Jerry Muckensturm didn't even like football at first.
In fact, if his sophomore coach hadn't cornered him in the Althoff (Ill.) Catholic High gym to insist that he join the team, Muckensturm's induction to the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame never would have happened.
Muckensturm's older brother, David, played defensive end at Althoff and earned a scholarship to Arkansas State University. Jerry Muckensturm had tried football during his freshman year, but he'd quit and decided to just play baseball.
The sophomore coach, Max Hamilton, caught Muckensturm in the gym and wouldn't let him pass until he changed his mind.
"'Your brother's doing a good job and you can do a good job,'" Muckensturm, 64, recalled Hamilton saying. "I'm glad he did it."
Muckensturm earned his own scholarship to ASU, helped the then-Indians to an undefeated 1975 season, and had an eight-year professional career with the Chicago Bears after he was selected in the seventh round of the 1976 NFL Draft.
Muckensturm was named to ASU's All-Centennial Team, the Southland Conference's All-Decade team for the 1970s and on Friday, he will be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
"It's a special award," said Muckensturm, who lives in Jonesboro and remains ASU's all-time career leader in tackles (493). "But then again, to me, I don't want it to be anything where, 'Look what I've done.' To me, more or less, I want people to be reminded that there were players on that '75 team that should be in the Hall of Fame that did as much as anybody on the team."
Muckensturm joins former tight end and linebacker Mike Malham Jr. (Class of 2015) as the second inductee from ASU's 1975 team, which was the first time the program competed at the NCAA Division I level.
The Indians had won the 1970 NCAA Division II national championship under Coach Bennie Ellender (Class of 1990), who left the next season for Tulane. ASU hired Bill "Bull" Davidson (Class of 2004), and the Indians went 21-18-1 in the four seasons leading up to 1975.
That offseason, Muckensturm said, Davidson had a predicament: ASU didn't have a quarterback for its pro-style offense.
The previous year's passers, James Flynn and Steve Burks, had graduated, and the most prepared successor Davidson could find was All-Conference defensive safety David Hines, who had last played quarterback in high school.
"We switched to the triple option," Muckensturm said. "So we made the move."
ASU finished the season 11-0 with victories over Cincinnati and Memphis State (now Memphis), which had beaten No. 7 Auburn 31-20 before losing to ASU.
Muckensturm was named the Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
There was just one issue: The Southland Conference champions didn't have a bowl to play in. The 11 NCAA-sanctioned bowls at the time were all connected to established conferences, and there was no room for ASU anywhere.
"The saying was, we were 11-0 with no place to go," Muckensturm said. "We really wanted to go. There was a chance for us to go to some bowl, but they picked another team that had more fans to participate. I'm not sure what it was, I really don't remember."
The only bowl-bound team that didn't belong to a major conference was Miami, Ohio, which beat South Carolina 20-7 in the Tangerine Bowl.
Southland officials petitioned the NCAA for its own bowl game after that season, and in 1976 McNeese State represented the conference by beating Tulsa 20-16 in the inaugural Independence Bowl.
By then, Muckensturm was completing his rookie season with the Chicago Bears.
Back then, Muckensturm said, there was no televised broadcast of the NFL Draft or draft-week national hoopla. Players just received a phone call.
Or missed them.
On the night of April 8, 1976, Muckensturm walked down the hallway of his ASU dorm to find a note on his door.
"It said: 'Call this number, you've been drafted by the Bears in the seventh round,' " Muckensturm said.
The dorm had two telephones, and one was down the hall.
"No one wants to answer the phone," Muckensturm said. "Whoever took the message put it on my door. I called the number, then called my parents right away."
Muckensturm joined the Bears in training camp at Lake Forest College in Illinois, where he became part of a defense that was just stepping into greatness.
From 1976 to 1983, Muckensturm played linebacker in a Bears' defense that finished in the top 5 in total defense three times, the top 5 in scoring defense twice, and fielded three eventual NFL Hall of Fame members and four All-Pro selections.
All of this preceded the famed 1985 Super Bowl championship season, when Chicago led the league in team defense behind linebacker and AP Defensive Player of the Year Mike Singletary.
"That was the beginning," Muckensturm said. "Some consider it the best defense ever. I think when you're on a team like that, you take it for granted. Looking back, I see how special it was."
Muckensturm became a starting outside linebacker in 1979, when the Bears lost 27-17 to the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild-card round of the playoffs, and he led the team in tackles in 1979 and 1980.
A series of injuries ended his career.
He missed the entire 1981 season after he severed a nerve in his shoulder while making a tackle in a preseason game. He needed to remove his right deltoid muscle because of the injury. Then, after the strike-shortened 1982 season, Muckensturm "tore up his knee" in the first game of the 1983 season.
"That's when I knew I was done," he said.
Muckensturm graduated from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis in 1987 and began his career in ministry at Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro.
He now teaches Sunday school at First Baptist Church in Jonesboro.
Four months ago, former ASU offensive lineman Bill Phillips (Class of 2016) called Muckensturm and left him a message that he would be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Just like the note on his dorm door, Muckensturm returned the call.
"I think of the people like the high school coach cornering me in the hallway, where without them this would never taken place," Muckensturm said. "There are key people that affect the decisions you make in your life. I could be something completely different if it wasn't for this. You're right where God wants you to be in."
Sports on 03/31/2018
Jerry Muckensturm glance
COLLEGE Arkansas State
POSITION Linebacker
AGE 64
FAMILY Wife, Pamela; daughters, Kelly, Katie Rae, Mallory; grandchildren, Molly, Will, Connor, Cade; brothers, David, Kevin, Jeff
NOTEWORTHY Named to the Arkansas State All-Centennial Team. … Southland Conference’s All-Decade team for the 1970s. … All-Southland first-team linebacker in 1975, honorable mention in 1972. … ASU’s career all-time leader with 493 tackles. … Senior starter on the 1975 team that went 11-0, including victories over Cincinnati and Memphis State (now Memphis). … Selected by the Chicago Bears in the seventh round of the 1976 NFL Draft. … A member of the Bears for eight seasons. Led the team in tackles in 1979 and 1980.
The fourth in a series profiling the nine newest members of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony is Friday at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.