Rychleski making Super debut

Joe Namath was the reason many high school quarterbacks in the 1970s just had to wear white shoes.

Namath was also the reason the Colts franchise had an unpleasant start to its Super Bowl history and was on the wrong end of one of the most memorable moments in the game’s storied history.

“As a kid, my all-time one was Joe Namath when he won it for the Jets,” Old Forge native Ray “RJ” Rychleski said when discussing favorite Super Bowl memories last week. “He wore white shoes and when I played quarterback at Old Forge, we all had to wear black shoes.

“I asked coach (Elio) Ghigiarelli if I could wear white shoes. In ’74-75, for my senior year, I got to wear white shoes, which back then was almost unheard of.”

When Broadway Joe guaranteed victory and delivered by leading the New York Jets to a 16-7 win over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, he gave the upstart American Football League its first big win and helped legitimize an event that, at the time, was in danger of not taking hold.

Rychleski, a 1975 graduate of Old Forge High School, recognizes the irony in that his strongest memories of the event come in one of the most disappointing moments in the history of the franchise with which he is now employed. Rychleski is in Miami where he will make his Super Bowl debut as special teams coach for the Indianapolis Colts Sunday night against the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV.

Namath used the Super Bowl to prove the AFL teams belonged on the same competitive level as the long-established National Football League, paving the way for the leagues to merge into what is now the nation’s most popular professional sports league. The Super Bowl, in turn, has grown into the nation’s biggest sporting event.

Rychleski lands in that event in his first year in the NFL. Missing out on a chance to coach with the NFL’s misfits, the Oakland Raiders, kept Rychleski available for when Jim Caldwell took over as the new head coach in Indianapolis.

Caldwell, who had worked with Rychleski at Penn State and Wake Forest, added Rychleski to his staff in his first head coaching assignment. They will each be trying to win titles in their first year at their new levels.

Rychleski recognizes the good fortune of landing an assignment with such an established organization.

“I always say that luck is preparation meeting opportunity,” Rychleski said. “I prepared for this opportunity, no doubt. It happened to be with this team and an organization that was winning. If I had gone to Oakland with Lane Kiffin, there’s no way of knowing how things would have turned out for me.

“I’m very fortunate to be in this organization. The opportunity before me is an outstanding opportunity that I will try my best to take advantage of. I will try not to let down the people who have given it to me.”

Rychleski tried to make the most out of each of the two weeks of Super Bowl preparation.

“We don’t look at it as a bye week,” he said at the end of the first week. “We look at it as a preparation week as if we were going to play (last) week.”

The first week was also time to take care of travel arrangements, ticket requests and conversations with many well-wishers.

Earlier this year, Rychleski was effusive in his praise of many coaches who helped bring his career to its current stage. That showed when it came time to decide who to share tickets with for the Super Bowl.

Old Forge native Bob DiPippi, who Rychleski credits with teaching him how to be a football coach in his first college assignment at Temple, will be at the game. DiPippi, who now lives in New Jersey, received tickets along with his wife and son.

Jamie Barresi, who worked with Caldwell and Rychleski at Wake Forest and coached in the Canadian Football League’s most recent Grey Cup, is also coming.

Rychleski, an only child whose parents are deceased, was able to get tickets for seven cousins from Old Forge.

“Some I thought would never get on a plane,” said Rychleski, who went from Old Forge to graduate from Millersville State before spending 27 years coaching in college at Temple, Northeastern, Penn State, East Stroudsburg, Wake Forest, Maryland and South Carolina. “I’ve heard the words ‘once-in-a-lifetime,’ about a dozen times.”

Rychleski said he told his visitors that he might not see them again between turning over the tickets and getting together after the game.

“The bottom line is we’re there to win the game,” Rychleski said. “If you’re going for any other reason, you shouldn’t be there.”

Rychleski has already spent his first season in the NFL showing he belongs with a successful franchise. Together with the Colts, he has the chance to create some new all-time favorite Super Bowl memories.

PD Old Forge Sports

Old Forge native reaches SB XLIV as Colts special teams coach

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