USD Football 1997

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THE HOLY CROSS IRON MAN AND MINI-LEGEND STILL TURNS HEADS IN WORCESTER.

By Graham Howes

cial down of organized football. Ironically, Lock– baum's preternatural ver– satility may have been his biggest drawback in the eyes of NFL scouts, who were unsure what position he could play in the pros. And his relatively slight stature - he was neither six feet tall nor 200 pounds - didn't help matters, either. "I tried out with the Steelers and the Bills and played in some preseason games, but it never panned out," he said. "It was a dis– appointing time and I gave it awhile, but then I decid– ed it was time to get on with my life." Now a vice-president with the Sullivan Insur-

e was a throwback to the era of the leather helmet, a two-way player in the age of special– ization. Equal parts rusher, receiver, returner and defen– sive back, Gordie Lockbaum did it all for the Holy Cross Crusaders during the mid-1980s. Check out the stat line he posted against Army his junior year: 22 tack– les and 113 rushing and receiving yards. Or consider the game against Massachusetts when he rushed for 74 yards, caught five passes for 140 yards, scored three touchdowns, forced a fumble and returned two kickoffs for 46 yards. By the time Lockbaum graduated with a 3.1 grade-point average and an economics degree, he had rewritten the school's record books and finished third (behind Notre Dame's Tim Brown and Syracuse's Don McPherson) in the 1987 Reisman race. "It was an exciting time because Holy Cross was obviously not a football powerhouse and suddenly we were getting a lot of attention from the national media," recalled Lockbaum, now 31. "Playing both ways was real– ly unique then because it hadn't been done for so long. We really didn't have a blueprint. so we just had to wing it. But we made it work in part because we had a run-and-shoot offense. After the games I'd be dead tired, but it's amaz– ing how far adrenaline and enthusiasm can take you." But after getting in on as many as 140 plays a game for the Crusaders, Lockbaum never played another offi-

Equal parts rusher, receiver, returner and defensive back, Holy Cross star Gordie Lockbaum finished third in the 1987 Heisman Trophy race.

ance Group, Lockbaum lives with his wife, Denise, and their eight-year-old son in Worcester, Mass., the same town where he starred for Holy Cross. ''I've been back here for eight years already a·nd I've built up a business that I'm proud of." Lockbaum said. "Selling insurance takes a lot of the same energies and competitive instincts as football." Otherwise, Lockbaum spends the balance of his time with his family and tries to stay as active as he can by playing golf, racquetball and baseball. Not that football is completely out of his system. In addition to coaching his son's flag football team, Lockbaum provides radio commentary for Holy Cross games and still accepts invita-

tions for public-speaking engage– ments. And he continues to enjoy a certain cult status around town from fans who recall how a strapping, oth– erwise unassuming, kid from the Colo– nial League took the college football i world by storm a decade ago. ~ "People still remember me, but ~ I've discovered that the older I get. the ~ more the details fade," he said with ~

GRAHAM HOWES is a freelance sportswriter based in New York City.

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