 6: least likely person to be involved with anything related to sports.
Speaker 5: So you're not a football fan, Dana.
Speaker 7: No, I'm a fan.
Speaker 6: Of getting together with a group of friends and men
Speaker 6: loved ones and eating snacks. Yes, like I like a
Speaker 6: communal activity, Like I like the idea of watching football together.
Speaker 7: I don't. I don't really care about sports in general.
Speaker 6: But I'm not like one of those infuriating like sports
Speaker 6: ball people like. I get why people like it, it's
Speaker 6: just not I'm so focused usually on history that I
Speaker 6: don't have room in my brain for football rules.
Speaker 8: It makes perfect sense. How is the Taylor Swift and
Speaker 8: Travis Kelce made it to you?
Speaker 6: That is actually my only interest in football now? And
Speaker 6: I have asked my husband when Travis Kelsey plays because
Speaker 6: I like to see if she's there, I like to
Speaker 6: see what she's wearing. Look, I'm a thirty one year
Speaker 6: old white woman. This is that is my super Bowl.
Speaker 5: For you guys.
Speaker 4: Thank you last year on this set. We were in Arizona.
Speaker 4: The Iheart's NFL partnership is why we're out here, and
Speaker 4: Travis and Jason Kelsey recorded on our set. And this
Speaker 4: is before Taylor Swift, before the podcast was you know,
Speaker 4: the as huge a deal as it is.
Speaker 5: So there's some people here.
Speaker 4: Today who thought maybe the Kelsey's and Taylor Swift were
Speaker 4: going to come and it said they got us. So
Speaker 4: the disappointed views from the super fans walking through.
Speaker 5: I can take my shirt off like Jason Kelsey. If
Speaker 5: it helps you, just.
Speaker 4: Let's try it.
Speaker 7: I can try to sing. We'll see how that goes.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 4: Today's story is not about Taylor Swift or it.
Speaker 7: Is about football.
Speaker 4: It is about football.
Speaker 5: And a big guy much like Travis Kelsey.
Speaker 7: Remind me what position did Andrew Stayton play.
Speaker 4: He was a defensive lineman, a big, hulking guy stopping
Speaker 4: the run. He'd be lined up across from Jason kelcey.
Speaker 4: I don't know if that helps.
Speaker 6: All I know the only two positions in football that
Speaker 6: I know is tight end because that's Travis Kelsey and
Speaker 6: my husband used to be a defensive tackle.
Speaker 8: Oh okay, well that's exactly what he played. He played
Speaker 8: the same exact same position as your husband.
Speaker 7: Great, I'm sure I would like him alone.
Speaker 4: Does your husband have any college eligibility left? Could get
Speaker 4: him out?
Speaker 7: You might be he can be part season two. We
Speaker 7: can focus on him.
Speaker 5: The Howard's kniece because we can get him out here.
Speaker 4: Y so far, so goodud And while we're here, just
Speaker 4: want to thank everyone for the incredible response that the
Speaker 4: show has gotten.
Speaker 7: Day Oh my god, thank you so much to everyone
Speaker 7: who's listened.
Speaker 4: Everyone who's listened, everyone who's watched danis TikTok's about the show.
Speaker 4: All the different iHeart shows that have let us run
Speaker 4: our promos on their show, all the radio stations, the
Speaker 4: kind of feedback, it's all been great.
Speaker 6: iHeart for letting us come to last Day. Yes, stay
Speaker 6: here and get a fancy dinner.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, we'll have to do extended credits. Here to
Speaker 4: thank Josh and Kurt and Aaron for letting us sit
Speaker 4: here on the set and do our little banter.
Speaker 7: Let's get into the episode.
Speaker 1: I was so small coming into high school.
Speaker 9: My brother was graduated at six seven about two forty,
Speaker 9: and coming in my freshman year, I was about five six,
Speaker 9: one fifty and the wrestling coach told me. He said,
Speaker 9: why to try? You know, one's sixty next year.
Speaker 2: That's Andy Staton. He's describing his formative years as an
Speaker 2: athlete in Duwajack, Michigan. There was wrestling, running, track, tennis,
Speaker 2: and of course, suiting up for football. Duwajack is football country,
Speaker 2: the type of place where babies get tiny footballs to
Speaker 2: play with instead of rattles. But the size and strength
Speaker 2: he needed had to be earned.
Speaker 1: A had hike.
Speaker 9: Now I'm wrestling heavyweight. He goes, how can you wrestle heavyweight?
Speaker 9: You weight one hundred and fifty two pounds. I said, well,
Speaker 9: I'm gonna make it. That's the time you had to
Speaker 9: weigh one hundred and eighty eight miles to wrestle, while
Speaker 9: my sophomore year I came out one hundred and eighty
Speaker 9: and had to drink a gallon of water to make weight.
Speaker 2: That's Andy determined, stubborn. Tell him he can't and he'll
Speaker 2: find a way around you, or if it's on the field,
Speaker 2: through you. The grit the tenacity was probably genetic. Andy's father,
Speaker 2: Jerry Staden, was recruited by the legendary bo Schembeckler at
Speaker 2: Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, before turning to high school coaching.
Speaker 2: Andy's brother Mark played two seasons in the NFL and
Speaker 2: wound up coaching for Michigan State. The Stadens are a
Speaker 2: football family.
Speaker 9: My dad was a small snows tackle in the sixties
Speaker 9: and my brother was the largest in the nineties. My
Speaker 9: dad played at about two o five, my brother played
Speaker 9: at about three twenty.
Speaker 2: And when it was time, Andy strapped on the cleats
Speaker 2: and the pads too, parlaying his physical presence as a
Speaker 2: defensive player for Duajack Union High School and for a
Speaker 2: while his life followed a predictable path. Football came easily,
Speaker 2: but class work didn't. He wound up at Farris State
Speaker 2: University in Big Rapids, Michigan, and became a bulldog.
Speaker 9: The D one schools they all called me up and
Speaker 9: the last day before signing said we can't trust your
Speaker 9: grade points. So they all had eighteen calls and one
Speaker 9: night nose back then on rotary phone. That's pretty depressing.
Speaker 9: The next day D two schools started calling me and
Speaker 9: I ended up going on a couple of visits. I
Speaker 9: ended up taking Farris State's offer and went up red
Speaker 9: shirted there.
Speaker 7: But that's really the last time.
Speaker 2: Andy's story plays out like every other football story you've heard.
Speaker 2: For starters, Andy didn't care for college at Ferris. For
Speaker 2: his first semester, he kept having problems with people stealing
Speaker 2: his not just electronic equipment like his television, but swiping
Speaker 2: a check and other things. This continued on a near
Speaker 2: weekly basis.
Speaker 1: People are robbing me.
Speaker 9: So I ended up moving off campus lived with some
Speaker 9: offensive lineman, which hated me because I was a D
Speaker 9: lineman and typically O line and D lineman. I'm not
Speaker 9: saying that they're a little more relaxed, and then I
Speaker 9: guess I was a little more of the aggressive one
Speaker 9: hundred mile an hour would up like a you know,
Speaker 9: a rubber band that we were ready to snap at
Speaker 9: any time. So I kind of had issues with these
Speaker 9: older O linemen and which you know, I look back
Speaker 9: on it now as I am that sure of course.
Speaker 9: So you know, I was nineteen and crazy, but I
Speaker 9: wasn't ready for as myself.
Speaker 2: He was still struggling academically. College became a perfect storm
Speaker 2: of problems. So at the end of the year, Andy
Speaker 2: came to.
Speaker 1: A decision fuck it out.
Speaker 9: Played the spring game, and after the spring game, about
Speaker 9: a week or two after I went to the head
Speaker 9: coach and said I was done.
Speaker 2: He dropped out after the spring semester. He wanted to
Speaker 2: see what else was out there. Call it a temporary
Speaker 2: lapse in maturity. At twenty, most of us have them.
Speaker 2: He started going to Southwestern Michigan College, but not for football.
Speaker 2: He took time to think about what he really wanted
Speaker 2: to do with his life. Then, one night in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety five, while out with his girlfriend, a stranger's split
Speaker 2: second decision almost ended it. Andy was out in his
Speaker 2: Pontiac with his girlfriend behind the wheel. Another car, a
Speaker 2: Honda Accord, tried to pass a tractor trailer. The driver
Speaker 2: didn't see Andy's call.
Speaker 9: We were in an eighty six Pontiac and we were
Speaker 9: out some country road, semi coming up over a hill
Speaker 9: and we're in the bottom of a dip and as
Speaker 9: soon as we come up pressed it over the hill.
Speaker 9: Carl students from a local university here in southwest Michigan,
Speaker 9: pulled out.
Speaker 1: Hit his head on. I pulled my arm out around her.
Speaker 9: I went through the windshield, my hip caught the dash,
Speaker 9: came back through.
Speaker 1: There was a bench seat broke the seat back. Of course,
Speaker 1: when I went through.
Speaker 9: I can remember the lights of the semi and the
Speaker 9: glass fly in and come back through.
Speaker 1: You know, I was instantaneous, instant backwards.
Speaker 2: The cars collided head on. Andy, all six to five
Speaker 2: of him, was almost tossed clear of the pontiac. The
Speaker 2: damage was substantial. It was the kind of thing where
Speaker 2: doctors say you're lucky to be alive. It's possible being
Speaker 2: in great shape saved his life, but Andy didn't quite
Speaker 2: know the extent of the damage. At first. He was
Speaker 2: more concerned for his girlfriend, who was seriously injured. She
Speaker 2: wound up being okay. Once the adrenal kneln wore off,
Speaker 2: Andy spent three weeks.
Speaker 7: In the ICU.
Speaker 9: Broke my back, crushed all my ribs, nerve damage, whatnot.
Speaker 1: Didn't think I was going to do football anymore.
Speaker 2: He spent months recuperating. His enthusiasm for returning to college.
Speaker 2: Returning to football waaned, and no wonder a broken back
Speaker 2: tends to dampen your appetite for a full contact sport,
Speaker 2: so Andy dropped out of school, this time for good.
Speaker 2: He diverged from the family business of football and opted
Speaker 2: for a more conventional means of earning a living. Labor
Speaker 2: he worked as a paver, He poured asphalt for roads.
Speaker 2: He got into the construction business and farming. He used
Speaker 2: the physicality that had served him so well on the
Speaker 2: field and made a life for him and his wife,
Speaker 2: who he married in nineteen ninety five, and later for
Speaker 2: their two sons, Clay and Luke. With every passing year,
Speaker 2: football kept getting further and further in the rear view,
Speaker 2: and so was a life that made sense. By two
Speaker 2: thousand and nine, Andy was in the midst of a
Speaker 2: divorce and the possibility his sons would be relocated to Florida.
Speaker 2: Things were looking well grim. At the age of thirty seven,
Speaker 2: Andy took stock and realized that this wasn't the way
Speaker 2: he had envisioned things working out. But unexpected turns work
Speaker 2: both ways. Sometimes life blindsides you with tragedy or a honda,
Speaker 2: and sometimes it surprises you with a.
Speaker 7: Little bit of a break.
Speaker 2: Andy's break came in the form of a phone call,
Speaker 2: one that would turn his world upside down. One day
Speaker 2: in twenty eleven, Andy's phone ring on the other end
Speaker 2: was Jeff duven Deck, coach for the Culver Stockton Wildcats.
Speaker 9: So I was living in a farmhouse out in another
Speaker 9: towel and came to see my dad after I was
Speaker 9: cutting trees down and my phone rings and I was
Speaker 9: talking to my dad and I answer it and he goes, hey,
Speaker 9: is Jeff Dubin Deck.
Speaker 1: How you doing, Andy?
Speaker 9: And I'm like good, good, just getting off work and
Speaker 9: he's like, well, I'm looking for a nose tackle that
Speaker 9: could play this fall. Like, Jeff, I don't know any
Speaker 9: kids right now that could play collegiate ball.
Speaker 1: I haven't been following high school football.
Speaker 9: And he's like, well, I want you. And Jeff at
Speaker 9: the time, I was thirty seven, and I said I
Speaker 9: can't play football at thirty seven years old, and he goes, well,
Speaker 9: your brother said you're the mean of son of a
Speaker 9: gun to ever walk down a football field, and I
Speaker 9: want the meana son of a gun to play for me.
Speaker 2: Jeff duven Deck's back was up against a wall Newly
Speaker 2: and Stuff as the coach for the Wildcats. They had
Speaker 2: posted a dreadful one and ten record in his first
Speaker 2: season there. He needed more muscle a defensive tackle, and
Speaker 2: he happened to mention this to Mark Stayton, Andy's brother, Mark, remember,
Speaker 2: is a fellow coach. It was Mark who told Jeff, Well,
Speaker 2: what about Andy. Here's coach Jeff.
Speaker 1: We got one win in our first year.
Speaker 10: You know, we struggled. I remember coming back to visit
Speaker 10: Michigan State to work one of their camps and do
Speaker 10: some recruiting, and I stopped in to see Mark, Andy's brother,
Speaker 10: and just said, hey, you know, he's asking how it
Speaker 10: was going. I said it's going, but we, uh, you know,
Speaker 10: we just don't have any size. I mean, some bigger guys,
Speaker 10: we don't have any He's like, well, you remember my brother,
Speaker 10: he's going through divorce and looking to finish his college
Speaker 10: degree and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: So Jeff looked into it. Logistically, nothing was stopping him
Speaker 2: from recruiting Andy, who had the size he needed. Even
Speaker 2: though he hadn't played the game in years or was
Speaker 2: it decades, A lifetime of physical labor had kept him strong.
Speaker 2: Andy weighed his options. He didn't want to be away
Speaker 2: from his kids, but on the other hand, a degree
Speaker 2: could open up new job opportunities. Tuition to Culver Stockton,
Speaker 2: which today costs forty thousand dollars a year, would be
Speaker 2: fully paid, and well, wait, wasn't this all kind of crazy?
Speaker 2: Andy was thirty seven, soon to be thirty eight. Football
Speaker 2: is hard, even on young bodies. This was a Rocky
Speaker 2: type scenario, but not the Rocky of that first movie,
Speaker 2: The Rocky of Rocky Balboa, where Rocky is in his
Speaker 2: fifties and stages a comeback in football years. Andy wasn't
Speaker 2: too far off.
Speaker 1: So I'd like, Oliver, you Jeff, I think he was
Speaker 1: thirty two or thirty three.
Speaker 9: I said, could you wrap up again? He goes, well, no,
Speaker 9: but I'm not built like you. My dad's looking at me,
Speaker 9: and of course my dad, being a you know, ex
Speaker 9: coach slash collegiate ballplayer, he was what was that about last?
Speaker 9: So I just got offered to go back to play
Speaker 9: out football. And you can't play football, you're too old.
Speaker 9: You're thirty seven. So I started in a while he's
Speaker 9: kind of saying this to me. I say, well, challenge accepted.
Speaker 2: Pop pros outweighed the cons A degree meant a better
Speaker 2: financial future, so off he went to become a Culver
Speaker 2: Stockton Wildcat. Culver Stockton is an NAIA school that stands
Speaker 2: for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. It's a governing
Speaker 2: body like the NCAA. The NCAA is much bigger with
Speaker 2: over one thousand schools compared to the NAIA is two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty or so, but the best of the
Speaker 2: NAIA can often match certain divisions of the NCAA. So
Speaker 2: while this was a liberal arts school, there wasn't anything
Speaker 2: already about the football. It was the real thing. Something
Speaker 2: Andy discovered in his first practice.
Speaker 9: I get hit by I don't remember. It was like
Speaker 9: an offensive guard pulled and I can remember big blue
Speaker 9: and red balls and.
Speaker 1: I'm like, did I make a mistake? And it was
Speaker 1: like the second snap of the practice that will you
Speaker 1: know as far as hitting part of it.
Speaker 9: But I do remember that first practice going, man, did
Speaker 9: I make a mistake doing this?
Speaker 1: And once I got my feet underneath me and I
Speaker 1: was all right.
Speaker 9: Meeting all the guys, of course they're questioning, who's this
Speaker 9: old guy.
Speaker 2: Andy's first appearance was, as Mike Davis explained, a bit
Speaker 2: of a surprise to the team, but that amusement gave
Speaker 2: way to something else when Andy suited up.
Speaker 1: Here's Mike, huge, huge guy, very hard move.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I just first time I seen him at
Speaker 3: pads it was like, holy crap, you looked even bigger.
Speaker 9: Because he's a pretty large dumed so well, if you
Speaker 9: were to basically get into a car and drive it
Speaker 9: into a brick.
Speaker 3: Wall, like that's pretty much what it was. Every time
Speaker 3: I would jump on him as soon as we you know,
Speaker 3: the ball was snaffed. I'd be on top of them
Speaker 3: all over. But he was just so strong that it
Speaker 3: wouldn't matter. It could be, you know, first of the punch.
Speaker 3: Every time he would just take me over and move
Speaker 3: me back like it was nothing.
Speaker 1: So there was no.
Speaker 3: Drive even three man because he was just so strong
Speaker 3: and made it very difficult.
Speaker 1: But yeah, being heads with a wall man.
Speaker 2: Even at thirty eight, Andy had exactly what coach Jeff
Speaker 2: was looking for, what Rocky balboas trainer, was looking for,
Speaker 2: blunt force trump. He was the team's resident brick wall
Speaker 2: immobile and highly resistant to attack. The idea of Andy
Speaker 2: playing at his age was funny until it wasn't until
Speaker 2: you had to face off with him. But once practice
Speaker 2: was over, the aches began. Andy's body was a throbbing
Speaker 2: nerve ending. It wasn't just the car accident that could
Speaker 2: have led to lasting effects. No one's really sure. It
Speaker 2: was the cumulative effects of spending decades in manual labor,
Speaker 2: and years before that, playing football as a young man,
Speaker 2: there were ice baths and massages and a trainer who
Speaker 2: was tasked with putting andy back together.
Speaker 1: Hips, knees back. That was probably the most.
Speaker 9: I mean I was constantly taking ice baths, get the
Speaker 9: lactic acid obviously out of my muscles, going in, getting
Speaker 9: hooked up to those electrodes stimulating the muscles in every area,
Speaker 9: and being older, you know, had just.
Speaker 1: You don't recover like young people do.
Speaker 9: You know when you're a kid thirteen, fourteen, you'd go
Speaker 9: do something and you'd be sore that night and then
Speaker 9: next day you're fine. Well, when you're fourty, did you
Speaker 9: go out give it one hundred percent on Saturday?
Speaker 2: Going to practice and showing up thirty minutes early just
Speaker 2: to stretch.
Speaker 9: I was fine even, you know, It's just until I
Speaker 9: went to bed and woke up the next day and
Speaker 9: go ooh, and it was like literally being in a.
Speaker 1: Car accident train. It just felt like I got this
Speaker 1: frap kicked out of me.
Speaker 9: I mean, I've got pictures on my phone of bruises
Speaker 9: I'd have and they were just grotesque. You're talking my
Speaker 9: whole quad just completely green and black and blue, you know,
Speaker 9: purple armed brunes from my top of my bicep to
Speaker 9: my wrists and it would swell up and oh yeah,
Speaker 9: just I mean it was that daily grind.
Speaker 2: On the field. Well, that was different. The field was
Speaker 2: a pain killer. Adrenaline shaved a lot of years off
Speaker 2: and Andy was able to do what Andy does. Number
Speaker 2: ninety three was a human bulldozer.
Speaker 9: Some saturdays, I felt young again. It was a transition.
Speaker 9: You know, I might be lenting like a son of
Speaker 9: a gun from Monday to Friday, but then on Saturday,
Speaker 9: I'd get a pep in my step and fly around,
Speaker 9: you know, a head out of swivel.
Speaker 2: Here's coach Jeff again.
Speaker 10: There was one play that I remember specifically where they
Speaker 10: were double teaming up and he kind of took one
Speaker 10: hand on one guy in one hand on the other
Speaker 10: and pushed him both apart, and he was standing right
Speaker 10: and the running backs away as he tried to go
Speaker 10: through that area just stuck out to me just because
Speaker 10: of the strength and power shown in that play. I
Speaker 10: don't know if that's necessarily his best play, but it's
Speaker 10: just one that is ringing in my head still.
Speaker 2: Ten years later, Andy was trying to fit in another
Speaker 2: way too. The rules Culver Stockton mandated that you had
Speaker 2: to reside within the state to attend on campus, so
Speaker 2: that first year he did as freshmen do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't have much.
Speaker 9: I lost pretty much everything in the divorce, so as
Speaker 9: far as material items, I.
Speaker 1: Didn't have much.
Speaker 9: But I went down there lived in a fraternity house
Speaker 9: on campus for the first semester because they.
Speaker 1: Couldn't find a room mate for me. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: went down there with just basically close a couple of suitcases, TV.
Speaker 9: And I was about it and ended up living in
Speaker 9: a frat house first semester, which was interesting.
Speaker 2: College is college, even if you're twice as old as
Speaker 2: everyone else.
Speaker 1: It was loud, you know.
Speaker 9: I was thirty eight years old and familied up for
Speaker 9: all those years, and here I've moved in and they're
Speaker 9: throwing parties every night. I had to heal up so
Speaker 9: much because I was so exhausted. I got no rest.
Speaker 1: It was just so loud. And luckily I was on
Speaker 1: the top.
Speaker 9: Floor of the house and kind of in the corner,
Speaker 9: so it was a little quieter where I was at,
Speaker 9: but you could still hear him from the basement going
Speaker 9: and they were typical young guys.
Speaker 1: You know they're having fun. I would lie to say
Speaker 1: I didn't join them on Saturday night, so I had fun.
Speaker 9: I was gonna do my thing and feel accepted amongst
Speaker 9: the young guys.
Speaker 2: Andy stayed in the frat. Just one year after that
Speaker 2: he moved into a dorm with Mike and some other teammates.
Speaker 2: But wherever he was, Andy had seniority and a group
Speaker 2: of twenty year olds looking up to him. Maybe Andy
Speaker 2: had some answers, not just for football, but in life.
Speaker 9: It was an interesting time. And then you hear you
Speaker 9: what these young guys think of and their way of
Speaker 9: thinking compared to my way of thinking at the time,
Speaker 9: and I would question it in my own mind. I
Speaker 9: would try to figure out their understanding of what they
Speaker 9: were talking about, just be able to communicate with and
Speaker 9: luckily having a teenage son at the time, like kind
Speaker 9: of knew what they're going through, what they're.
Speaker 1: Likes, and what they didn't like.
Speaker 9: It was an interesting time to go and be amongst
Speaker 9: yung adults when here I was old enough to be
Speaker 9: their dad.
Speaker 2: Here's Mike Davis again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: A lot of guys would go to him with life
Speaker 3: problems and things that he had experienced or been through.
Speaker 3: Like said, he's been my best friend for a long
Speaker 3: time and I still reach out to him to this day.
Speaker 3: You know, my father ended up passing away in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: and he was a big supporter for me, and you know,
Speaker 3: he drove all the way off from Dwajack and we
Speaker 3: hung out with us for like a week.
Speaker 1: And he's a great guy, and he's just that type
Speaker 1: of person.
Speaker 3: He's very giving of himself, but he also shoots you straight.
Speaker 1: So if it's something that you ask him a piece
Speaker 1: of advice, he's going to give it to you. It's
Speaker 1: going to be hot and sunest. You know.
Speaker 3: I think that resonated a lot with some of the
Speaker 3: younger guys, especially, you know, he's twice in each.
Speaker 2: The Wildcats were definitely because a team on and off
Speaker 2: the field, but that first season wasn't a whole lot
Speaker 2: better than the season Pride. They went three and eight,
Speaker 2: with two of those victories coming after the opposing teams
Speaker 2: had to forfeit after using ineligible players in their games,
Speaker 2: but their lone victory outside of logistics was a memorable one.
Speaker 2: That October they played Lindenwood University Belleville at home behind
Speaker 2: fourteen seven with just under three minutes left, the team
Speaker 2: scored two late touchdowns. Andy contributed ten tackles in the
Speaker 2: game and forty five for the season, fourteen of them solo.
Speaker 2: At the end of the spring semester, Andy traveled back
Speaker 2: to Michigan, where he had custody of his two sons
Speaker 2: and where he was able to earn some money selling cars.
Speaker 2: You could call this an active recovery time, since his
Speaker 2: body needed to heal from the eleven game and countless practices.
Speaker 7: He had put it through.
Speaker 9: Buddy of mine's dad owned both the Ford and Chevy
Speaker 9: dealerships in our town, and I would go and sell
Speaker 9: cars in the day and then come home my boys
Speaker 9: and work out, you know, just.
Speaker 1: Kind of the normal.
Speaker 9: I didn't stay down and train like my roommates stayed
Speaker 9: down in at Culver and train, but I had my
Speaker 9: son's full time in the summer show.
Speaker 1: I needed that time.
Speaker 2: Andy returned to Missouri for his sophomore year, his second
Speaker 2: as a Wildcat. This time the team posted a two
Speaker 2: and nine record, but there was again a sense Andy
Speaker 2: was able to turn the clock back a bit.
Speaker 1: Of course, I was a ron stopper.
Speaker 9: I wasn't much of a pass rusher, playing at three
Speaker 9: hundred average, but between three ten and three hundred and
Speaker 9: forty pounds I could hold two three guys. I was
Speaker 9: double on triple team almost eighty five percent of the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was great.
Speaker 2: During that's and Andy's father was able to see him
Speaker 2: play for the first time since he was at Farris State. Well,
Speaker 2: it seems like a simple thing. It wasn't a foregone conclusion.
Speaker 2: Jerry Stayton, then in his seventies, had been through open
Speaker 2: heart surgery. He'd been battling cancer, so seeing him at
Speaker 2: a game was a big deal.
Speaker 1: I think we're in Iowa.
Speaker 9: My dad came down to watch, and my brother's closest
Speaker 9: friend in high school was living out there, so he
Speaker 9: came to and I was having a heck of a
Speaker 9: game I can remember. And then the old line on
Speaker 9: that particular team. Back then they could do the chop
Speaker 9: block before they made it illegal. And this one kid,
Speaker 9: he just he kept chopping and then he would leg
Speaker 9: with me. He hyper extended my knee, and of course
Speaker 9: I could still run, so I run off the field.
Speaker 9: My trainer, Robbie Carmichael, he's like you're done, and I'm like,
Speaker 9: melt taa dapa, and he's like, he goes, there's only
Speaker 9: you know whatever, not even half of the fourth quarter left,
Speaker 9: and my dad's you know, standing by the fence now
Speaker 9: looking at me.
Speaker 1: I'm on the you know, the gurney, and I'm just I.
Speaker 9: Made him tape me up and I went back out
Speaker 9: and finished the game.
Speaker 2: Still the damage was adding up. Every game can be
Speaker 2: like a minor car accident with the same kind of injuries.
Speaker 9: I had a staff in infection in my knee and
Speaker 9: I did miss two games from that, and then I
Speaker 9: broke my ribs my second year and I missed two
Speaker 9: games with that. It was a home game and guy
Speaker 9: crack blocked me and put his helmet my ribs, broke
Speaker 9: my bottom.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't let the doctor test him anymore.
Speaker 9: He used the tuning fork style as where he takes
Speaker 9: a tuning fork and he hits it vibrates and if
Speaker 9: you scream, it's broken. And he did the bottom two
Speaker 9: and I told you to do another one, doc, you're
Speaker 9: going to have broken ribs, because I I could take
Speaker 9: it more.
Speaker 2: There was another summer resting, and then his junior year
Speaker 2: where the Wildcats finally found their rhythm. They went five
Speaker 2: and five for the season, but four and two at home.
Speaker 6: It was an.
Speaker 9: Experience as far as growing together, having a winning season
Speaker 9: on our third year.
Speaker 2: But that winning effort would come at a very steep price.
Speaker 2: At Culver Stockton, everything was largely falling into place. Andy
Speaker 2: was doing well academically, managing to make it home to
Speaker 2: Michigan to see his sons, and not partying too hard.
Speaker 2: But football is unlike a lot of sports, It's virtually
Speaker 2: a form of combat.
Speaker 9: I didn't move as well my third year, just because
Speaker 9: I was hurting so much. But my first year, I
Speaker 9: would say my first season was my most dominating season.
Speaker 9: I was a little fresher, was so beat up, but
Speaker 9: I came in every game.
Speaker 1: You know. I gave everything I said I always did.
Speaker 2: By the time he was nearing his senior year and
Speaker 2: crossing forty years old, Andy's body had finally had enough.
Speaker 2: Just getting to the field became an exercise in determination.
Speaker 1: There were there were times that I'd have to have help.
Speaker 1: Guys would get me down.
Speaker 9: Because everything that's called the College on the Hill for
Speaker 9: a reason. Every there's hills everywhere in Culver and to
Speaker 9: get down to the stadium. You had to walk down
Speaker 9: about seven flights of stairs. I'd have to have help,
Speaker 9: either's somebody on one side, me holding both hands on
Speaker 9: the guardrail walking slope. I can remember Sundays not being fun,
Speaker 9: that's for sure. My body was completely My knees were
Speaker 9: so loose.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 9: The trainer he do tests on him and you could
Speaker 9: separate them. They were so the elasticity in my ligaments
Speaker 9: were They're gone.
Speaker 2: It was decision time. Football had given Andy a new
Speaker 2: lease on life. But if you went on too long,
Speaker 2: it might wind up being too much on his body.
Speaker 9: So I just knew I didn't have another season. I
Speaker 9: physically couldn't. Did I want to, of course I did,
Speaker 9: But I miss also missed my boys, and I was
Speaker 9: ready to be around them, you know, full time.
Speaker 1: And that was the other thing I had to get back.
Speaker 9: I'd gotten my degree, I'd gotten my education done, and yes,
Speaker 9: I could have stayed around for another season.
Speaker 1: I was ready to come home.
Speaker 2: As they say, he wanted to play four years, but
Speaker 2: the pain and recovery was too much of a burden.
Speaker 2: Well that was a goal, it wasn't the goal. The
Speaker 2: goal was to earn a business degree, and thanks to
Speaker 2: his credits carrying over from Faris State all the way
Speaker 2: back in nineteen ninety three, Andy was able to graduate
Speaker 2: in three years. He hadn't just gone back to fix
Speaker 2: a football career. He had also turned back the clock academically.
Speaker 1: I ended up graduating with like a three five.
Speaker 9: I think it was culvert where, you know, when I
Speaker 9: was at Faris, I left there like a two seven.
Speaker 1: I made it just two six.
Speaker 9: I can't remember something like that. I didn't care, you know,
Speaker 9: and listen second time. I knew that the education was
Speaker 9: the main factor, but it was also the time to
Speaker 9: finish what I'd started at such a young inch.
Speaker 1: I had that opportunity. I was passive though.
Speaker 2: His final game came against Benedictine, a twenty nine to
Speaker 2: nineteen loss for the Wildcats. Fittingly, it was senior day.
Speaker 1: It was time to hang athletes up.
Speaker 9: Once I've turned forty and played that last season, it
Speaker 9: was definitely time to hang him up.
Speaker 2: By now, it was twenty fifteen and Andy returned to
Speaker 2: Dewagik with a degree. He kept selling cars for a while,
Speaker 2: but eventually turned his attention to another their mode of transportation.
Speaker 9: Well, I stayed with the car industry for all about
Speaker 9: a year and a half two years, and just wasn't
Speaker 9: making the money I needed to. And a friend the
Speaker 9: family had this diesel company selling diesel engines and diesel
Speaker 9: engine parts and asked me if I wanted to try
Speaker 9: it out, and I said, well, yeah, I see what happened,
Speaker 9: and ended up working for him, and he ended up
Speaker 9: selling it about two years ago. But I'm still a
Speaker 9: family owned company, so I'm still still here buying and
Speaker 9: selling diesel.
Speaker 2: Engines in Dwagic. Andy is a bit of a local legend.
Speaker 2: If you know football, you know his story. There's the
Speaker 2: comeback sports tale of it all, of course, but there
Speaker 2: was more to it than that. For Andy, football was
Speaker 2: a way to moderate his emotions, a kind of stress reliever.
Speaker 9: My dad always told me, he said, you know, you're
Speaker 9: so aggressive. The sports things what keeps you out of trouble,
Speaker 9: And he was right. I had a switch that I
Speaker 9: couldn't turn off unless I was playing the game or
Speaker 9: wrestling or lifting or whatnot. But playing down there it
Speaker 9: helped turn that switch off that I had been carrying
Speaker 9: on for nineteen years after and I mean it was
Speaker 9: an experience of a lifetime.
Speaker 2: Being a Wildcat. Was also the end of the what
Speaker 2: if game? What if he had stayed at Ferris, what
Speaker 2: if he had followed his father and brother further into football.
Speaker 2: There are questions that can haunt the mind for years,
Speaker 2: maybe forever.
Speaker 9: It was closing a chapter in my life that never
Speaker 9: got closed after my first year or you know at
Speaker 9: faris so when you work so hard for something throughout
Speaker 9: your younger years.
Speaker 1: And then you give up on it. I mean I quit.
Speaker 1: I was a quitter.
Speaker 9: My family didn't raise quitters. That was the hardest thing
Speaker 9: for me. So finishing the game, finishing the school, it
Speaker 9: just closed that chapter that needed to be closed.
Speaker 1: It's over now a memory, it's a great memory.
Speaker 9: I'd really have no complaints of that period in my life,
Speaker 9: I mean, other than not being around my son's on
Speaker 9: a more regular basis. But God intended that happen without
Speaker 9: anyone knowing.
Speaker 2: For Mike and other members of the team, Andy's presence
Speaker 2: was something special. It's hard to go through life thinking
Speaker 2: something isn't possible when your teammate returned to college football
Speaker 2: at an age most guys are thinking about their prostate health.
Speaker 2: Here's Mike.
Speaker 1: He was He was an All Conference player.
Speaker 3: I mean, it wasn't like he was some you know, kicker,
Speaker 3: a bench guy or anything like that.
Speaker 1: He played, and he played a lot. I guess it
Speaker 1: just goes to show you me and you just never
Speaker 1: know and you can be done doing something or not.
Speaker 1: But I don't know.
Speaker 3: I just one of those things that it's impressive and
Speaker 3: to know that if he could do it, somebody else do.
Speaker 1: And I think that his resilience is unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Today Andy doesn't really need to be reminded of his accomplishment.
Speaker 2: His body does that every day. He probably needs knee
Speaker 2: surgery for starters.
Speaker 1: I don't recommend guys going to doing it paying for it.
Speaker 9: Now I can barely walk. The pain is ten times full.
Speaker 9: That was in pain doing it, but now it's with me.
Speaker 1: Twenty four to seven.
Speaker 9: I sell diesel engines, sit behind the desk, so I'm
Speaker 9: not really moving too much anymore. But I definitely wouldn't
Speaker 9: recommend it to any other thirty eight thirty nine year
Speaker 9: old boys to go play nose tackle.
Speaker 2: And while there's no chance Andy is going to become
Speaker 2: a forty eight year old sensation on any field, it's
Speaker 2: not because he wouldn't want to try you.
Speaker 1: Know, if I can still play to this day, I'd
Speaker 1: play every single day in my life. I love stepping
Speaker 1: on that field. There's no other feeling in the.
Speaker 2: World except, of course, the feeling that comes with finishing
Speaker 2: what you started on a field near the Mississippi, or
Speaker 2: maybe the feeling you have watching your son step onto
Speaker 2: the field today. Luke Andy's youngest son plays college ball
Speaker 2: at Northern Michigan, where he's also a Wildcat.
Speaker 1: He's enjoying it. He's a good sized kid.
Speaker 9: He's six ' four about two fifty two fifty five,
Speaker 9: just continuing the family tradition. He's playing d Lion. He's
Speaker 9: starting long snapern punk. He's got an unbelievable snap. It's
Speaker 9: rare to see him.
Speaker 1: Make a mistake when it comes to the snap.
Speaker 9: And I told him that's healthier anyway, I said, your
Speaker 9: body doesn't get beat up being a lot of snapping.
Speaker 1: Oh. Like I said, there's no other feeling in the
Speaker 1: world but that hell.
Speaker 9: I mean, it's something that not many men get to experience,
Speaker 9: especially at the collegiate level.
Speaker 1: And just play every game like at your.
Speaker 7: Last this time.
Speaker 2: Andy finally, is what those Culver Stockton players originally imagine
Speaker 2: him to be on his first day of training, someone's
Speaker 2: proud cheering from the sidelines.
Speaker 5: I cannot believe that story. I mean, okay, you have
Speaker 5: to understand.
Speaker 8: I'm kind of like an accident mavin like, I'm down
Speaker 8: to go forty miles an hour and hit pavement.
Speaker 5: There's no way you could get me. And I'm a
Speaker 5: little older than this guy.
Speaker 8: There's no way you get me on a football field
Speaker 8: and have three hundred pound men hit me over and
Speaker 8: over again and be like, yeah, I can do this,
Speaker 8: I can take it. And I'm not even afraid of
Speaker 8: getting hit by a car.
Speaker 6: I'm afraid of everything, and football scares me so much.
Speaker 6: Even now, I can barely touch my toes. I don't
Speaker 6: know how someone his age was doing the physical feats
Speaker 6: he was.
Speaker 5: Do you feel like you understand your husband a little
Speaker 5: bit better now though?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 6: Absolutely, Although he has told me stories about playing football
Speaker 6: in high school and getting like multiple concussions, and I'm like,
Speaker 6: I do not know why people do this on purpose,
Speaker 6: but they do, and they love it and it's important
Speaker 6: to America as a.
Speaker 8: Culture completely, and all of my doctors, there are parts
Speaker 8: of my body even feel anymore like one of my
Speaker 8: knees like I can put in a position, you can.
Speaker 5: Just put fire on it.
Speaker 4: I can't feel that. So very special character, Yes, I
Speaker 4: have one who's yours. I'm gonna go with the coach
Speaker 4: because here's what I what I like about the coach.
Speaker 4: Everyone in college football he's competing against, like they are
Speaker 4: recruiting their kids, yes playing football, and he decided to go,
Speaker 4: you know, a little, a little outside the box, way
Speaker 4: outside and just find an older man who was physically
Speaker 4: much larger than everybody and.
Speaker 5: Could be the father most of the other teammates.
Speaker 6: My very special character is an implied character. Oh he
Speaker 6: or she is not actually in the episode, but it
Speaker 6: is Andrew's orthopedist, and I just want to give respect
Speaker 6: where respect is do?
Speaker 5: I like that? Good call.
Speaker 8: My very special character is also somebody who is not
Speaker 8: actually featured in the episode. But I want to know
Speaker 8: who was it who robbed the six foot five defensive
Speaker 8: tax when he was in the repeat college Yeah, repeat,
Speaker 8: I kept getting robbed.
Speaker 5: I'm like, who's robbing?
Speaker 7: This makes a real like? Was it like a trickster?
Speaker 4: This?
Speaker 7: Because I couldn't have been through brute force?
Speaker 4: Zaren have you cast this one?
Speaker 8: I did I'm glad you asked, Jason. I thought a
Speaker 8: lot about this because there's a lot of.
Speaker 5: Big guys, you know.
Speaker 8: You're like, oh, maybe a young Vincent and Afrio, Maybe
Speaker 8: that guy from like you know, the New Reacher TV show.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, a little little more muscle and weight on him.
Speaker 8: But I was like, you know what, No, I've got it,
Speaker 8: and a lot of people they they may not see
Speaker 8: this and may not agree, but hear me out. Put
Speaker 8: a little extra weight on him. Maybe go send him
Speaker 8: over to Italy on a eating tour. Yeah, Adam Driver,
Speaker 8: he's got the height and also he's got the intensity.
Speaker 8: You don't think about it, but he's got the intensity.
Speaker 7: He played an older man in Ferrari.
Speaker 5: Yes, there you go.
Speaker 6: He can pull that off. I think I don't think
Speaker 6: he's tall enough. But I would love a role that
Speaker 6: brings chubby Chris Pratt back. Oh yeah, I would love
Speaker 6: if he got back into that that physique.
Speaker 5: I like it.
Speaker 4: Here's who I would cast and bring it back to
Speaker 4: our conversation at the top, But I think we put
Speaker 4: Jason Kelcey and Travis Kelcey in this together. I don't
Speaker 4: know which one plays Andy, which one plays his brother,
Speaker 4: but I think they're going to be looking for something
Speaker 4: after this whole football thing, and movies about football is
Speaker 4: a nice.
Speaker 7: Jump podcast Don't Last Forever?
Speaker 4: Yeah that's right.
Speaker 5: Where are they? Where are they? Where are they now?
Speaker 4: You know? Oh, they rented a building.
Speaker 5: That makes sense.
Speaker 8: I liked also the story because it had kind of
Speaker 8: like a Paul Newman in Slapshot feel.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure if you know that movie, but.
Speaker 8: It's just like this chaotic sports energy and you're just like,
Speaker 8: I love this. It makes you all of a sudden
Speaker 8: feel like in that case it's hockey, but this case
Speaker 8: was football because I played football, and listening to the guy,
Speaker 8: I'm like, I could feel the hits.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh man, this is authentico. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: And also a very special behind the scenes character producer
Speaker 4: Josh Fisher over there for sound designing those hits and
Speaker 4: making me feel like I'm concussed, which is great. That's
Speaker 4: what you want to put people in the story. Well, well,
Speaker 4: Zaron Dana, thank you for schlepping out here to Vegas,
Speaker 4: and we're gonna go to a nice team dinner tonight.
Speaker 4: I don't think there'll be tiktoks, but if there are,
Speaker 4: follow Dana's TikTok.
Speaker 7: I can't wait. Thank you.
Speaker 6: This was such a delight to finally get to hang
Speaker 6: out with you guys in person.
Speaker 5: I'm so glad to be here with you guys.
Speaker 4: Yeahs Aaron, We've probably been on hundreds of hours of
Speaker 4: Zoom together. The first time we have physically met in person, Dana,
Speaker 4: it's been a couple of years since, uh, since I've
Speaker 4: seen you, and you.
Speaker 7: Knew me back in my post grad days.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And can I be real with you guys, You
Speaker 8: guys were way cooler than I thought you were be
Speaker 8: in person.
Speaker 7: I'll take it.
Speaker 6: I don't play football, but I do try to be
Speaker 6: slightly cooler than people expect in person.
Speaker 5: See, I don't do that. I'd the exact opposite. So
Speaker 5: that's why I can say that. I'm like, oh, well,
Speaker 5: you know I tried.
Speaker 4: Sorry, Well, thank you for listening. We'll be back with
Speaker 4: another one of these next Wednesday. Yeah, very special Episodes
Speaker 4: is made by some very special people. This episode was
Speaker 4: written by Jake Rawson. Our producer, editor and sound designer
Speaker 4: is Josh Fisher. Additional editing by Jonathan Washington, Mixing and
Speaker 4: mastering by Beheid Fraser. Original music by Alice McCoy. Our
Speaker 4: researchers are Austin Thompson and Marsa Brown Show logo by
Speaker 4: Lucy Kintonia, And again, just want to thank Aaron Kaufman
Speaker 4: and Kurt Garren from the iHeart team for letting us
Speaker 4: come hang out here, and you know, I'm sure they
Speaker 4: got eight hundred other things they'd rather be doing. Great sports.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much. Very Special Episodes is a production
Speaker 4: of iHeart Podcasts.