Air Force Academy Builds Winners Without Aid of a Football Factory

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. —  Although its record and its national ranking indicate otherwise, the Air Force Academy is no football factory.

The players’ practice time is severely limited by classes, few rival coaches covet them, and a five-year military commitment after graduation takes care of professional aspirations.

Redshirting, the practice of stockpiling talent by keeping a player out for a year, is unheard of here.

Undersized and overmatched week after week, the Air Force Academy nonetheless has carved out a 31-11 record in the last 3 1/2 seasons, doing it with a lot of intangibles--old-fashioned values like unselfishness, discipline and perseverance. There’s no shortage of the right stuff on this sprawling foothills complex.

“I think the key for us in turning around this program is the attitude of our players, the way they feel about each other,” said head Coach Fisher DeBerry, who arrived at the academy as an assistant at the end of eight straight losing seasons in 1981.

“We’ve been able to develop a family atmosphere here. We’ve got a lot of unselfish people. We’ve fostered a total team concept. I don’t think our players give a rip who gets the credit. There’s no ‘I’ in the word ‘team.”’

Col. John Clune, the academy’s athletic director, agrees.

“These kids really believe in themselves and one another,” he said. “They love each other. They’re not worried about individual accomplishments because none of them is going into pro football.

“One of my favorite players on this team is (backup quarterback) Brian Knorr. Brian sits there and roots for (starter) Bart Weiss. It’s very obvious. He genuinely rejoices in everything Bart does.”

Linebacker Pat Malackowski said, “We’re a family out on the field. We know we can’t win if we don’t play with intensity and a lot of heart. We’re all good friends. There’s no ‘me’ attitude. That’s the personality of this program.”

It wasn’t always this way. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the service academies suffered image problems and were unable to recruit effectively. The Falcons routinely had records of 2-9, 2-8-1 and 3-8 in the mid- to late-1970s.

Gradually, that turned around. Former Coach Ken Hatfield, now at Arkansas, needed four seasons to produce a winner, cracking through with an 8-5 campaign in 1982.

The next year the Falcons were 10-2, then 8-4. Each of those three winning campaigns was capped by a bowl victory.

Heading into Saturday’s game at Navy, the Falcons were 5-0. Last week, the Falcons beat Notre Dame for the fourth year in a row.

“Everything has come together for us,” said Clune. “We’ve been able to recruit better athletes for a number of reasons. Vietnam is dead and gone. The country is a little more patriotic, and I think more young people today are conservative and are worried about their futures.

“We’ve worked a little harder on our recruiting. We’ve got two computers and six people working full time, who contact high school coaches across the country.

“The 30-scholarship limit has helped us. We’re getting the athlete who has talent, but was passed over by another school because they ran out of scholarships. We’ll never get the great athlete, unless he just wants to fly. Napoleon McCallum went to Navy only because he wants to be an astronaut.

“We’ll never get the 6-5, 265-pound lineman who runs a 4.6 in the 40. But we may get six linemen who are 6-4 and 200, and two or three of them may grow some and develop into pretty good players.

“Our schedule also helps us. We can’t play a Notre Dame every week and take that kind of physical abuse. Being in the Western Athletic Conference and playing Army and Navy gives us some opponents more our size.”

Air Force football players used to be puny by college football standards. They’re still on the small side (Air Force’s starting offensive line averages 6-2 and 246 pounds), but a weight program and year-round training table have helped narrow the deficit.

In large part, says Clune, “we grow our own” players. “We’ve got 100-plus freshmen out for football right now.