WHERE HAVE YOU GONE?
The Walter Camp Award
winner had no problem leaving
football to become
an oral surgeon
BY LOU SOMOGYI
T
he college football resume of Ken
MacAfee during his four seasons at
Notre Dame checks about every box
possible when it comes to defining a
nearly perfect career.
• Three-time All-American from
1975-77.
• 3-0 in bowl games, with two of the
victories against 11-0 teams.
• Walter Camp Award recipient in
1977 and third in the Heisman Trophy
balloting that year.
• 1977 national champion.
Voted to some All-Century teams for
the 1900-99 era, MacAfee had his bust
enshrined in the College Football Hall
of Fame in 1997.
The No. 7 overall pick in the 1978 NFL
Draft endured back-to-back 2-14 seasons
with the San Francisco 49ers before de-
ciding he was ready to move on with
his life.
The reasons were two-fold. One, sec-
ond-year 49ers head coach Bill Walsh
wanted to move MacAfee to guard, al-
though he had caught 46 passes with
five touchdowns his first two seasons
with the franchise.
"I said, 'Bill, we lost more games my
first year here than I did in high school
and college combined. It's not really that
much fun to move inside and get my
head beat in for a team winning two
games a year,'" MacAfee related.
Second, he had already spent the two
previous years from January through
June enrolled in the University of Penn-
sylvania School of Dental Medicine
(where he would earn his degree in
1983).
So after two years, one of college foot-
ball's greatest tight ends ever walked
away from football in complete peace
Ken MacAfee, 1974-77 Tight End
A three-time All-American at Notre Dame, MacAfee
was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
in 1997.
PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS
