Featured News
August 15, 2007
Q&A with Ted Kwalick
By oldlioness
Who better to start our series of interviews of former players than Ted Kwalick of whom Joe Paterno once said, “He’s what God had in mind when he made a football player.”
An All-American tight end at Penn State University in 1968, the 6’ 4”, 226 pound Kwalick caught 86 passes for 1343 yards and 10 touchdowns in three years as a starter. In his final game, Penn State’s 15-14 win over Kansas in the 1969 Orange Bowl, he caught six passes for 74 yards.
Kwalick was a first-round NFL draft choice of the San Francisco 49ers. After two seasons as a back up, he became a starter in 1971, catching 52 passes for 664 yards and five touchdowns.
Kwalick was named to the NFC all-star team by The Sporting News in 1973, when he caught 47 passes for 729 yards and five touchdowns. He fell out of favor in San Francisco the following year because he announced he was playing out his option to join the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League. Kwalick was relegated to the bench and caught only 13 passes in 1974.
The WFL folded in November of 1975 and Kwalick was signed by the Oakland Raiders but saw little action. He retired after the 1977 season. Kwalick had 168 career receptions for 2,570 yards, a 15.2 average, and 23 touchdowns. He also carried the ball 19 times for 175 yards, a 9.2 average.
When I contacted Ted by e-mail, he graciously responded to the standard questions I will be presenting to former Nittany Lions. Here are his responses:
Q. What are you doing now?
A. I currently own a company in Santa Clara, CA that manufactures and distributes power conditioning products; www.protechvs.com
Q. Do you follow PSU football, and if so what do you think of the program’s performance in the past decade?
A. I don’t get a chance to follow PSU football too much except on TV. As far as the program’s performance over the past decade, I believe Joe Paterno and Penn State deserve a lot of credit for maintaining the credibility of Penn State Football over the past five decades!
Q. How long do you think Joe will continue to coach?
A. I think Joe will continue to coach as long as he can run out on the field with the team.
Q. Do you think that Joe should be retained to coach as long as he wants when his contract is up, or should he be asked to leave or put on one year extensions?
A. I believe Joe should make the decision as to how long he coaches. I do believe eventually that he should move laterally in the program and maintain an office to aid recruiting and be an “advisor” to the new head coach.
Q. How much of Joe’s teachings/philosophy do you use in your personal/professional life?
A. I see, and have seen over the years, Joe’s teachings/philosophy in my life constantly. One of the first things that Joe told us as freshman coming into Penn State was “there is more to life than football”. When you put that in perspective, you realize that your priorities are family and making the best out of your life everyday because football doesn’t last forever.
Q. What is your #1 memory of being a player/student at Penn State?
A. That would be winning the 1969 Orange Bowl to have an 11-0 season and open peoples eyes to the fact that Penn State can play with anyone.
Q. What were the special issues that your Penn State team faced?
A. Refer to the previous question. I believe people around the country didn’t know how good of a football team we really were.
Q. Which Penn State coach were you the closest to and why?
A. That would probably be Bob Phillips. Bob was my high school coach and came to Penn State my sophomore year to coach the receivers. Coach Phillips was like a “second Father” to me when I was going through high school and college.
Q. How much do you remain connected to the program, and have you returned to PSU to share with current players? If not would you like to be invited to do so?
A. I don’t stay too connected to the program for a couple of reasons. First, I have a fifteen-year-old daughter that is very active in sports (volleyball, horseback riding, sport clay shooting, and golf) that keeps me very busy. Secondly, with all of the family commitments, it is difficult to get back to Happy Valley. I would love to be invited if I can fit it into my schedule.
Q. How would you compare yourself to today’s players? Do you think that you would have the same type of success that you enjoyed while at PSU?
A. I can’t speak for all the positions of all the players but, as a tight end, I was very happy to play at the time I did since I could stay in the game all the time and run pass patterns and block. Today’s tight ends are taken out of the game in most passing situations and used primarily for blocking. I wanted to play every play even on special teams!
Q. What are your impressions of the current TE’s on the PSU roster?
A. I don’t follow them closely enough to have an opinion.
Q. Are there any current PSU players that stands out to you, or whose potential you see making it at the next level?
A. Same as above.
Q. To what do you attribute your success in football and life beyond?
A. Very close family and participating in sports with the great coaches and teammates that I was fortunate enough to play for and with. “Great coaches” not only teach you football techniques, they teach you life lessons that are with you the rest of your life.
Q. If you had it to do over again, is there anything that you would change?
A. NOTHING!!!
Q. Any thoughts or stories that you would like to share with Penn State football fans across the nation?
A. WE ARE...........
I would like to thank Ted for sharing his insights and to note that one of my favorite memories was also the 1969 Orange Bowl. Not noted in the above bio was the fact that Ted was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989.
The photo and background information comes from Hickoksports.com
Great interview OL, nice work. I’d love to know what other players that Ted and others moving forward keep in touch with. I’m sure that a lot of them stay friends for life after playing at Penn State.
Posted on August 16, 2007Your Comments
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