Blue White Illustrated

H ISTO R Y The patriarch of Linebacker U tells his story in a new memoir RAD TO THE BONE Editor's Note: Dan Radakovich was Penn State's first linebackers coach and is recog- nized as "the Father of Linebacker U." He played linebacker for the Nittany Lions from 1954 to '56 and was an assistant coach from 1960 to '69. Joe Paterno once said Radakovich was probably the best assistant he ever had. Radakovich also is the last surviving assistant from Rip Engle's staff. After leaving Penn State in 1970, Radakovich went on to be an assistant for nearly two dozen college and professional teams. His career included two stints with the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he is credited with putting together the famous Steel Curtain defensive line of the 1970s. His autobiography, "Bad Rad: Football Nomad," co-authored by BWI contributor Lou Prato, will be published this fall. This excerpt is adapted from Chapter Seven, entitled "The First Professor of Linebacker U." R ip Engle hired me on a whim to coach Penn State's linebackers as an undergraduate assistant coach during the team's spring practice period in 1958. But that wouldn't have happened if I didn't go back to Penn State to finish up my undergraduate business degree after being cut by the Philadelphia Ea- gles in the summer of 1957. ... At the time I needed a total of 48 required credits in business to graduate. Earlier, I had been in Physical Education for one year but didn't like it and most of those credits didn't count. I went to see Athletic Director Ernie McCoy about scholarship aid. I ex- plained that I had played four years for Penn State but only received athletic aid for seven terms, instead of eight because I had withdrawn during the seventh term. Therefore, I figured that the athletic department owed me an- other term. Ernie said he agreed and would love to do it but he couldn't be- cause I was now a professional since I had signed a contract with the Eagles. He said it was against NCAA rules to give aid to professionals, but he said he could pay me $250 if I coached the line of the freshman team. I said okay, and that's how I got started in coaching. College athletics, particularly football, gets a lot of heat for supposedly abusing the academic mission but not at Penn State, and because of our mutual aca- demic priority I became a football coach. BECOMING A LINEBACKERS COACH One day the following spring, when I was no longer involved with football but still working on my undergraduate degree, I was passing through the football office for some reason or another while the coaches were in a meeting. One of the coaches happened to see me and called me into their meeting. They were having a discussion on how linebackers should play and they asked my opinion – I guess because I had been a pretty good linebacker for Penn State from 1954-56. Well, I've never been shy about giving my opinion, so I described the different parts of linebacker play, and some of what I said disagreed with some of the things the others were saying. Joe Paterno, who was then the quar- terback coach, said, "If you're so smart, why don't you come out this spring and coach the linebackers?" I said, "What will you give me?" Joe looked at Rip Engle and said, "Rip?" Rip thought for a moment and said, "I'll

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