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| Golf Outing 2011 Homecoming Reunion Sideline Passes |
Born the son of an NFL football player who later became a head coach, you would think former MSU quarterback Bryan Clark (1978-81) was destined to become a football player. “It wasn’t that way at my house,”
After calling it a career in 1969, Clark landed a job as an assistant to Don Shula in
“I was born on July 27, 1960 in Redwood City, California,” Bryan stated, “near the 49ers training camp when my dad was playing for San Francisco. And while my family never shoved football down my throat, like most of my friends, I became a sports geek and started playing ball. I grew up following college and pro football, and baseball. I followed all the local teams,” he added. “But as a player, football was my best sport and I had an edge over most guys because of my father and being able to attend his camps and clinics.”
VICTOR MITTELBERG
By Gerry Sternberg
No less of an authority than Duffy Daugherty had Victor Mittelberg figured out when he spoke to his 1968 Spartans during spring practice on a muggy August night. Duffy’s anecdote about Victor Mittelberg, an offensive tackle and All- American wrestler, who attended MSU from 1967-71, came on the eve of the big race to finish 6 laps around Spartan Stadium in under 11 minutes. Unless you beat the 11 minute mark, you weren’t allowed to practice.
“I was just walking through the stadium and saw Victor running around the track while the rest of you are resting up until tomorrow,” Duffy told his squad. “He reminds me of the boy who entered the apple pie eating contest. On the night before the contest he stuffed himself with apple pies to see how well he could do!”
Duffy never did tell us if the kid won the contest, but for Victor Mittelberg, a hard work ethic paid off both on and off the field of play.Born in Tel Aviv, Victor and his parents moved to Skokie, Illinois in 1962. Vic soon became involved with sports, and at 6’2”, 240 lbs, he became a starting fullback for his high school football team. “The only problem was,” Vic told me, “I was by far the biggest guy on the team and I wasn’t allowed to hit anyone in practice, because all the parents’ were complaining about me.” In spite of these obstacles, Victor caught the eye of Al Dorrow (former MSU quarterback and assistant coach) and was offered a football scholarship.
As a football player, Vic was a two year letterman and selected to play in the 1970 North-South Shrine All-Star Game at the Orange Bowl. But it was as a wrestler where he made his mark when he captured the Big Ten Heavyweight Championship in 1969. Victor’s All-American wrestling career also included two gold medals and two bronzes at the Israeli Maccabi games.
Following college, Victor met his wife, Margie, in Chicago and started work as a Phys. Ed. Instructor and Wrestling Coach. Vic and Margie were married for 32 years until her death in 2007. Victor was putting together a notable coaching career until the mid-80’s when he decided to take a shot at house flipping. Within half dozen years, Victor had become an entrepreneur, with an estate in Highland Park, Illinois and the owner of several apartment buildings and properties in the area. And the kid from Tel Aviv, who had to work hard to speak fluent English, made sure to mention he wrote a book entitled: “House Flipping for Fun & Profit.” And Victor hasn’t forgotten his Israeli Roots by sending charitable donations to Magen David Adom—an organization similar to The Red Cross.
“Getting my degree and all the hard work that goes with participating in two sports at State played a great role in my success. Playing football with guys from so many different backgrounds was a great experience. It’s helped me in my dealings with people, in general,” Vic told me from his winter home in Daytona Beach Shores. Vic also told me he keeps in touch with several former Spartan teammates from both the football and wrestling team, including Rich and Ron Saul, Jeff Smith Jack Zindell Dr. John Lindquist, Don Behm and Dale Anderson.
As we concluded our interview, Vic told me he was on his way to the beach for a 6 mile walk—as a warm-up for a racquet ball game. Like the boy preparing for the apple pie eating contest, proving Duffy’s words ring true today.
Vince Carillot
One of the nicest and most gentlemanly Coaches ever to be at Michigan State is Vince Carillot, who for many years was and still is a Michigan resident and was our defensive backfield coach under Duffy Daugherty.
Vince was a player on the football team at MSC during the late 40’s early 50’s. He broke his ankle as a sophomore and because of the three pins placed therein was not allowed to play again. Biggie Munn, who was loyal to his players, made Vince a graduate Assistant for the remainder of his College Career at Michigan State. Vince graduated from MSU in 1950 with a BS Degree and received his Masters from MSU in1956. Finally, Vince obtained his PhD from U of M in 1982.
Vince went into coaching because of Biggie Munn. Biggie told him that he thought he’d be a good coach and should try it, and that he did. Vince started coaching in 1951 at Concord H.S. in Jackson County, Michigan for three years, and produced a State Championship team (Class C-D). He moved to E. Lansing in 1954 and coached for seven years, and had two state Class B championships. His overall High School coaching record was 74 and 6, a magnificent .9250 winning percentage.
At that point Duffy Daugherty was head coach and liked what he saw in Vince and brought him aboard the MSU staff. Vince was at MSU for 8 years as an assistant coach, finishing up as the defensive backfield coach. There were two Big Ten and two National Championship teams that Vince was a part of. Many feel that the defenses that Vince helped put together were some of the best ever associated with Michigan State football as well as the nation.
Coach Carillot accepted the Head Coaching job at Tulsa University for two years, and compiled at record of 5 wins and 15 losses. From Tulsa he spent 8 months as Player Personnel Assistant with the Dallas Cowboys before leaving coaching and going with the Michigan House of Representatives as an Education Analyst. After a stint as Vice President of Business at Eastern Michigan University, Vince then took a position with Ann Arbor Trust in Ann Arbor as a revenue bond manager. He retired to Savannah, Georgia in 1988.
Both Vince and his wife Lucy spend about 5 months in Michigan each summer. He loves the Petoskey area and has been doing this since 1993. They usually go up North in the first week of May and stay till Mid October. The Carillot’s try to attend at least one game per year at MSU. Lucy had a stroke almost nine years ago and is very fortunate to have recovered as well as she has.
One of the things Vince enjoys is volunteering and spending a lot of time with the Bethesda home for Boys. “Bethesda is in Savannah, GA. It was started by the founder of Savannah, GA, General Oglethorpe, as an orphanage for the underprivileged. Its current President, Dr. David Tribble changed it to a School for Boys. It houses anywhere from 30 to 50 boys. The school also has non-boarders who attend because of the low teacher to pupil ratio, discipline and collegial atmosphere. I helped start the first football team. They now participate in Football, Basketball, Track and Golf.”
I asked Vince who in his mind was the best he had ever coached at MSU and he responded this way: “It is very difficult to single out one player when you had people like George Webster, Jess Phillips, Don Japinga, Sterling Armstrong, Al Brenner, Jerry Jones, George Saimes, and Chuck Migyanka etc. Of course I agree that Mickey (George Webster) was by far the greatest football player and gentleman I have ever been associated with, but the ones mentioned above were very special.”
One of the things I was curious about was the National Championship Coaching staff and how they all worked together. Coach Carillot responded this way in saying, “I was privileged to coach with the men I was with: Hank Bullough, Dan Boisture, Cal Stoll, Gordie Serr, John McVay, Al Dorow, Eddie Rutherford, Burt Smith, and Bill Yeoman. But there was a special bond among Boisture, Bullough, Stoll, Serr and Carillot. That was the National Champion Staff. They were great guys, coaches, recruiters and fun to be around. Of course we had the finest Head Coach in the country in Duffy. That made it ideal.”
In talking about Vince’s early days the name of Joe Paterno came up. In mentioning Joe he said, “My connection to Joe Paterno goes back a long ways and was very distant. We both played in the New York City borough championship game in 1943 on opposing teams. He played for the Brooklyn –Queens team and I played for the Bronx-Manhattan team. Vince found this out in 1965 when MSU played Penn State at Happy Valley and chatted on the field before the game.” Well, Vince‘s team beat Joe’s in 1943 in NYC and also in 1965 on the way to the Spartan’s fifth National Championship. It was that game and the ride back that Vince felt that his 1965 team was something special and that good things were about to happen to them. How right he was.
Coach Carillot has 4 daughters with his first wife. He then remarried in 1974 and helped raise Lucy’s four girls. They have two homes (Savannah, GA and Petoskey, MI). Vince enjoys playing golf, which he learned when he came to coach for Duffy.
Like any good Spartan, his golf cart is Green and White and his internet ID is 1SPARTAN.
Rich Saul
Rich and Eileen
It looks like he's through. Doc Johnson says it’s the worst knee injury he’s ever seen. That’s what I overheard Hank Bullough, our defensive coordinator whispering to George Perles, his defensive line coach, while walking up the hallway to training table, on the Monday following a tough loss to Ohio State.
They were talking about Rich Saul--Michigan States All-Academic and All Conference linebacker and defensive end. Saul’s knee was shattered, totally blown out, when he was clipped by a Buckeye and carried off the field on a stretcher. I was Duffy Daugherty’s student-manager, back in November of 1968, when I overheard the conversation between Hank and George.
Saul originally injured his knee the previous week when MSU pulled off a stunning upset of number one Notre Dame, in a game played at Spartan Stadium, where the Fighting Irish were favored by three touchdowns. The 21-17 victory began with a State onside kick and ended with Notre Dames quarterback stopped two inches short of the goal line as the gun sounded.
It was MSUs fourth goal line stand of the game. And, Rich Saul was the man in the middle, roaming sideline to sideline, never giving up on a play. Early on in the game, Rich was clipped and tore an ACL, but just sucked it up and kept playing. No way was he going to the bench in an era of blood and guts football where you either played through the pain or didn’t play at all.
Now they were saying he was through. And I couldn’t disagree with Hanks assessment, because earlier in the day I stopped by the Olin Center Campus Hospital for a visit. Rich was in a cast from his ankle to his hip and in terrible pain. We only talked for a few minutes. He was heavily sedated, to the point where he told me a few days later, he was on so much morphine that he couldn’t remember seeing me or anyone else.
But this Spartan wasn’t ready to call it quits and wound up defying the odds. In fact, since that day he blew out his knew and was carried off the field in a stretcher, Rich Saul has gone through a lifetime of defying the odds.
First, he beat the odds to become a great football player. Born in Butler, Pennsylvania, Rich and his identical twin Ron (former MSU All-America offensive tackle and guard) were heavily recruited out of high school. They already had an NFL pedigree. Their older brother, Bill Saul, was a tough linebacker for 9 seasons in the NFL.
As a sophomore in 1967, in the days when freshmen couldn’t play for the varsity, Rich was a fixture at defensive end. By season’s end, it was apparent Rich had the tools to become an elite player. After his sophomore season, the coaches decided to turn him into a middle linebacker where he could lead the MSU defense. Rich was also named team captain. The move paid good dividends until the season ending injury. In spite of missing the last 3 games, Rich was an All-Conference, and more important to him, an All-Academic selection.
If you had believed the doctors, Rich Saul’s short, but distinguished, career was over. But Rich wasn’t listening. Instead, he started working with the trainers, spending countless hours of rehabilitation in the weight room throughout the winter. Rich Saul wasn’t about to give up. And by the time early fall practice of 1969 rolled around, Rich was back with the team. There was no doubt that he had lost a lot of his mobility, but hadn’t lost any of his toughness. After watching him practice for a few days, Rich was moved back to his old position at defensive end and once again named team captain.
Captain Rich Saul, the guy who was supposed to be through, was back in action. Maybe not great, but still good enough to capture a spot on the All-Conference team, to go along with another All-Academic squad selection. Rich was also selected to play in the North-South Shrine game at the Orange Bowl.
After graduating, on time, with a degree in Sociology, Rich decided to give the NFL a shot. Until the injury, Rich was a projected first round draft choice. Instead, he slid all the way down to round 8 where he was a long shot pick by the Los Angeles Rams. Rich told me he signed a contract for minimum salary with incentive clauses for tackles made on special teams. So how many tackles did this former Spartan make on special teams as a long shot rookie in the NFL? Only 51 and that’s not a misprint.
The following year, the Rams started working with Rich as a center. Playing on the offensive line was about the only way he could become a starter, having lost the speed and agility needed to play defense in the NFL. So what kind of numbers did this former Spartan, whose career was supposed to be through, post when he hung up the cleats 12 years later?
The man who was supposed to be through became a bona fide NFL Iron Man. Lou Gehrig in cleats. Rich Saul played in over 200 consecutive games for the LA Rams. He was named to the Pro Bowl for 6 consecutive years, beginning in 1977 until retiring in 1982. His greatest honor was being selected to the 40th Anniversary All-Time Rams team. And, by the way, Rich still has a pretty good chance to make it to the NFL Hall of Fame.
That was Rich Saul on the field. Defying the odds when they said he was through. Off the field, Rich has been beating the odds, too. Only this time the opponent was cancer. Beginning in 1999, he has been diagnosed with cancer three times; colon cancer, lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Three times Rich fought back with the same hard hitting and never give an inch attitude he used to become a great football player. Three times they thought he was through, but Rich Saul keeps on battling.
Rich is still fighting CLL with chemotherapy treatments that will hopefully be completed in the next few months, his wife, Eileen, told me during a vacation in Lake Tahoe. As she was speaking, Rich was on the ski slopes with his children and two grandsons, not letting the effects of chemo drag him down.
Today Rich is semi-retired after working for over 25 years as an executive for Fidelity National Title near his home in Newport Beach, California. Rich and Eileen have been married for over 41 years and have two adult children, daughter Jaime and son Josh. Over the past few years, Rich has worked with the Orange County American Cancer Society by hosting a golf tournament. He has also worked with charities that raise money for abused children.
That’s Rich Saul, yesterday and today. Defying the odds on and off the field of play, not listening to the whispers in the hallway saying: “He’s through.”
About Us
The MSU Football Players Association (MSUFPA) is an organization that was formed in midyear 2004 and was given its birth by Head Coach John L. Smith. It wasn’t until the beginning of 2005 that the association got functioning, but when it did a strong force was created within the family of Spartans and a tradition had begun. The purpose of the Association is to perpetuate the Spartan football tradition and to enhance the success of the MSU football program. Our goal is to sustain a working relationship and to provide a network of communication to link the membership with the existing football program.
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