Plati-'Tudes: Jack Swigert's CU Career Remembered (Yes, THAT Jack Swigert)
April 15, 2020 | Football, General
Welcome to a notes and comment column in its 19th year, penned by CU Associate Athletic Director David Plati, who is his 36th year as the Buffaloes' director of sports information.
Plati-'Tudes No. 116 ... Week four of "sheltering at home." Since no one knows how long this will last and when we can return to work in earnest, there will be 13 of these 'Tudes coming up that will be shorter and involve some fan engagement on social. From time-to-time, I'll have trivia and the mailbag, notes when warranted, but we've come up with something cool that will bring many Buff fans down memory lane.
Quick Hits / Apollo 13, Swigert Remembered
Fifty years ago this week the surreal situation concerning Apollo 13 took place (April 11-17, 1970); one of the three astronauts on that ill-fated flight was Jack Swigert, who graduated from CU in 1953 and was a three-year football letterman at offensive right guard and on the defensive line in the platoon era. He was portrayed by Kevin Bacon in the critically-acclaimed movie, which by most accounts, is very accurate. On the third day in space, about 70,000 miles from the moon, Swigert did a routine stir of the oxygen tanks, which damaged defective wire insulation inside it that caused an explosion that led to an entire chain of events, including a shutdown of the command module. It was Swigert who first said the famous line, "Houston, we have a problem here," which commander Jim Lovell repeated to Mission Control. Hundreds of people back on Earth worked to return the astronauts safely as the crew utilized the lunar module for life support until just before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
Of the 24 astronauts that traveled to (and circled) the moon, covering some 500,000-plus miles, Swigert was the only Buff to ever do so … which leads to my favorite CU trivia question of all-time: name the former Buff who made the longest road trip in school history and what was their method of transportation? He was the fraternity "father" for CU Hall of Fame member Frank Bernardi, who starred in both football and baseball. "He was a tremendous offensive guard, but he ran like a duck," Bernardi said. "But he ran like a really fast duck." Swigert, who joined the mission just two days before liftoff, hadn't filed his tax returns yet but President Richard Nixon granted him an extension. After retiring from NASA, he entered politics, ran for the senate in 1976 and then for congress, winning Colorado's District 6 in 1982, but before he could take office, he passed away in December 1982 at the age of 51 from complications due to lymphoma and bone marrow cancer.
This P-'Tudes Number: 93
247Sports recently went through all 108 rosters of the 54 Super Bowls and developed an all-time list of the schools that have the most players appear in the game. Colorado came in tied for 10th with LSU and Ohio State with 93 players (who have won a total of 52 Super Bowl rings). Topping the list was Miami-Fla. with 122, followed by USC (120), Michigan (114), UCLA (112), Penn State (110), Notre Dame (105), Tennessee (102), Georgia and Nebraska (96). Next after the Buffs from the Pac-12 were Stanford (16th, 84), California (17th, 83), Arizona State (19th, 75) Oregon (23rd, 71) and Washington (28th, 65).
New Plati-'Tudes Series Starts Tomorrow: Best CU Games – Week-By-Week
Watching what AT&T Sports did with the Colorado Rockies "Stay-at-Home Opener," where they took 18 half-innings from assorted games in the club's 27 previous openers, it gave me a similar idea. What are CU's best or most exciting football games in its history as to where they fell on the schedule? The best season openers, the best game fives, etc. So I went through and took a look over the years and came up with – in my humble opinion based on importance, the outcome or for just plain excitement – the best game, the runner-up and an honorable mention selection for every week over the course of our football history (granted, most are since the 1950s when we have thorough game details).
Some were obvious, others likely up for some debate, but having seen 42 years of CU football in person, and listening to others speak of games on the front end of our history, I'd hope I'd be close. I'll do this in 13 installments over the next 13 weeks. This series will run weekly on Thursdays and you can chime in, vote and comment on social media on what you think are the best games each week.
"Plati-'Tudes" features notes and stories that may not get much play from the mainstream media; offers Plati's or CU's take on issues raised by those who have an interest in the program; answers questions and concerns; and provides CU's point of view if we should disagree with what may have been written or broadcast. Have a question or want to know CU's take on something? E-mail Dave at david.plati@colorado.edu, and the subject may appear in the next Plati-'Tudes.