IT'S a name I hadn't thought about for a long time. Dempsey is thrust
back in the spotlightThe big guy -- 6-foot-1, 265 pounds -- who was substitute-teaching in 1967 at the Dracut Middle School in Massachusetts.
My late father, Leon, spent most of his 40-year teaching career in the Dracut school system, so he knew Tom Dempsey. I remember him mentioning the "football player" who was working with him.
Dempsey had a clubbed foot but was known to play for the semi-pro Lowell (Mass.) Giants at old Cawley Stadium.
"Lowell was a great town to play in," said Dempsey by phone yesterday from his consumer relations job in New Orleans. "We drew 8,000 to 10,000 people to a home game. I was playing at night, so they got me a job substitute-teaching in the day."
After that year, we lost track of Dempsey, and never had much reason to think about him. That was until he became somebody on Nov. 8, 1970.
The teacher boomed a 63-yarder through the goal posts at Tulane Stadium (the Saints' old home field) to shatter the 56-yard NFL record set in 1953 by the Baltimore Colts' Bert Rechichar.
IT'S one thing to marvel at Jason Elam's accuracy in tying the record Sunday at Mile High Stadium. But imagine the skill it required for Dempsey to direct his kick off a toeless foot.
There were those who complained about the advantage Dempsey got from the specially made shoe he wore on his clubbed foot.
Some are saying the Denver altitude aided Elam.
But Dempsey dismissed the protests.
"I don't believe in asterisks or circumstances," he said. "I watched the kick on TV and he (Elam) just did a great job."
But there is one circumstance Dempsey is very old-fashioned about.
He kicked his record outside, five years before the Louisiana Superdome was dedicated. He wouldn't have it any other way.
"Football was meant to be played outside in the mud, the blood and the beer," he said. "I don't like indoor football."
Now that's what I call grit.
That's why he watches the Saints on TV. Despite living in New Orleans, he never ventures into that football sacrilege, the Superdome.
DEMPSEY, who is now 51, spent his 11-year NFL career with the Saints, Eagles, Rams, Oilers and Bills.
He played briefly with Hawaii's Rockne Freitas, and remembers him fondly.
"If you ever had to go into a fight, Rockne's the guy you'd want to have on your side," said Dempsey. "I hope I see him again some day."
Elam may get a good deal richer due to his 63-yarder, but Dempsey wasn't able to live the good life off of his boot.
He is struggling to help three college-age children: a son, 24, and daughters, 22 and 19.
"I'm just one of those poor, broke parents with three kids in school," he said.
There is no endorsement money, no appearance money.
"I get a few speaking engagements," he said. "Maybe there'll be a few more now."
There might be. There is a particular fascination with the ability to propel and guide an oblong sphere half a football field-length through a pair of narrow uprights in front of 70,000 people.
Dempsey got deluged with phone calls after Elam's kick. It was so bad he asked the Saints to help him screen the calls.
It was just a bit too much of a disruption to the lifestyle of the low-profile ex-NFLer.
"I have a boss who expects me to work, you know," he said.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.