“The Cardiac Kids” come back again
Before the 1968 Rose Bowl, the Indiana University football team -- aptly dubbed the "Cardiac Kids" for their many nail-biting games -- met the University of Southern California on an alternate field of battle outside of Pasadena.
The stadium was a famous Los Angeles restaurant called Lawry's. The field was a dinner table. The name of the game was prime rib; all-you-can-eat. Although USC won the pre- Rose Bowl contest -- 321 pounds of beef to 289 -- nobody really lost that night. Well, except maybe Lawry's.
This is just one example of the fascinating inside stories found in, "The Cardiac Kids: A Season to Remember," a book chronicling the 1967 Hoosier football team that was released earlier this month.The 133-page book takes the reader through the historic season with detailed descriptions of each game and insights provided by the players and coaches themselves. It was written by Bloomington's Bill Murphy, one of the Hoosiers' biggest fans, and published by Pen & Publish Inc., a Bloomington publisher dedicated to small, local releases.
Both author and publisher have pledged portions of the profits to the 1967 team's room in the IU Hall of Champions currently under construction in the North End Zone Facility at Memorial Stadium. Murphy, along with several players from the '67 team, will be available for autographs at the Rose Bowl team's 40th Anniversary Celebration before the Purdue game on Nov. 17 in the "I Association" tent.
"I've wanted to write this book for years," said Murphy, now a fifth-grade history teacher in Greenfield, Ind. "But three years ago, when Coach Terry Hoeppner started talking about the Rose Bowl team and bringing back the excitement they generated, I thought, 'He's preaching to me! I'm part of the choir here!' I felt the exact same way he did and thought maybe there are more people out there than the two of us; maybe there's some small market out there for this book."
There may not be anyone better suited to author a book on the '67 team than Murphy. His parents -- both IU alumni -- and his grandmother, who worked at IU's library for years, began taking him to IU games before he was old enough to remember. He has been a season ticket holder of both football and basketball for more than 50 years and rarely misses a game. The book -- a "labor of love" -- is based on newspapers his grandmother gave him 40 years ago, magazines, DVD's of the home games, interviews with Coach John Pont and several players and his own recollections.
"I went to the archives to choose pictures for the book and they had a stack 5 inches high with nine pictures per page," recalled Murphy. "I felt like a kid at Christmas time. I went through the first two sheets, looked at the clock, and it was a half hour later! I said to myself, 'Boy I have to pick up the pace!'"
After two and a half years of research, Murphy started actually writing the book the old fashioned way -- with a pen and a yellow pad of paper. A year later, "The Cardiac Kids" is the result of his efforts.
"My favorite parts were actually putting down the "rebroadcast" of each game in words -- because it helped me relive it -- and talking to the players," said Murphy. "These guys were my heroes in junior high. I was intimidated and nervous at first, but I was quickly put at ease by their great stories and because they're just wonderful people; very receptive and very kind. I tried to include in some way every name of every player who was on the team--all of the assistant coaches, the managers, the trainers and even the cheerleaders. I tried to cover everyone so they each had a little ownership in the book."
But what comes out of their stories -- more than the nuances and recollections of the games -- is the feeling that this team was, and still is, a family.
"The Cardiac Kids: A Season to Remember," is a book that chronicles the 1967 Hoosier football team's historic season.
"Even after 40 years they're as much, or more, of a family as they were the day after the Rose Bowl," said Paul Burt, co-founder and president of Pen & Publish Inc. "I think it's a phenomenal story. Bill has been able to pull out great bits and pieces from that season. The book takes you back to a special time to be a Hoosier."
Harold Mauro, center on the '67 team and current director of IU Football Operations, echoed these sentiments saying, "Bill obviously put a lot of effort into it. He was a kid at the time of the season and wrote the story through the eyes of a kid, which is a very special view of that team."
Murphy has high hopes for his book, although that doesn't necessarily mean he wants it to sell thousands of copies. Instead, he said, "I'd consider this book a success if it's half as successful telling the story as the '67 team was playing that year. I want people to sit down, read, enjoy and reminisce. And then a few weeks later to think, 'Now what was that one little thing that happened in the Purdue game?' and be able to go look it up."
Murphy and the publisher have pledged 20 percent of the book's profits to the IU Hall of Champions being built in the North End Zone Facility at Memorial Stadium. Additionally, Murphy plans to donate 10 percent of the profits to The Cure Starts Now -- a charity for childhood cancer.
"I hope it's a success not only to pay homage to the team, but also because those are great causes dear to my heart," said Murphy.
"The Cardiac Kids: A Season to Remember" can be purchased before each home game at the "I Association" tent or through Amazon.com.
