Comments on: Meet Johnny ‘Walk-on’: the Bobcat football player who never played in high school /news/2023/09/26/meet-the-walk-on-bates-football-player-who-never-played-the-game/ Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:37:16 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.3 By: Tom Troy /news/2023/09/26/meet-the-walk-on-bates-football-player-who-never-played-the-game/#comment-266608 Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:37:16 +0000 /news/?p=157382#comment-266608 I played kicking team/ cornerback for U-Mass Boston in 1984. Got crushed by 2 Bentley lineman trying to cut of a sweep…saw what to do on t.v. Congratulations John, we’re a couple of unicorns. (Not to be confused with Ohtani).

]]> By: Jim Hall /news/2023/09/26/meet-the-walk-on-bates-football-player-who-never-played-the-game/#comment-264298 Mon, 02 Oct 2023 22:12:57 +0000 /news/?p=157382#comment-264298 WOW! ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝’s Rudy!.

Jim Hall ’60

]]> By: Paul Ferry /news/2023/09/26/meet-the-walk-on-bates-football-player-who-never-played-the-game/#comment-264295 Fri, 29 Sep 2023 22:12:37 +0000 /news/?p=157382#comment-264295 What an inspiring story. Go Bobcats!
Paul Ferry’75

]]> By: Billy Bobcat /news/2023/09/26/meet-the-walk-on-bates-football-player-who-never-played-the-game/#comment-264294 Fri, 29 Sep 2023 21:46:59 +0000 /news/?p=157382#comment-264294 He makes a good Scotch AND is quite inspirational! Way to go!

]]> By: Richard Brogadir /news/2023/09/26/meet-the-walk-on-bates-football-player-who-never-played-the-game/#comment-264293 Fri, 29 Sep 2023 19:27:32 +0000 /news/?p=157382#comment-264293 This story is reminiscent of my son, Josh’s.
He begged us to let him play Youth Football which had just be started that year. Josh was in 8th grad.
He was 4’10’’ and weighed 88 pounds. We really didn’t want him to play football but agreed when his pediatrician said that a kid like Josh who is muscular and agile, would be OK.
The practice before the first game the coach came to our house and told us that there had been an accident at the field and that we should come immediately. When we got there Josh was on the ground with us ankle at a right angle to his leg. He had tackled a kid who was 125 pounds and his foot had gotten caught in the turf as the boy fell on his ankle. On the X-ray his tibia and fibula looked like they had been snapped in half. After surgery and about a 6 month recovery, he was pretty much recovered.
We clearly didn’t let him play high school football. He played trumpet in the band and was miserable.
When he attended the University of Pennsylvania, he learned that there was a Light Weight football program. The weight limit was 165 lbs. By this time Josh was 5’8” and weighed 160 lbs. He announced that he was playing. This is a varsity sport at Penn with full equipment, tackle and a league with Army,Navy,Princeton, and Cornell. Josh was the only player on the team who had not played high school football.
By his junior year he was starting at cornerback and made honorable mention all league both junior and senior years.
I thought that this story was very reminiscent of Johnny Walker’s.
Josh is currently Sports Anchor for WCVB in Boston.
Dick Brogadir’69

]]> By: Jeff Dropkin /news/2023/09/26/meet-the-walk-on-bates-football-player-who-never-played-the-game/#comment-264292 Fri, 29 Sep 2023 17:57:18 +0000 /news/?p=157382#comment-264292 Brix Brax Johnny!

]]>