(70-C) Article/Interview of Danny Abramowicz a Few Days Before the 2010 Super Bowl

        A few days before New Orleans beat Indianapolis in the 2010 Super Bowl, the Cleveland Plain Dealer interviewed a New Orleans legend born and raised in nearby Steubenville, Ohio.  He was among the first to be inducted into the Halls of Fame of Xavier University and the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame.  He was an All-Pro wide receiver in 1969 and Offensive Coordinator of Mike Ditka from 1990-93.  He hosts the television program Crossing the Goal on EWTN.  

       Danny fell into the high life of pro football and became an alcoholic.  After undergoing a conversion, he is devoting his life to helping men get into spiritual shape.  In his very dynamic talks around the country, he draws upon his experiences in pro football and applies them to the very serious game of life, where the trophy is Heaven as the Lord congratulates the new saint with the words:  Well done good and faithful servant.  Among his books are "Spiritual Workout of a Former Saint".

       Danny Abramowicz will be the featured speaker in both the morning and afternoon sessions at the Steubenville Diocesan Men's Day of Renewal on Saturday March 10 from 9 am to 3pm at St. John's Church in Bellaire, Ohio just south of I-470 across the river from Wheeling off of Route 7.  All men are invited to attend.  One does not have to be Catholic.  There is a discount of $5 from the original $20 if a person registers before February 15.

 Who dat? Danny Abramowicz was the New Orleans Saints' first star, and will root for his old team from his Steubenville home

Published: Sunday, January 31, 2010, 7:00 PM     Updated: Monday, February 01, 2010, 9:46 AM

By Bill Lubinger, The Plain Dealer

Bill Lubinger, The Plain Dealer

In 1967, Danny Abramowicz emerged out of Steubenville, Ohio and Xavier University to become one of the most unlikely receiving stars in the NFL for the expansion New Orleans Saints. Today, Abramowicz still lives in Steubenville and is rooting for his old team in the Super Bowl. “The Saints winning the Super Bowl would put the finishing touches on it for the fans,” he said. “The people have been through thick and thin, and with [Hurricane] Katrina and all that on top of this ..." 


STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- He was the football player nobody really wanted, not even the expansion team that chose him in the 17th and final round of the 1967 NFL draft.

        The kid was too slow. Didn't play at one of those big-time football schools. Didn't have a name that echoed easily across the stadium air on a fall Sunday afternoon. But he overcame his own physical shortcomings and season after season of losing football to be remembered as one of the best to ever play for the New Orleans Saints.

         When the Saints take the field Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts in their first Super Bowl ever, it will be for guys like Danny Abramowicz.


 
Times Picayune
In the creative style of the day, a newspaper photographer cropped Abramowicz in this photo to generate a sensation of speed. But that was never Abramowicz's strength during his NFL career.

       Far from the sun and spotlight of South Beach, one of the original New Orleans Saints will be at home on a quiet cul-de-sac in the shrinking Ohio steel town where he grew up, watching with his 90-year-old father and the high school sweetheart he married 43 years ago.

       "They'll probably get more exposure in these two weeks than in the whole history of the franchise," said Abramowicz, now 64 and deeply involved in his Catholic ministry through speaking engagements and "Crossing the Goal," which airs on cable's Catholic network, EWTN.

        Super Bowl? Abramowicz never even played on a winning team in six frustrating seasons in New Orleans, a city whose grit and resilience he shared to battle his way from afterthought to All-Pro. He endured more losing as a Saints radio analyst and as offensive coordinator under head coach Mike Ditka.
So, sure, the 44th Super Bowl is special because his old team finally made it.

         What a release! "The Saints winning the Super Bowl would put the finishing touches on it for the fans," he said. "The fans have been loyal through all these years. They went through the bag-heads and the 'Ain'ts' and all that stuff. ... The people have been through thick and thin, and with [Hurricane] Katrina and all that on top of this ..."  And so has he.

         Abramowicz -- pronounced Abram-OH-vich in his native Polish -- excelled in three sports at Steubenville Catholic Central, at a time when it seemed the Ohio River rolled past little more than billowing steel mills, churches and football fields. But quick moves and sure hands don't overcome covering 40 yards in a sluggish 4.8 seconds. Only Xavier offered him a football scholarship, so he accepted and headed to Cincinnati when racial strife and the Vietnam War had the country in tatters.


          He set records at Xavier, which later dropped football, and is in the school's sports Hall of Fame. But his football-playing days probably would have ended right there if not for the NFL looking to grow.
New Orleans was granted the league's 16th franchise and scheduled to begin play in 1967. The Saints had to sew a roster together from scraps and draft choices, setting their fate for years to come.

          "Most of their players were coming in as castoffs from other teams, so it was a slow go," said Joe Horrigan, spokesman for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, about 90 minutes northwest of here.

Danny Abramowicz talks Saints

Danny Abramowicz talks Saints Former New Orleans Saints wide receiver Danny Abramowicz talks about his time with the Saints from his Stuebenville, Ohio home. Watch video

          In the 17th and final round of the college draft, New Orleans picked a wide receiver with name that was hard to pronounce. Abramowicz, a fireman's son who grew up a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and had only been to one NFL game in his life to that point, said the Saints never even called to tell him. He found out from another team's scout. He wasn't even invited to mini-camp.

          "It made me work harder," he said. "I learned from my father and from the people here that you never give up, fight like hell, and that's what happened."

          An eyelash from being cut that first NFL summer, he demanded head coach Tom Fears give him a fair shot, as he was promised at the start of summer camp. "I'm not leaving," he told Fears after being instructed to turn in his playbook. "You haven't even given me a chance."

          "You're serious, aren't you?" the coach said. Fears agreed to give him more time, although it was little more than lip service. Billy Kilmer, the Saints' first quarterback, said he was told before the team headed to Portland, Ore., for a preseason game against San Francisco that Abramowicz was going to be cut after the game. Kilmer relayed the bad news to Abramowicz and then promised to throw him as many passes as he could that night.


 
Times Picayune
Danny Abramowicz couldn't hold onto this pass against the Philadelphia Eagles at New Orleans' old Tulane Stadium. But he averaged 51 receptions in his six full seasons with the Saints, who never won more than five games in any of those campaigns.

          "He caught every ball -- on the ground, out of reach, everything," recalled Kilmer, who lives in Ft. Lauderdale. "That's how he made the team, on pure guts. He played so good they couldn't cut him."
The Saints lost their first seven games before finally beating Philadelphia, 31-24, as former Browns kick returner Walter "The Flea" Roberts caught three touchdowns.

           As for Abramowicz, he didn't crack the lineup until the seventh game of the season, when a starter got hurt. He caught 12 passes that day and stuck with the first team.


           Abramowicz, who signed for $17,000 and earned no more than $64,000 in a season when he played, wound up leading the team in catches in 1967, led the league in catches two years later and set an NFL record for most consecutive games with a reception, long since broken.

           He retired 35 years ago after two seasons with San Francisco and a brief stop in Buffalo, but still stands third on the Saints' all-time list in receptions, touchdown catches and yards. The accomplishments are more significant given that he played in an era when quarterbacks didn't throw as much and defensive backs could all but maul a receiver.

           When the Saints launched a Hall of Fame, he was at the head of the first class in 1988 -- inducted with Archie Manning, father of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. He still remembers holding little Peyton and his baby brother Eli on his lap, back when he and their Dad were teammates.

           Abramowicz is lifelong friends with the Mannings. He made Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore one of his first hires when he ran the Saints offense for Ditka from 1997 to 2000. But come Super Bowl Sunday, his loyalty is without question.

           "I'd like to see Peyton have a good game and the Saints win with a field goal at the end. [Then] the monkey's off everyone's back down there," said Abramowicz, who would often troll the backwaters of the bayou for redfish with jazz trumpeter Al Hirt, a Saints minority owner at the time.

          Abramowicz, who has three grown children and four grandsons, got caught up in the New Orleans nightlife and developed an alcohol problem that almost wrecked his life. When he finally got help in 1981, recovery locked him into his family and his faith.

           Abramowicz and his wife, Claudia, lived on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain until Katrina chased them out to Memphis and, almost three years ago, back to Steubenville -- birthplace of Dean Martin -- to care for their elderly fathers.

           The sunroom off the back of their house on a hill is where they'll be glued to their television Sunday, watching the Saints make new history while remembering the old.

           The Saints were 3-11 that inaugural year, ending on a high note by crushing the Redskins, 30-14, as Abramowicz caught seven passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns.  When the team returned from Washington, they were greeted at the airport by about 3,000 cheering fans. Hirt threw a big party on the French Quarter that night, blowing his horn well into the next morning. All for a 3-11 team.

           "I always said that if we ever won the Super Bowl," Kilmer said, "they'd have Mardi Gras here the rest of our lives."

Related topics: danny abramowicz, new orleans saints, super bowl XLIV

(51) Coach of the Year Despite a Losing Season?

         As we begin a new basketball season, let's look back at a stellar coaching job in the 2007-08 academic year, but unheralded and overlooked. It's a great story, a story of hard work, perseverance, and teaching that can serve as an inspiration and an example to all coaches for this coming season, especially to the younger ones.

        In our very competitive culture coaches are recognized and rewarded for winning. Those with losing records are looked down upon and often criticized. In the quest to accumulate W's and win championships we forget what coaching is really about at the amateur level.

          Donnie Saunders, the head basketball coach of South Gallia High School, is a recognized winner over a long career. He has taken his teams deep into sectional and district tournaments. But last year was probably his best coaching performance of all. I had an inside look since my son was on the team and I accompanied him to the practices.

        After the 2007 football team lost its last four games, a losing mentality carried over into basketball. The players were athletic with great potential, but predisposed to losing. A solid work ethic was missing. The attitude was poor. The team lacked cohesive teamwork, intensity, poise, and confidence.....seeming to be set on finding a way to lose. They were only going through the motions and beating themselves with turnovers. The team was blown out game after game and the losses piled up. They did not play as a team. Quickly, their record became 0–8. Morale was low and discipline sometimes was lacking. They were resigned to losing and some even joked about it.

        The losing tore the coach apart. Saunders tried everything to turn it around. He juggled lineups, even putting in inexperienced players in hopes of finding a spark. Coach Saunders alternated between being a teacher, father, and shrink. Yet he patiently kept his cool. He pointed out mistakes and taught the boys how to improve their play. Throughout the ordeal he believed in his boys even though they did not believe in themselves. In his personal life he kept the Faith, occasionally sharing his philosophy of life in teaching them how to live ethically in a competitive world.

         In order to turn it around, Donnie Saunders had to teach his kids how to win and motivate them to give their very best and reach their potential. He had to replace all of the negative baggage with positive values so important to success in life.....character, a work ethic, a belief in themselves, unselfish teamwork, intensity, etc. This is what high school and college sports are all about.

         In an effort to get them out of the funk, Saunders ordered some Saturday practices and even one on Sunday morning at 6 am so that the boys could still go to church and Sunday School. When his most gifted player missed a couple of practices, the coach had him come for special practices.....coach and player, one on one. Little by little these measures seemed to help. Although South Gallia was still losing and their record worsened to 0-11, they were now competitive. The games were closer.

          Meanwhile, the girls' basketball team was having its best season ever with a record of 11–1. They were playing at Meigs, a much larger high school in a higher division. Coach Saunders ordered his boys to to go to Pomeroy to support the girls. The Lady Rebels won in a last minute thriller, as their male counterparts enthusiastically cheered them on. That game may have been a turning point; the girls showed them how to win and then the boys finally did. That so elusive first win came at the next home game six days later on January 11 against Cross Lanes Christian 65-61.

        The boys were now more agressive and played with greater intensity; they began to believe in themselves as a more positive mental attitude developed. Victories started to come even against teams that blew them out earlier in the season....Hannan 65-58, New Boston 67-56, Ironton St. Joseph 57-48, a big 53-51 win at Buffalo, one of West Virginia's best teams, ranked #6 (class A) in the state, and 63-50 at Hannan. South Gallia won six of its final nine games of the regular season.

The tournament was effectively a new season. South Gallia was the last seed in a field of 10 teams, but overcame 7^th seed Ironton St. Joe 70–66 in overtime. In the Sectional Final, South Gallia was paired with the 2^nd seed, Waterford (14-2). The Rebels were ahead 27-17 at the half and had leads through much of the 3^rd Quarter before finally losing by five, 46-41 in the closing minutes. Waterford went on to win the District IV Championship and advance to the Sweet 16 of the Regional/State Tournament. Imagine what could have been if South Gallia had been able to get past Waterford!

        Excellent coaching really comes out, not with a championship team full of great talent, but in molding character and developing these diamonds in the rough to reach their potential on the court and in life. Donnie Saunders did just that, coming so close to taking his small team to the Ohio U. Convo.

        For all of this Coach Saunders deserves to be Coach of the Year. He loves the game and likes to talk about it. He loves to teach and coach.  Now begins another season with some starters back and green kids coming up.  It will take another great coaching job to make a winner out of them.  Saunders believes that good football players usually make good basketball players at the high school level.  The football team made the playoffs with one of their best teams ever.  We'll see if the basketball team does as well.

(33) 2010 Diocese of Steubenville Men's Conference in Marietta, Ohio

        After a lapse, the Diocese of Steubenville-Ohio has been organizing Men's Conferences since March 2009 when Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, now Bishop of Joliet, Illinois asked all of his pastors to send two lay representatives to an organizing meeting on May 2 at Corpus Christi Church in Belle Valley, centrally located in the far flung diocese extending about 200 miles along the west bank of the Ohio River from above Steubenille to Ironton on the Kentucky border.  The Bishop, himself opened it up with Mass and presided at the meeting, forming a Steering Committee.  Since then we have put on two and have a good start towards the third on March 10, 2012.

        As a member of the Steering Committee with Steve Ishmael as Chair, I have been passionate about its importance and strongly urge that every diocese hold a Men's Conference.  It's more difficult in a small diocese, covering a very large urban and rural area, but we did it.  Thus I would like to present a few blogs that will report what we have done.  Hopefully, other smaller dioceses can use the lessons we learned and organize Men's Conferences of their own.  Today let us begin with our first Men's Conference on March 13, 2010 after a lapse of a number of years.  Now our hope is to sustain the Conference and keep it going every Lent as an annual tradition in our diocese.  The following is the bulletin insert that we used for my parish, St. Louis Church in Gallipolis.  You can do as I did......corner the Bishop when he makes a pastoral visit and suggest it.  Feel free to write me at pauls@rio.edu if we can help you in any way and then we can make phone contact.

Editor's Post Conference Note:  See the following:

 (34) 2010 - Men's Conference Evaluation & Summary of the Work Involved                      http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2011/11/34-summary-of-work-involved-and.html

   

DIOCESE OF STEUBENVILLE ORGANIZING A MEN'S DAY OF RENEWAL
Taken from the March 7, 2010 St. Louis Church Sunday Bulletin.

        The Catholic Diocese of Steubenville is sponsoring a Men's Day of Renewal on the the 4^th Saturday of Lent March 13, 2010 from 9 am to 3 pm in the magnificent St. Mary's Church in Marietta. A visit alone to that proposed basilica with its exquisite works of art from Italy is worth the trip. The two large stained glass windows in the nave is worth a million dollars each.  There may be a tour.

        The goal of the Men's Day of Renewal is to focus on the spiritual development of the men of our diocese. Having spiritually strong men of faith and character translates into more solid families, more dynamic parishes, and better communities. These are crucial to the Church, now and in the future, not to mention the critical need of nurturing vocations.

        Too often the women are the pillars of the parish. It is essential that the men take the spiritual lead in the family and in the parish. One holy woman in our diocese likes to challenge the men and say: "I don't see many REAL men around".......i.e., authentic men of strong character, virtue, and integrity.......willing and able to put Catholic values into their families, their professions, and the public square. She refers to some research. It concludes that if the mother takes the spiritual lead in the family, there is in the neighborhood of a 35% probability that the children will remain faithful to the Church in later life. However, if the father takes the spiritual lead, that probability doubles. If the men can get into good spiritual shape, we'll have stronger families. That means stronger parishes and ultimately a stronger America, thus transforming Society.

        The principal speaker is Chris Horn, nationally known as a dynamic speaker of the Catholic Athletes for Christ (catholicathletesforchrist.org). He was a NFL wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs. Father Borer has agreed to speak and prepare the men for the sacrament of Reconciliation. Deacon Ralph Poyo (newevangelizationministries.org), another dynamic speaker, will relate how with God's grace he overcame his severe addiction to pornography and become a servant of the Lord. Bishop R. Daniel Conlan will offer the holy liturgy. 

        The cost will be $20 per person at the door although it is preferable to register in advance through the parish representative for the conference.  This would facilitate follow up on the undecided and for organizing car pools.  Going together in vans would make for very enjoyable fellowship which could result in greater friendship and stronger parish cohesion.  Often the enthusiasm generated at a men's conference is contagious and there is a spillover into parish life since the men see fellow participants moved by the beauty and power of the faith. Non-Catholics are also welcome. More information is available from the local parish priest.

            It should be a great day of enjoyable fellowship and spiritual invigoration. But most of all, through grace we'll have a few more good spiritually strong men for the kingdom of God in the battle against secularism and other evils and problems that our troubled society must confront.......men --not spiritual weaklings and wimps-- who will put Christ into their professions.  Finally, the men will become more knowledgeable, firmer in their faith and better prepared for a more joyful Easter, not to mention greater closeness to God and eternity which life on earth is all about.  If successful, a Men's Day of Renewal can become an annual event in our diocese, thus fulfilling a great need.

              The men will meet at 7 am this coming Saturday, March 13 in the church parking lot in front of the Parish Hall. Although registrations will be accepted at the door, please register with Paul Sebastian (245-9404)as soon as possible.. That would make planning much easier, especially in regard to organizing a van or car pool, and would minimize waiting at the door.

SUMMARY OF WHAT THE MEN'S CONFERENCE CAN DO FOR YOU.....BENEFITS

• Get into good spiritual shape and avoid being a spiritual weakling, i.e., a spiritual wimp.
• Have a great day of enjoyable fellowship and spiritual invigoration in the parish van and at the conference, resulting in deeper friendships and parish cohesion.
• Develop ourselves as men of character and spiritual strength as we obtain the graces to conquer ourselves and cope with the problems that our troubled society and economy brings to us.
• Be a more effective spiritual leader of your family as a better husband and father.
• Prepare our hearts for the great feast of Easter and for eternity as we become closer to God..
• Become knowledgeable about the faith and grow in Christian maturity. We know so little about Church teaching.
• Become a more effective soldier of Christ as you do your part in establishing the kingdom, winning the spiritual-culture war against secularism, and put Christ into your profession.