Sept. 24, 2004
By Craig Chval
When Walt Patulski looked around upon arriving at Notre Dame, he noticed lots of guys just like himself – big, strong, and talented.
“There was so much amazing talent at Notre Dame,” recalls Patulski. “The abilities are pretty equal.
“You would see some guys not being able to translate those skills into effective play and others with marginal talent accomplishing a lot through great effort and mindset,” Patulski remembers. “That’s what I was interested in studying.”
Patulski did not come to Notre Dame as a defensive end or as a defensive player. He was a standout fullback at Christian Brothers Academy in Liverpool, N.Y., (a suburb of Syracuse, N.Y.) where he won nine letters in football, basketball and track. Tempted to follow in the footsteps of fullback Larry Czonka at Syracuse, Patulski opted instead for South Bend .
Moved from fullback to defensive end less than a week into his freshman season, Patulski found a way to rise to the top amid all the talent. By the time he was a senior, Patulski, who started every game of his Notre Dame career, was the UPI’s lineman of the year, finishing ninth in the Heisman Trophy balloting and winning the Lombardi Trophy as the country’s best lineman.
Despite the acclaim he won from the media and the public, Patulski ranks being elected by his teammates as Notre Dame’s captain for his senior season as the biggest thrill of his Notre Dame career.
“Being recognized by your colleagues as being worthy of leading them was quite an honor,” says Patulski, who was the number-one pick in the entire 1972 NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills.
After injuries cut short Patulski’s professional career (four years with Buffalo and one with St. Louis), he established himself in the financial services profession. More recently, he has also begun to share the insights he gleaned from watching football players battle to rise to the top of the depth chart.
Patulski’s audio series, “Vitamins and Minerals for the Mind,” examines keys to success in all aspects of life. In helping others learn how to get the most out of their God-given gifts, Patulski is simply following his own advice.
“Without a doubt, you have to do something you have a passion for,” he says. “And this is my passion.”
CATCHING UP WITH ….. ROGER VALDISERRI
Want to start a fight?
Nominate somebody as the best ever in his chosen endeavor.
Except when it comes to Roger Valdiserri. Notre Dame’s former sports information director is universally regarded as the best ever at his profession. A 1954 graduate of Notre Dame, Valdiserri spent nearly 30 years overseeing sports publicity at his alma mater.
Valdiserri not only survived change, he created it.
“That was the beautiful thing about stepping into the job, there were a lot of opportunities to try new things,” recalls Valdiserri.
Long before teleconferences and modern technologies, Valdiserri had Irish head football coach Ara Parseghian record answers to questions for the media. The system dramatically reduced the time that Parseghian had to spend meeting enormous media demands.
For nearly three decades, Valdiserri masterfully negotiated a tightrope between providing the media with desired information and access and helping the coaches and players cooperate without becoming overwhelmed or distracted.
“It all goes back to how willing a coach is to make some adjustments for the good of the program and the University,” he says. “And they’ve all been great.”
Valdiserri may be best known for the changing of Joe Theismann’s name from THEES-man to THEIS-man — which happened to rhyme with Heisman.
Great is an appropriate word to describe Valdiserri’s contributions to Notre Dame. He’s a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame, and was named one of the 100 most influential people in college football.
“Working with Roger was like following the Pied Piper, says John Heisler, who came to work for Valdiserri in 1978 as Notre Dame’s assistant sports information director and followed Valdiserri into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame. “When it came to athletics, there wasn’t anyone he didn’t know. If you rode around on his coattails, you met everyone in the business.”
Today, Valdiserri plays the Pied Piper to his seven grandchildren. He recently returned to South Bend, building a new home to allow him to spend more time with his five children – all Notre Dame graduates – and those grandchildren.
CATCHING UP WITH …..JIM SANSON
Imagine a moment so powerful that it can convince your mind that it is silent even though more than 80,000 people are screaming at you.
That’s just how former Notre Dame kicker Jim Sanson describes the seconds leading up to a game-winning field goal attempt.
Irish head coach Lou Holtz sent the freshman into the cauldron against Texas in 1996. Sanson silenced the Longhorn faithful by kicking a 39-yard field goal as time expired to lift Notre Dame over number-six Texas, 27-24. It was one of three last-minute, game-winning kicks for Sanson, whose 28 career field goals are good for sixth place on Notre Dame’s all-time list.
During his junior season, he produced game-winning field goals against Purdue with 57 seconds remaining in a 31-30 comeback victory an knocked through the decisive points when he hit a career-long 47-yarder versus Army with 1:06 left to give the Irish a 20-17 victory.
Every kicker’s life is marked by ups and downs. Sanson learned to persevere – and keep a suitcase packed at all times.
During one week following a missed kick, Sanson wasn’t allowed a single kick in practice. He assumed that meant he had lost his job, only to have Holtz bark at him as the traveling team was boarding its buses to the next game.
“Son, where’s your bag?”‘
Sanson found time as a student to establish Notre Dame Athletes Against Drugs, which grew to include 140 Notre Dame athletes working in South Bend to help keep children away from illegal drugs. He graduated from the College of Arts and Letters in May 2000 with a degree in economics.
Today, Sanson is vice president of The Athlete’s Agency, a southern California business that coordinates public appearances for athletes and sports celebrities. The company is planning its first-ever Notre Dame football legends cruise, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Notre Dame Scholarship Fund.
“I love what I do and it’s unbelievable how much being from Notre Dame has helped me in this business.”