November 29, 1999
By Neal Richards
Perhaps no one ever took a stranger or longer path to playing football for
Virginia Tech than Jon Utin.
Utin came to America from Oxford, England and one could say that he was
the English version of a jock. He lettered in five sports while in school.
But he was far from the American definition of a jock. He lettered in
cricket, rugby, field hockey, handball and football. Not American football,
but rather the world's most popular sport - soccer.
When his grade school days were over, he set forth to land an internship
in dairy farming. In England, all students go through two-year internships
to be absolutely sure they are pursuing their ideal life-long profession.
The Utin's had a friend in Washington, D.C. who in turn knew a nearby
family who took in young people in similar situations to work on their
farm. Utin was off, with a little push from his family.
"I was sort of pushed on to the ship," Utin said.
He got two days off and was paid $80 a month, all the while beating even
the roosters out of bed to go to work.
In a chance meeting one day, he was introduced to Bill Patterson.
"He asked me 'Why don't you go to Virginia Tech and get a degree?'" Utin
said. "That sounded good. I applied and was accepted."
That was 1963. He was awarded a Sears and Roebuck scholarship which paid
for his first year at Tech. At Tech, he played club soccer for two years
until he was offered an interesting proposition.
Would Jon like to try his hand, or rather foot, at being a football kicker?
"It was a connection between John Ghee and one of the grad assistants,"
Utin said. "They were just sitting down one day and commenting on what they
would do for next year. Dick Cranwell, the delegate, was the kicker the
previous year and had graduated.
"He said 'Well I know this kid on the soccer team that kicks very well.' I
went out and kicked before the last game of the season."
Utin kicked a soccer ball well, but he found out quickly that kicking a
football wasn't an easy transition.
"I went out and they put Dickey Cranwell's shoes on me and they were way
too big," Utin said. "I had no idea what I was doing. The only game I had
been too was Wake Forest because I had heard so much about Brian Piccolo. I
was a straight-on kicker. They told me 'If you'd like to come back after
Christmas, we'll give you some balls and you can work out.'"
Utin was bad. He admits it. But he didn't walk away. He took the coaches
up on their offer.
"I used to climb the fence to the practice field, and even when there was
snow on the ground, I would kick," he said. "I figured 'Well, they play in
the snow.' I had a tee and I would kick the balls at the post and then go
get them and kick them back the other way."
But Utin didn't get much better.
"I went out in spring practice with about a half dozen other people," he
said. "None of us were any good. I would run every day in thigh-deep water
to build my legs up. I still had no technique. I'd kick the ball and it
would fall off the tee, or at least it seemed like it.
"They took the team picture and they were nice enough to take a picture of
me as sort of a souvenir. The first game was coming up in Victory Stadium.
I was kind of fed up and sad about it. They had said already that Ken
Barefoot was going to kick off and someone else was going to kick field
goals and extra points. I was about ready to quit. School was going to
start. I thought that if I quit, at least I have a place to live and food
to eat. But I thought my dad would be disappointed in me if I quit."
The rate of exchange from England to America was about one third the value
on the dollar. With the chance to earn a scholarship as a member of the
football team, Utin couldn't quit.
"I went to the library and found a book written by Lou Groza, a kicker
with the Cleveland Browns," he said. "It was the first time that I learned
that there were things I could do to get better. You have to take so many
steps back every time for a kicker and line up the same way every time."
The book was a godsend. Utin was inspired with his new-found knowledge and
technique.
"I went back to my room and put up a sign on my door that read 'Nothing
ventured, nothing gained,'" he said. "I'm sure I prayed. The next day, I
went to practice and I was kicking 40-yard field goals and kicking off into
the end zone. Coach [Jerry] Claiborne came up to me and said 'You will be
our kicker.'
"I said 'Does that mean I get a scholarship?' He said 'If you do well, you
will.'"
Utin made a field goal and extra point in the first game.
"The chance to make a scholarship changed my life," he said. "After the
game he said 'Jon, you're on scholarship.' It meant a lot more to me than
other people on the team. To me, it was like winning the lottery.
"I remember Claiborne saying that I was the best thing he ever got out of
a Sears catalog."
Utin went on to be Tech's kicker for three years and Frank Beamer spent
some time as his holder during that period. After college, he applied for a
teaching position at Blacksburg Middle School and has been there ever
since. He's currently in his 32nd year at BMS and teaches sixth-graders
biology and math.
He also works with the football team, traveling to area high schools
speaking about the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
"Because of football, I could walk down the street and people would know
me," Utin said of his decision to stay in Blacksburg. "I could stay here or
I could go out and not know anybody again. I really like this country."
Utin was the first full-time kicker at Tech, something for which he took a
lot of flack. He desired to play another position, but Claiborne said no.
Now he even has a hard time convincing his students that he played for Tech
at any position.
"They say 'Yeah right,'" Utin said. "Lot's of them, I have to bring a
picture in to show it to them. They look at me and are like 'Yeah, sure.'"
Utin and Patterson remain friends to this day. In fact, he spent
Thanksgiving with Patterson and they're more like family than friends.
It's hard to imagine how things could have been different if Utin would
have just walked away from football. Virginia Tech would have been without
a good kicker and Blacksburg would have been without a great teacher,
citizen and person. Utin arrived via a very strange path to Tech. But that
path was a rewarding one to Utin and everyone he's met since.
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Jimmy Robertson is the editor of the Hokie Huddler at Virginia Tech. The
Hokie Huddler is the athletics department newspaper that is printed 33
times a year - weekly during football and basketball seasons and bi-monthly
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