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CANTON — Notre Dame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame are celebrating each other with a “Gold Helmet to Gold Jacket” exhibit, which opened Friday.
Dave Casper, who wore Fighting Irish headgear in the 1970s and collected a gold jacket in Canton in 2002, livened up the occasion.
Looking large and robust at age 73, Casper, a tight end known as “The Ghost,” amused a luncheon crowd with a story about nearly going from South Bend to the Steelers dynasty.
Casper was a senior when he helped Notre Dame go 11-0 and win a national championship. His last game was a 24-23 Orange Bowl win over Alabama on Jan. 1, 1974. NFL draft day was Jan. 29.
“I got call from Pittsburgh,” Casper said. “Somebody from the Steelers said, ‘We’re gonna draft you as a guard.’ Three minutes later, the Raiders called to say, ‘‘We picked you.’”
NFL scouts were asleep at the switch. The Browns drafted a guard named Billy Corbett at No. 40 overall. Casper was there for the Raiders at No. 45. The disappointed Steelers shifted gears with the 46th pick and took Jack Lambert.
Casper, at tight end, and Lambert, at linebacker, became in-your-face rivals in a torrid Raiders-Steelers series.
“Lambert thinks I never got open,” Casper said. “I had some of my best games against them.”
In a 1975 playoff loss at Pittsburgh, Casper caught five passes in the fourth quarter. In games against Pittsburgh early in the 1976 and ’77 seasons, he totaled 12 catches for 231 yards.
Every older Browns fan recalls Cleveland’s “Red Right 88” playoff loss to the Raiders in the “Kardiac Kids” season of 1980. Few recall the Raiders trading Casper to the Houston Oilers in the middle of that season.
As an Oiler, Casper caught seven passes for 150 yards in a loss to the “Kardiac Kids” Browns. Safety Clarence Scott stepped in front of Casper for an interception that changed the game and the season. The Browns and Oilers both finished 11-5 in the AFC Central; Cleveland won the crown on a tie-breaker.
At the luncheon, Casper tweaked Lambert one more time.
“He’s the grumpiest guy that ever lived," he said. "He’s going to yell at God when they let him into heaven.”
(Lambert seemed to have mellowed in a 2023 conversation with the Repository.)
At Notre Dame, in the national championship game, Casper made a huge catch that set up a game-winning field goal.
“(Quarterback) Tommy (Clements) threw a duck,” Casper recalled. “Two guys from Alabama are sitting under the ball. I’m going for it to knock it down, but I see these two idiots standing there, letting me catch it right in front of them.”
Casper spoke next door to the stadium where Harold Fannin Jr. played high school football at McKinley. Now a hot tight end prospect for the 2025 NFL draft, Fannin caught 117 passes for 1,555 yards for Bowling Green in '24.
Casper said it was a miracle he made All-America in Notre Dame’s national title year, when he caught 19 passes for 317 yards.
Casper played three years of high school ball in Elgin, Illinois, before spending his senior year in Chilton, Wisconsin. He was big enough to make line coaches want him in the trenches, tough enough not to care where he played, and faster than many wide receivers.
He revered Notre Dame head coach Ara Parseghian and loved his time in South Bend.
“Most of the guys who came into Notre Dame were just really good guys,” Casper said. “They took it seriously, probably more seriously than I did. They probably taught me how to be a little more serious.”
Casper is one of 14 Notre Dame alumni with bronze busts (relocated to the temporary exhibit). Only Southern Cal, also with 14, boasts that many. Ohio State, Michigan and Miami (Florida) are next with 11 apiece. The Hall plans a special Ohio State exhibit for the fall.
Former Notre Dame defensive lineman Alan Page became a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Page grew up in East Canton and played football at Canton Central Catholic for head coach John McVay.
Page was a senior on the 1966 team that pitted No. 1 Notre Dame against No. 2 Michigan State. The so-called “Game of the Century” ended in a 10-10 tie. A week later in the regular season finale at USC, the Fighting Irish won 51-0. They didn’t have a bowl game, but they were consensus national champions.
Quarterback Bob Belden, a teammate of Page at Central Catholic and Notre Dame, was a guest at Friday’s ribbon cutting. Bob Gladieux, a Louisville Leopards legend, was a Notre Dame sophomore on the ’66 title team.
Page will turn 80 in August. He retired from a seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2015 and, in 2018, was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.
Notre Dame’s other Pro Football Hall of Famers include Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Nick Buoniconti, George Connor, Edward J. DeBartolo, Paul Hornung, Curly Lambeau, John McNally, Wayne Millner, Joe Montana, George Trafton and Bryant Young.
Montana was a three-time Super Bowl MVP for the 49ers, owned by a Youngstown native, DeBartolo (McVay was general manager).
The Canton Bulldogs won NFL championships in 1922 and 1923 in a league that included the Green Bay Packers; Lambeau was a Packers player-coach.
Hornung became a close personal friend of the late John Bankert, a Stark County man who became a Hall of Fame director.
Buoniconti played for the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins under head coach Don Shula, an Ohioan.
Current Notre Dame current head coach Marcus Freeman is an Ohio native and former Ohio State player whose wife, Joanna, is from Massillon. On Jan. 20, Notre Dame lost to Ohio State in the national championship game.
Freeman’s father-in-law, Mel Herncane of Massillon, attended Friday’s ribbon-cutting.
Reach Steve at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Dave Casper talks Notre Dame football, more at Hall of Fame exhibit
Continue reading...
Dave Casper, who wore Fighting Irish headgear in the 1970s and collected a gold jacket in Canton in 2002, livened up the occasion.
Looking large and robust at age 73, Casper, a tight end known as “The Ghost,” amused a luncheon crowd with a story about nearly going from South Bend to the Steelers dynasty.
Casper was a senior when he helped Notre Dame go 11-0 and win a national championship. His last game was a 24-23 Orange Bowl win over Alabama on Jan. 1, 1974. NFL draft day was Jan. 29.
“I got call from Pittsburgh,” Casper said. “Somebody from the Steelers said, ‘We’re gonna draft you as a guard.’ Three minutes later, the Raiders called to say, ‘‘We picked you.’”
NFL scouts were asleep at the switch. The Browns drafted a guard named Billy Corbett at No. 40 overall. Casper was there for the Raiders at No. 45. The disappointed Steelers shifted gears with the 46th pick and took Jack Lambert.
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Casper, at tight end, and Lambert, at linebacker, became in-your-face rivals in a torrid Raiders-Steelers series.
“Lambert thinks I never got open,” Casper said. “I had some of my best games against them.”
In a 1975 playoff loss at Pittsburgh, Casper caught five passes in the fourth quarter. In games against Pittsburgh early in the 1976 and ’77 seasons, he totaled 12 catches for 231 yards.
You must be registered for see images attach
Every older Browns fan recalls Cleveland’s “Red Right 88” playoff loss to the Raiders in the “Kardiac Kids” season of 1980. Few recall the Raiders trading Casper to the Houston Oilers in the middle of that season.
As an Oiler, Casper caught seven passes for 150 yards in a loss to the “Kardiac Kids” Browns. Safety Clarence Scott stepped in front of Casper for an interception that changed the game and the season. The Browns and Oilers both finished 11-5 in the AFC Central; Cleveland won the crown on a tie-breaker.
At the luncheon, Casper tweaked Lambert one more time.
“He’s the grumpiest guy that ever lived," he said. "He’s going to yell at God when they let him into heaven.”
(Lambert seemed to have mellowed in a 2023 conversation with the Repository.)
You must be registered for see images attach
At Notre Dame, in the national championship game, Casper made a huge catch that set up a game-winning field goal.
“(Quarterback) Tommy (Clements) threw a duck,” Casper recalled. “Two guys from Alabama are sitting under the ball. I’m going for it to knock it down, but I see these two idiots standing there, letting me catch it right in front of them.”
You must be registered for see images attach
Casper spoke next door to the stadium where Harold Fannin Jr. played high school football at McKinley. Now a hot tight end prospect for the 2025 NFL draft, Fannin caught 117 passes for 1,555 yards for Bowling Green in '24.
Casper said it was a miracle he made All-America in Notre Dame’s national title year, when he caught 19 passes for 317 yards.
You must be registered for see images attach
Casper played three years of high school ball in Elgin, Illinois, before spending his senior year in Chilton, Wisconsin. He was big enough to make line coaches want him in the trenches, tough enough not to care where he played, and faster than many wide receivers.
He revered Notre Dame head coach Ara Parseghian and loved his time in South Bend.
“Most of the guys who came into Notre Dame were just really good guys,” Casper said. “They took it seriously, probably more seriously than I did. They probably taught me how to be a little more serious.”
Casper is one of 14 Notre Dame alumni with bronze busts (relocated to the temporary exhibit). Only Southern Cal, also with 14, boasts that many. Ohio State, Michigan and Miami (Florida) are next with 11 apiece. The Hall plans a special Ohio State exhibit for the fall.
Former Notre Dame defensive lineman Alan Page became a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Page grew up in East Canton and played football at Canton Central Catholic for head coach John McVay.
Page was a senior on the 1966 team that pitted No. 1 Notre Dame against No. 2 Michigan State. The so-called “Game of the Century” ended in a 10-10 tie. A week later in the regular season finale at USC, the Fighting Irish won 51-0. They didn’t have a bowl game, but they were consensus national champions.
You must be registered for see images attach
Quarterback Bob Belden, a teammate of Page at Central Catholic and Notre Dame, was a guest at Friday’s ribbon cutting. Bob Gladieux, a Louisville Leopards legend, was a Notre Dame sophomore on the ’66 title team.
Page will turn 80 in August. He retired from a seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2015 and, in 2018, was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.
Notre Dame’s other Pro Football Hall of Famers include Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Nick Buoniconti, George Connor, Edward J. DeBartolo, Paul Hornung, Curly Lambeau, John McNally, Wayne Millner, Joe Montana, George Trafton and Bryant Young.
Montana was a three-time Super Bowl MVP for the 49ers, owned by a Youngstown native, DeBartolo (McVay was general manager).
The Canton Bulldogs won NFL championships in 1922 and 1923 in a league that included the Green Bay Packers; Lambeau was a Packers player-coach.
Hornung became a close personal friend of the late John Bankert, a Stark County man who became a Hall of Fame director.
Buoniconti played for the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins under head coach Don Shula, an Ohioan.
Current Notre Dame current head coach Marcus Freeman is an Ohio native and former Ohio State player whose wife, Joanna, is from Massillon. On Jan. 20, Notre Dame lost to Ohio State in the national championship game.
Freeman’s father-in-law, Mel Herncane of Massillon, attended Friday’s ribbon-cutting.
Reach Steve at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Dave Casper talks Notre Dame football, more at Hall of Fame exhibit
Continue reading...
