Blue and Gold Illustrated

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? By midseason of his freshman year, MacAfee had succeeded All-American Dave Casper as the starting tight end and snared 14 passes on Ara Parseghi- an's final Notre Dame team. The season was capped by defeating his father Ken Sr.'s alma mater, 11-0 Alabama, 13-11 in the Orange Bowl. After All-America campaigns in 1975 and 1976 under new head coach Dan Devine, MacAfee contributed block- ing and receiving (58 catches for 842 yards and six touchdowns, including the bowl) that were vital to Notre Dame's 1977 national title march. With the 1-1 Irish trailing 24-14 in the fourth quarter at Pur- due, third-team quar- terback Montana rallied the Irish to victory, including a 13-yard scoring strike to MacAfee, whose nine catches in that dramatic victory to- taled 114 yards. The pair would connect eight times, two for touchdowns, in the "Green Jersey Game," a 49-19 demoli- tion of No. 5 USC. MacAfee also made late, clutch 27- and 16-yard grabs in the 21-17 comeback win at Clemson. The season was capped with a 38-10 trouncing of No. 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl to clinch the national title. Meanwhile, balancing his pre-pro- fessional major (Notre Dame's version of pre-med) was a challenge. In fact, he dropped Professor Emil Hofman's chemistry class his freshman year after not doing so well on his first two seven- question quizzes. "I said I'm not go- ing to do pre-pro- fessional anymore. I'm going to play football," MacAfee said. "I got pretty aggravated with my- self after dropping chemistry, so I went back that summer to Emil's office and said, 'Can I re-enroll in pre-professional?' "He reached be- hind his desk and took the thickest chemistry book he could find and said, 'Take this home this summer, read it, and if you still want to be in pre-professional, come back and see me when school starts.' "The way he likes to tell it then is, 'On Sept. 2, this big shadow was cast in my door, and there's MacAfee standing there with my chem- istry books saying, 'Okay, Dr. Hofman, I read the book. I want to be a dentist.' So he said, 'What was I going to say? He's bigger than me. I had to let him back The Epic Battle: MacAfee-Browner Back in the 1970s, football players did not have the strength and conditioning programs of today. They used other means of training such as the Bengal Bouts. One winter, the Joyce Center witnessed a colossal sold-out boxing match in which superheavyweights Ross Browner and Ken MacAfee, two of the all-time Irish football greats, went at it, with Browner getting the close decision. "Boxing to me was the ultimate way to stay in shape. It was so rigorous, and I wanted to learn more about it," MacAfee said. "I was from Brockton, the home of Rocky Marciano, and my high school coach married Rocky's sister. "We ended up nearly killing each other. In the shower I felt my legs were going to buckle underneath me. It was a memo- rable experience, but not one I would want to repeat. You're only fighting three rounds for two minutes, but it's very demanding physically. If anyone has doubts, just try doing it." — Lou Somogyi

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