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Sunday Morning News

Former Football Players Offer Perspective on Today's Game

Aired January 30, 2000 - 9:49 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, the Rams are the most famous football players in St. Louis these days, but there is a lesser-known St. Louis football team with an incredible record. And we're not talking about the Bud Bowl either.

They haven't lost a game in a half-century.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: So we get some Super Bowl perspective now from CNN's Jeff Flock in the Rams' home town.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe was a stockbroker, Dan a salesman, Bill owned a printing business, Bob was a corporate executive, so was Babe. But in the 1940s, they all did the same thing. They played for what was then the most famous football team in town, the St. Louis University Billikens.

BOB MOSHER, FORMER BILLIKEN TACKLE: In the '40s, we played both ways, offense, defense.

FLOCK: We brought them together on St. Louis's first-ever Super Bowl weekend to reminisce about what it was like back then. Bob Mosher played tackle.

MOSHER: These were the shoes that we played with. They're high- tops, they're very heavy. There were long plastic cleats that screwed into the bottom.

FLOCK: So much has changed. Leon "Babe" Pappas was a guard.

LEON "BABE" PAPPAS, FORMER BILLIKEN GUARD: The size of the men were so much different then. A lot of us played 185, 190. We'd have a tough time making a high school team today.

BILL CRIBBEN, FORMER BILLIKEN LINEMAN: You're looking at over 300-pound guys, and there's a lot of them, sometime the front wall is -- average is 310.

DAN DEMMAS, FORMER BILLIKEN QUARTERBACK: One of the things I see is the intensity level. It's unbelievable today versus what we had. We went both ways, we went on special teams.

FLOCK (on camera): How did you do that? I mean, the concept today for a -- of a player thinking of playing all 60 minutes of a game -- I mean, how did you get through all 60 minutes?

DEMMAS: Well, you got in damn good shape.

CRIBBEN: And you got very tired.

DEMMAS: You ran the track every night, and you got in good shape, and you thought nothing of it.

FLOCK (voice-over): Back then, it was a simpler game.

DICK KISSANE, FORMER BILLIKEN HALFBACK: We had bucks (ph) inside tackle and outside tackle, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

FLOCK (on camera): Tell me about it, what is that? What's that mean?

KISSANE: That means you get the ball and you go inside the tackle. In the other one, you go outside the tackle.

FLOCK: Those were the two plays?

KISSANE: Well, no, we had left side, right side.

FLOCK: So the playbook was pretty much on a -- one piece of paper kind of thing.

KISSANE: I don't remember a playbook.

FLOCK (voice-over): St. Louis University has the distinction of being home to the first forward pass in football history. The 1906 team did it after passing was legalized that year in hopes of making the sport a little less violent. It didn't help much.

PAPPAS: It was pretty rough. There wasn't near as many face masks. A lot of fellows played without face masks. I got my teeth kicked out a couple times, so I finally put one on. It was after the fact.

FLOCK (on camera): Did any of you ever think about playing professional football?

DEMMAS: Well, it was in my mind. I got a phone call from the Chicago Cardinals.

FLOCK: Really?

DEMMAS: In '49.

FLOCK (voice-over): Dan Demmas had been the Billikens' quarterback.

DEMMAS: Unfortunately, I was working at the time at a family business. They wanted me to come right up and try out.

FLOCK: Back then, playing pro football was something like running away to join the circus. Even his college coach discouraged him, saying...

DEMMAS: "Make sure they send some money up front. If you don't get the money up front, don't go." The money wasn't coming unless I went up there and worked out, so I didn't go.

FLOCK (on camera): Any regrets?

DEMMAS: Pardon?

FLOCK: Regrets?

DEMMAS: Kind of, yes, kind of.

FLOCK (voice-over): But more good memories than regrets. Back then, there was no pro football in St. Louis. The Billikens were often a nationally ranked college team. Joe Kniest, retired stockbroker, was the equipment manager for almost 20 years and wouldn't trade it for anything.

JOE KNIEST, FORMER BILLIKEN EQUIPMENT MANAGER: Jesuits (ph) always told me if I would work through high school, I'd get a scholarship. So getting a scholarship to the university during the Depression, that was -- I just fell in love with it, just with it all the time.

FLOCK: By the 1950s, St. Louis U. had given up football, too expensive. The old players formed a club called the Dinosaurs. They know they're a dying breed.

(on camera): You still love football.

MOSHER: Oh, yes.

FLOCK: Why?

MOSHER: Oh, yes.

I think the spirit of cooperation, the camaraderie, you can feel that among the discussions here. But on the field, if Dick was going to get through that line as a halfback, then a couple of us linemen had to open that hole, let him through or he'll get creamed. And that's that spirit. You have to work together if you're going to win.

DEMMAS: That's what you see with the Rams.

FLOCK (voice-over): St. Louis's new most famous team has their spirit, they say.

DEMMAS: They tell you this. You can feel it, that we play as a team. There's no selfishness, and one guy's got to catch all the passes and make all the yardage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLOCK: So maybe you never heard of Billiken stars Demmas and Mosher, but a poll before the Super Bowl found that most Americans had never heard of Ram stars Warner and Faulk either. And maybe that's the way it should be -- Kyra, Miles.

O'BRIEN: And, you know, Jeff, just watching that and seeing those guys all muddy without their face masks, those leather helmets, it takes you back to an era when a lot of people would say that was real football. I wonder what these guys think about the whole thing now with the Super Bowl and the hoopla and the media hype and the pregame show, which begins at 6 in the morning?

FLOCK: Well, you know, it's funny you bring that up, because they're happy, I think, that the sport that they loved has come so far. But the one thing that they would change, I think, is that they would play football not in the Georgia Dome, but they'd like to play it out here in the snow and the mud and the rain, just like it used to be played. And right now I can say that if I've got to stand out here, it's probably a pretty good idea if they do too.

PHILLIPS: Jeff, what about the salaries? What do they think about the money involved now?

FLOCK: They're amazed. You know, most of those guys were very successful in their lives in business, and a lot of them did business together, spent their whole lives working together. And so I don't think they begrudge anyone the money, but they just can't believe -- they used to take streetcars to practice. They'd just, you know, take the transit to practice. That's the way they got around. An amazing time.

O'BRIEN: All right, Mr. Jeff Flock, a little chilly there in St. Louis. Good to see you. I assume you'll be there for the rest of the day, checking and giving us a slice of fandom as this Super Bowl Sunday...

FLOCK: Inside a little later, though.

O'BRIEN: Yes, well, good for you, good idea. Get a doughnut shop like Tuchman. We'll see you later.

FLOCK: Thanks, Miles.

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