College, the Army, Marriage, Japan, Jimmy Boy

At the end of the azalea lined drive, a Jesuit education.

Even though I was a pretty darn good quarterback and might have played on a few small college teams, my dad had other ideas. At Fordham University, his professors were Jesuit priests who valued learning, and he wanted me to have a good Catholic education.

He became good friends with a priest there named Father Colkin who, among his other duties, was in charge of intramural sports. In one of their conversations, Father Colkin mentioned that he was being transferred to Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, a small school of 1,500 students.

He was going to be the athletic director there and promised my dad that if he sent me to Spring Hill, he would make sure I took part in the sports activities, although they only had intramural football.

I was surprised that Dad insisted on driving me himself from New York to Alabama–I figured he would just put me on a plane. I didn’t know what to expect, but when we arrived and drove down the long entrance road lined with beautiful azalea bushes to the administration building, I noticed that the men there were all…