Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1015973
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> Finishing as a second-team All-Amer- ican that year, Radecic tied a Penn State single-season record by returning two in- terceptions for touchdowns. The record still stands, and his 85-yard TD against West Virginia is tied for the fifth-longest interception return ever by a Nittany Lion. Meanwhile, Radecic was honored as a first-team Academic All-American with a 3.45 GPA in architectural engineer- ing. His senior year as a co-captain did not start well, as a pinched nerve affected his play early in the season when the Lions lost their first three games before turning it around to finish 8-4-1 and defeat Washington in the Aloha Bowl. Perhaps Scott's finest game ever was be- fore his hometown crowd in Pitt Sta- dium at the end of the 1983 regular season. He had four solo tackles and 17 assists, including three tackles for loss, recovered three fumbles and caused an- other. After the season, he was selected as a second-team Academic All-Amer- ican. Radecic had made an impression on the NFL scouts. Kansas City drafted him in the second round, 34th overall. Eight linebackers were taken before him, and he played longer than all but two of them, equaling the 12 years of the New York Gi- ants' Carl Banks (No. 3 overall) and Chicago Bears' Wilber Marshall (No. 11 overall). An unexpected turn After his first two seasons, he and his first wife returned to Penn State for the spring semester so that he could earn his AE degree, taking about 21 credits each time. "I really wanted to get that degree, but I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with it," Radecic said. Meanwhile, on the field, he was becoming a starter at inside linebacker and by the end of his third season he had played in all 49 games including playoffs, starting in 31. At that point, his pro career took an unexpected turn, and so did his thoughts on a post- NFL profession. "Before year four, they sent me to Buf- falo," he said. "So, in Buffalo, my wife and I began to think about being more entrepreneurial, like opening a coffee shop or maybe a baby clothing store because we now had a tod- dler, things that were kind of relative to where we were in life and living in Or- chard Park, which was a great place. And I was play- ing good football." With Radecic as a frequent starter, Buffalo won division championships in 1988 and '89, losing in the AFC title game to Cincinnati the first STAR LINEBACKER A second-team All- American as a jun- ior at Penn State, Radecic played a key role in the Lions' victory over Georgia for the na- tional champi- onship. Photo courtesy of Penn State Athletics