Blue and Gold Illustrated

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? — and in one piece. "I really just wanted to get on with my life rather than stay playing football just for a paycheck," said MacAfee of leav- ing football at age 24. "It didn't matter when my career ended because I had another profession to go to." Still, he notes a final "contribution" he made before departing. "Before leaving I told Bill, 'You guys aren't going to win until you start play- ing Joe,'" MacAfee recalled. "Joe" was 1979 rookie quarterback Joe Montana, MacAfee's classmate at Notre Dame who was drafted a year later by San Francisco because of a medical red- shirt season. Two years later, in 1981, Montana in his first season as a full-time starter steered the 49ers to the first of four Su- per Bowl titles under him. "Shows you how smart I am for leav- ing so early," MacAfee said. In reality, MacAfee remains Notre Dame's walking advertisement of com- bining academic and athletic excellence. For a while, he admitted it bothered him when he was referred to as a draft bust, especially when he used his NFL salary to pay for medical school. "That stuff doesn't matter to me," he said. "I did more in the pros than a lot of guys did, made some good friends and had a good time. Pro football ends, and you have to go on with your life. I've been able to do a lot more than if I continued playing pro football — that's for sure." THE PATH TO NOTRE DAME As a senior at Brockton (Mass.) High, MacAfee was a Parade All-American — that era's version of a five-star recruit. Even then, MacAfee had already de- veloped an interest in dentistry when he worked a summer job at 16 with Bill Moncevicz, who was a co-captain of the 1969 Holy Cross (Mass.) football team and in dental school at the time. "He showed me all the clinical aspects of dentistry, and I always liked working with my hands," MacAfee said. "He in- troduced me to oral surgeons, and I was able to go to some operating rooms and watch some surgical cases, which was much more thrilling than dentistry." Notre Dame was the ideal school for him because of his desire to compete for a football national title while also tak- ing academics seriously. His official visit came Jan. 18-20, 1974. "It was probably the worst recruit- ing visit I had, cold, rainy, snow … we couldn't get from South Bend to Chi- cago on a connecting flight because it was so foggy," he said. "There were about 20-25 of us who went by bus and arrived late." On Friday night, MacAfee saw the hockey team beat No. 1 Michigan Tech, 7-1, and then on Saturday he witnessed the No. 2 men's basketball team defeat No. 1 UCLA 71-70 to end the Bruins' NCAA-record 88-game winning streak. Watching the pandemonium from the stands, MacAfee then had his host, 1970-72 Irish tight end Mike Creaney, lean over and say, "Just multiply this by 10 and you have a football game here." "Where do I sign?" MacAfee replied. More fog cancelled another flight on Sunday, and MacAfee stayed for a an event honoring the 1973 football na- tional champs before returning home.

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