Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME Townsend was temporarily sidelined with an injury in 1972, Casper lined up as a wide receiver. He also assisted along the defensive line in short-yardage situations. After Creaney graduated, Casper aligned at tight end his senior year and was named a consensus All-American, even though he caught only 19 passes during the regular sea- Yet when starting split end Willie 1973 to Walter Camp first-team All-American Tyler Eifert in 2011, no school has produced the volume of tight end excellence the past four decades like Notre Dame. The University of Miami had the greatest eight-year From consensus first-team All-American Dave Casper in TIGHT END U. run ever from 1999-2006 when it lined up first-round picks Bubba Franks, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow Jr. and Greg Olsen (who originally enrolled at Notre Dame). However, in long-term consistency, Notre Dame isn't rivaled. • In addition to Casper, the 1970s produced Ken Ma- cAfee, the first Irish tight end to be inducted into the Col- lege Football Hall of Fame. The three-time All-American (1975-77) also won the Walter Camp Award for the 1977 national champs and was a first-round selection. • The early 1980s featured first-round pick Tony Hunter picks Derek Brown (1992) and Irv Smith (1993). • Tight ends recruited in the 1990s who would play in son and wasn't even the team's top receiver. When pro scouts came to the Notre Dame campus the following spring to evaluate him and others, Casper balked at running the 40-yard dash for time, telling Boulac that the process was biased and "they're going to put down what they want me to run." When he was cajoled into running, the free-spirited Casper took off his cleats and ran bare-footed — a 4.55 on the pro scouts' stopwatches, according to Boulac. "They asked him to run again and he did, and he ran a similar time," Boulac said. Still, four other tight ends were taken ahead of Casper, who was selected in the second round by the Oakland Raiders as an offensive guard. Raiders management ap- parently felt that a mistake had to have been made on how the 40-yard course was set up, even though it was the scouts that ran the show. (1981-82) and 1984 first-team All-American Mark Bavaro, a future All-Pro. • In the late 1980s, the Irish landed future first-round the NFL included Oscar McBride, Pete Chryplewicz, Dan O'Leary, Jabari Holloway and John Owens. • From 2006-11, the Irish assembly line featured three Eventually, Casper did line up at tight end and became a perennial Pro Bowl figure with 378 career catches. Sports Illustrated writer Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman later classified Casper, inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002, as the greatest all-around tight end to play in the NFL. Casper was also an Academic All-Ameri- can, and his mental skills matched his physi- cal assets. straight second-round picks in Anthony Fasano, John Carlson and Kyle Rudolph … and Eifert could go even higher in 2013. — Lou Somogyi "He was basically nonchalant about a lot of things he did because he picked things up so quickly," Boulac said. "He was able to pick it up where at times he looked bored." A native of Bemidji, Minn., the 60-year-old Casper currently lives in the California Bay Area, where he works as a financial advisor for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance. JUNE/JULY 2012 14