When writing about former Notre Dame running back William “Red” Mack, it’s hard to know how to begin.
Do I start with how Red spent part of his childhood in a Pittsburgh orphanage and was prodded onto the football field by a nun, Sister Madeline, so he would have a place to channel his anger?
Or how he had his front teeth knocked out as an Irish freshman by All-American end Monty Stickles and waited almost a decade to get even with Stickles in an NFL game by blindsiding his former teammate on a kickoff, then stood over him and said, “I finally got you back”?
Or how he fought every defensive back on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster when he was trying to make his hometown team as a rookie wide receiver?
Or how in his sixth and last season in the NFL, he made the tackle on the first Super Bowl’s opening kickoff for the Green Bay Packers?
Or how he quickly figured out that his three boys weren’t wired the same way he was and that he was OK — maybe even relieved — that they decided not to play football?
Or how he and his wife Jean spent almost 4,000 hours volunteering at Heathwin as he pushed around wheelchairs, bussed lunch tables and swapped stories with the senior residents?
I could go on with these story starters. I rarely met anybody with such a “Mr. Everyman makes good” story as Red Mack.
“If we ever write a book on Red’s life, I think the title should be, ‘From the Orphanage to the Super Bowl,’” Red’s wife Jean once told me while I was writing a story on Red for his alma mater.
That book never got written, at least during Red’s lifetime. He died in April at the age of 83.
He was really something — as mild-mannered in his later years as he was fiery and fearsome as a player. He eventually became as happy in his garden as he had been on the gridiron.
But Red loved football as much as he loved life. Without it, he figured he would have landed in jail. “Jail?” Jean had added. “Actually, I think he would probably be dead without football.”
His body took a beating — especially when you take into account that he weighed only 165 pounds as a Notre Dame freshman and 175 as an NFL rookie.
“I trigger off the alarms at the airport as soon as I pull into the parking lot with all that metal in me,” Red once told me, referring to two knee and two hip replacements and one shoulder replacement.
Of course, the highlight of Red’s career was playing that one championship season for Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers. But playing for Notre Dame — leading the Irish in rushing his sophomore year with 429 yards on 71 carries — was his dream come true.
After his pro career, he moved back to South Bend where he had met Jean, helped raise his family and worked at Bendix for over 35 years. He also played a little softball and did a lot of volunteer work, especially at Healthwin
Red was a fan favorite when he was a player and remained a bit of a legend long after his once-red hair was gone. A modest man, he still took tremendous pride in being part of the Notre Dame family.
“If I had to live my life over and I knew how it was going to turn out,” Red said, “I would do it just the same. There may be different roads you can take, but I think God has some sort of plan for you.”
You had to love the guy.
So when the Irish take the field in their season opener against Florida State on Sept.5, I will raise a toast to my favorite former Notre Dame player — the late great William “Red” Mack.