This is the story of a detoured dream. Of expectations still waiting to be fulfilled. Of an ending yet to be completed.
This is the story of Kent Graham, the quarterback out of Wheaton North. Graham was one of the most hotly pursued passers in the nation after his senior year (1986) and one of the most heavily recruited athletes ever from the Chicago area.
Notre Dame won the sweepstakes, and Graham seemed a natural for South Bend. He was the blond-haired All-American boy, who eventually married the blond-haired All-American girl who lived on the next block and whom he`s known since junior high. On July 31, the couple had an All-American baby boy.
The story should have gone like this: Graham, named the Tribune high school athlete of the year in 1987, goes to Notre Dame and starts for three years. He leads the Irish to a couple of national titles, maybe even wins something called the Heisman. The pros, drooling over his 6-foot-5-inch frame and his gun-for-an-arm, take him in the first round and ensure that new-born Taylor will grow up in style.
It should have gone like that. But it hasn`t.
Instead, Graham starts only one game at Notre Dame, spending the rest of the time on the bench watching Tony Rice. After two years, Graham decides it`s not going to happen at Notre Dame and moves to Ohio State, where he has to sit the `89 season because of NCAA transfer rules.
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Then, last year, he gets stuck behind Greg Frey and plays only 45 minutes in six games, mostly in a mopup role.
So now, five years after all the recruiters were calling, instead of planning to buy an estate with his pro riches, Kent, Courtney and Taylor live in an off-campus duplex, and Kent sells furniture during the summer to help make ends meet.
He`s at the top of Ohio State`s depth chart this season, but coach John Cooper says the job still is wide open. Once again, Graham`s football future is uncertain.
Now, don`t get the idea that Graham is living in squalor or wallowing in bitterness. That`s not the case at all.
It`s just that when you`re a hotshot high school quarterback, seemingly destined for greatness, you don`t figure to be sitting in Columbus, Ohio, as a fifth-year senior still waiting for the opportunity to prove yourself-an opportunity that may never come.
”I wouldn`t have thought it would go this way,” Graham said. ”At this point, I thought I`d have at least two years of starting under my belt. I didn`t think it would come down to my last year.”
He then got philosophical.
”I feel like there`s a purpose to all this,” he said.
What is it?
”I haven`t figured it out yet. Maybe I will one of these days,” he said, chuckling.
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The arrival of son Taylor has given Kent Graham another sense of purpose. He and Courtney proudly show off the baby, who already weighs more than nine pounds.
”He`s going to be a big one,” said Graham of his son, who undoubtedly will be blond.
Graham hopes Taylor is an omen of things to come this fall. It`s his last shot to salvage his college career, and to have any hopes for one in the pros. With Frey gone, he would seem to have the inside track for the job. But Cooper is playing coy. He also has redshirt freshman Joe Pickens, who like Graham was a big-time recruit, plus option specialist Kirk Herbstreit.
”Kent`s a great young man, and I`d love for him to play this year,”
Cooper said. ”But personalities don`t enter into this. We`ve got to pick the best quarterback.”
Graham thinks he`s ready for the challenge. He lost 26 pounds during the off-season, trimming down to 218, which is less than he weighed in high school. He now feels he has the mobility that some said was lacking in the past.
”I did what I was asked to do in the spring,” he said. ”I have confidence in my abilities. All I want is a chance to play. Just give me a chance to play.”
Graham thought he`d get the opportunity at Notre Dame. He loved the school, and he thought the offense was suited for a quarterback who likes to throw.
But when Terry Andrysiak went down in the Pittsburgh game in 1987, coach Lou Holtz chose the runner, Rice, over the passer, Graham.
”He told me, `At this point, we can`t protect the quarterback,`
” Graham said. ”He wanted Tony`s speed in there. Tony did a great job. I wouldn`t want to second-guess.”
But . . .
The choice sealed Graham`s fate at Notre Dame. With Rice at the controls, the Irish switched to a more run-oriented offense. The approach veered away from Graham`s strengths.
He was on the 1988 team that won the national championship, but it left him with a bittersweet feeling. ”I would have liked to be the man leading it,” he said.
With Rice solidly entrenched as the starter for the 1989 season, Graham knew he wasn`t going to get the chance to play again. So after spring practice, he told Holtz he was transferring.
Leaving Notre Dame and his friends wasn`t easy; Chris Zorich and Anthony Johnson stood up at his wedding.
Graham says he doesn`t regret going to Notre Dame, although he still wrestles with what happened.
”Was I misled?” he said. ”That`s a tough question. I`m still trying to figure that one out in my mind. It`s tough to say.”
Graham thinks about the question for a few seconds and then answers diplomatically, ”Probably not. I think coach Holtz did what he thought was best for the team.”
Graham`s mother, Romelle, was a little more blunt.
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”I thought he should get out of there, and go someplace where he could play,” Romelle said.
Graham, with Holtz putting out feelers for him, chose Ohio State over Alabama and South Carolina. He wanted a pass-oriented attack, and he got one with the Buckeyes.
But his timing was lacking again. While Graham sat out 1989, Frey emerged as the Buckeyes` No. 1 quarterback. He kept that spot in 1990.
”It`s starting to sound like a broken record,” said Graham, who saw only spot duty in 1990, completing 16 of 25 passes for 195 yards and three touchdowns.
”There`s an element of luck, and being in the right place at the right time. Things just haven`t worked out.”
At times, it`s been hard for Graham to accept. After all, everything came so easy for him in high school. For years, he was constantly being told he was great. Then he goes to college, and suddenly he`s not so great.
”I got down knocked down a little,” he said.
Not that it was all bad.
”Looking back, this was a big growing period in my life,” he said.
”When you go through that many trials and tribulations, you`ve got to grow up.”
Having a baby also has accelerated the process. ”I don`t know if it has hit me yet,” he said.
If a pro career doesn`t materialize, Graham will have his business degree to help him support his new family. But he still hopes the NFL is an option;
his brother, Dan, is a center for Tampa Bay.
Kent Graham has one year to show the pros what he can do. One year to fulfill the promise expected of him.
Of course, that`s if he shows enough to warrant Cooper`s nod as Ohio State`s starter.
The possibility exists that Graham, who had schools lined up to court him, might never get the chance he always wanted in college-to play.
What if it doesn`t work out in 1991?
Graham first turns somber, then gets determined.
”Ask me when that happens,” he said. ”Right now, I don`t look at it that way. I`m approaching it as if I`m going to be the man.”