Before I even started playing football, though, I was diagnosed with infantile paralysis, also known as polio. When I was 6 years old, I was hospitalized and had a slight paralysis of the legs for a period of almost six weeks and lasted almost as long as two years. My folks weren't expecting me to do anything as far as athletics, but they never told me I couldn't. And after awhile of rehabilitation, all of a sudden my legs came back, and I started loving sports like basketball, football and baseball. I loved anything because I grew up in an inner-city setting. So I played Bulldog football in junior high school, but my first love was baseball so I played that also.
As for football, I didn't play my senior year in high school. After graduating, I went to Santa Clara University, which was just starting their football program under head coach Pat Malley. My folks sent me away to Santa Clara because at first I wanted to work and didn't want to go to college. So instead, my dad got me a job working for the Standard Oil Company of California out in the middle of the desert, where it was 125 degrees. We were "hot bunking," meaning I was working as a roughneck and working out in the middle of nowhere. It didn't take me long to figure out that college was going to be a heck of a lot better than doing this for a living, especially when I started looking at the fingers of the guys I'd been working with and finding out they were missing some and also had scars all over their faces.
I eventually wound up at Santa Clara University and when I got to campus, Pat Malley was asking about me. He asked me if I was interested in playing football, and of course I said, "Yes." Not playing my senior year and being a quarterback my junior year, Malley talked to my high school coach and said he'd give me a shot to walk on the team.
I started to walk out onto the field and he told me to talk to a guy named Salty Campos, who was the equipment manager. You have to understand that Santa Clara beat Bear Bryant when he was at Kentucky and then gave up football in 1951, so the last uniforms in stock were the ones issued back in the 1950s. So I walked back into the locker room and said, "Salty, Coach Malley said for me to come in here and get a new uniform." This man was the most cantankerous, nasty person and he came back out with a uniform that made me go, "Wait a minute... What the heck is this?"
It was a leather helmet with no face mask, and I got hockey pads for quarterback pads. Even though I didn't play football my senior year, I knew what good uniforms were. When I put the uniform on, the pants were too large, the knee pads were hanging down where my shins were and the shoulder pads were built for somebody who was 10 years old.
I walked outside with this crazy uniform on and everybody started laughing; players and coaches just laughing. But I wasn't. I was really upset because here I am walking on to this no-nothing program from a high school where three of our running backs made the All-American team from the same backfield. So I walked outside and put that leather helmet (with no face mask) on, and Coach Malley asked me, "Are you sure you want to do this?" And I said, "Sure, I've got nothing to lose, so why not?"
I continued saying, "Coach, I'll make you a deal. You've a got a running back named Jon Combs and everybody is telling me how great he is. If he runs me over, I'll walk off the field but if I nail him, you have to give me a new uniform." I had never met Combs, so Malley called him over - all 6-foot-1, 225 pounds of him!
We had about 15 yards in between us and Malley said, "Combs, are you ready?" Combs grabbed the ball, took off and ran right into my face. At the same time, I ran straight into him with my head because I didn't shoulder tackle, and I hit him right in the mouth. Malley looked at me and said, "Can you do that again?" This time, I didn't wait. As Malley threw the ball to Combs, I nailed him just as he caught the ball and knocked him flat on his back. Malley then said, "Go get your uniform."
I played seven positions in four years at Santa Clara. After graduation, the only team that contacted me was the Chicago Bears. One afternoon after my senior season, I was helping to coach the linebackers during spring ball. Later that day, a huge line coach from the Oakland Raiders and Mr. Al Davis, who came to look at our quarterback, asked me if I'd like to play some more football. I said that I would and four days later, the Raiders got back to me and signed me.
I suffered a knee injury during Raiders camp, and during the rehab, they sent me to the CFL where I played with the Indianapolis Warriors for a year. I was Player of the Game during the CFL championship, and the next year I signed with the Denver Broncos and joined their roster from 1965-68. After that, I was drafted in an expansion draft by Cincinnati. I decided to then go play for Ray Malavasi up in Canada, and he ended up being the best pro coach I've ever played for; he liked the way I played, and I liked the way he coached, so it was perfect. But I ended up having three more operations, and that was the end of football for me.
When I used to coach in high school, parents would always come up to me and tell me their kids were going to become professional athletes because that's just the way they are - they have goals and aspirations for their children. But I would always tell them that many don't make it to the big show - it just doesn't happen because the numbers are against you. I'd also tell them if they used athletics in the field of academics there would be no ceiling to what they could accomplish because everyone would get the opportunity to succeed in what they would want to do.
If you look at what an athlete has to go through day in and day out with practices and the discipline and the requirement of working with others, it really gives you more positives than negatives. If you take that type of discipline into the classroom, there's no need to worry in the classroom - it works.
When I think about football and why it's so popular, I think it's a throwback to our country's history of rugged individualism. In football, if you have the talent and the discipline, you will succeed, which describes how many people attain the American dream.
Michael Kellogg is 66 years old and is now a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge. He has been on the bench since 1996, after practicing law for 18 years. Besides graduating from law school summa cum laude, Kellogg also has a lifetime teacher credential.
