Pat's History

College Years

Before we get into telling the story of Pat's college education I have to remind you all that my plan was to hitchhike around the United States. I had decided that I wouldn't go to college along with giving up my career of being a football player. I went to work for a beauty supply company that summer after graduating from high school and remember my first paycheck going to pay back rent to my mom and buying new clothes. All my life I had only gotten hand me down clothes from my brother. Hand me down clothes story So with that first paycheck my girlfriend Sharon went with me to JC Penny's and we bought some nice clothing. My mom was only making me pay $25 a month but told me that would go up. My dad always said if we were going to school we could get free room and board. I liked making the money and having money for myself. But I started thinking about what I loved and what that counselor from OCC had talked about with me. As the summer went along I started working out with some friends at OCC just in case I decided to go to college. I remember my dad went to most of the workouts and trained Terry Lorentzen and me. OCC had just won the National Championship the year before and had a great all purpose running back named Mike Hunter. He would be working also getting ready to transfer to USC on a scholarship. He was a great punt returner and worked with me on fielding punts. As the weeks went by I got more inspired to keep playing football and felt that I was as good as any of the other athletes I was working out with. In those days coaches couldn't be out on the field. The players took it upon themselves to do these workouts on their own. My job at the beauty supply place was great but I realized it wasn't what I wanted to do in life. I also knew that I loved playing football and working out. So I made my decision. I told my work I was going back to school. I made my commitment to being a full time student and I was going to play football for OCC.

Freshman Year

Practice started in late August and I was really overwhelmed by the talent. There was over a 120 athletes from all over Orange County coming to play for OCC. I didn't think I had a prayer to play but in those days no one was cut. They always needed scrubs for the first team to beat up. School finally started and I hadn't done very well in a scrimmage with San Diego Mesa College. I was riding the bench. I was questioning whether I should be doing this college thing but like most things in my life, I was not going to quite. (Thanks Dad). Something happened in our first game against Cerritos College. In the final seconds of the game OCC experienced something that hadn't in a long time. They lost 13-15. When a team is losing a coach starts trying different things to turn it around. If players are screwing up they get replaced. I was still riding the pines but because of my hustle and tackling I did get on some special teams. A couple of weeks went by and I got a little playing time. Practices were going well to. My immediate coach had great faith in me but for some reason Coach Tucker the head coach didn't. Finally we played Fullerton College in our fourth game of the season. We were getting our buts kick and the defensive back ahead of me was screwing up. One of the advantages of riding pines is that you can see whats going on for your position. I was able to watch that guy who was playing my position and see what he was doing wrong and how I could improve upon that. When there was a major screw up I saw Coach Tucker turn to the bench and say Pat Pohl get it there and don't come out. The first thing I did as a corner back was in a passing situation the Fullerton Team had this one play where QB would sprint right and then he would throw back to a halfback who was sneaking out of the backfield on the back side. While the wide receiver was my responsibility to cover the QB never really looked down field at him. He would just throw a shorter pass to the back as our linebacker was always moving to his left to pursue on the spring out action and wasn't in position to cover the back. I left my receiver and cheated in and over and broke up the pass and they had to punt. As I came off the field I got a lot of congratulations from players and coaches. When the defense returned to the field Fullerton had the ball at midfield. Their first play was a sweep to my side of the field. Them job of a cornerback is to contain and turn the play back inside. When I recognized the play I filled as fast as I could. Fill for a defensive back (db) means to come up to the line of scrimmage as fast and he can and make a tackle or take on a blocker. I sprinted up and saw a pulling guard coming at me to block me. I decided to take him on with my left shoulder and get around him on the outside. As it turned out the running back decided instead of cutting inside off of the guards block he would bounce outside and try to run wide on the defense. I didn't see him and he didn't see me coming but there was a huge collision and I tackled him for a bout a five yard lost right in front of the coaches and sideline. It was a lucky hit for me. He zigged when he should have zagged and I was in the right place at the right time. I can still remember on Mondays practice where we all watched the game films, Coach Tucker must have replayed the play 10 times saying things like, "now that's what I call a hit" or "you all need to take a lesson from Pohl on how to tackle". Needless to say when the new starting line up came out I was first string cornerback. It was a good thing because my girlfriend's father Stan was an avid football fan and was thrilled about my game that Saturday night. This would all help me in what I had to do on Sunday night. The Friday before I had gotten some new. I had taken a urine sample of Sharon (my girlfriend) to our team physician because she was late on her period. I remember being in a pay phone booth on the Coast Highway with Sharon when I called the doctor and his nurse told me the test was positive. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. I asked, "What does that mean?" She replied that meant that Sharon was pregnant and I was going to be a father. Kind of like the opening of A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times it was the worst of times. There I was an 18 year old kid with a 16 year old pregnant girlfriend. I had no job, no car, was living with my parents and to say the least wasn't sure what I was suppose to do. (Click here for instant grow up time story). I do remember a sophomore player on the team who was married and had a kid. They even did an newspaper article on him called Papa Perry. He was a returning starter and I thought if he could do it so could I. My friend Terry was hassling me about having to come down to Newport from his home in the heights pick me up and then drive back up to Costa Mesa to get to Orange Coast College. So I needed a car anyway. As you will read in the instant grow up story the next couple of weeks saw me get a car, get three jobs, get married, leave the Catholic Church, and move away from my parents for the first time in my life. I just realized that in telling the stories of my childhood, and teenager years I neglected to mention that I was a bed wetter (Bed wetter story). I had a lot on my plate but I guess that's what you do with life. It tosses you problems and then you take them on the best you can. Anyway fast forward and I finished the season staying on first string and doing OK. We had enough wins to be selected to attend the Junior Orange Bowl game in San Bernadino against Riverside College. (Orange Bowl Game Story). After the season I was pretty well into a routine. There was no free time for anything. I got up early each morning and went to classes. Then I went to work at Jabsco Pump Company and repaired pump exhibits to get them ready for trade and boat shows. I then went back to practice in the afternoon. Then it was off to work at a liquor store at nights and then I did some cleaning of commercial building on the weekends. I remember my first night after the wedding (click here for my dad's shoes story). I was lying next to my new bride and started thinking about that I would never slept in my bed at home or be with my parents again. It was very emotional for me and I was sad. Let alone I wanted to say up and make sure I wouldn't wet the bed. But I was so tired. I was married on a Monday night at a Baptist Church in Costa Mesa. I remember that I had an Anatomy test on Tuesday morning and joke about studying Sharon's body to help me prepare for the exam. The Catholic Church would not marry us even though I tried three churches. (The night I had my talk with God story) Got the same answer at all three, NO!. When football season ended I was able to work more at Jabsco. In those days it was cheaper to have kids. All three of my kids were mistakes. Meaning they weren't planned. Also I paid in cash for all three births. Two days after my son Jeff was born I signed my first teaching contract where I got medical coverage. Anyway the second semester at OCC I had a lot of hard classes and I was tired all the time. My 7:00 am physiology class was the hardest. I dropped out of freshman English and was not doing so well. Tammy our first daughter was born on May 29th and I remember right before she was born Sharon got into a fight with her day and we moved out. I was really liking the free room and board but we were in our own apartment a month before she was born. We also had to get a new car because the 1953 Morris Minor I had by freshman year was very unreliable (most embarrassing story). So we bought a 1965 VW. (Herbie Story). After Tammy was born I found out there was a whole lot of more growing up to learn. If I thought I was tire before have an infant provide all the sleep deprivation any parent can't speak to. (Tammy baby bottle story). When summer came I was able to work more hours but I was behind on my classes if I wanted to graduate on time to move on to a four year school. I took 9 units that summer (1965). Freshman English, music appreciation, and speech. Because summer school is half the time of a regular semester, it was light taking 18 units. I was even more busier than before. I didn't know it at the time but that kept me eligible for my sophomore year. We didn't have coaches who kept tabs on our academic progress. They just did a check at the beginning of the season and if you passed enough credits you were eligible. Anyway I always think it was kind of funny that I went from being an average high school student to graduating from college four years later with honors, while playing four years of college football and working full time and had two kids. I still don't know how it all got done. I do have to give some credit to my in-laws. They were really supportive as was my wife. But as the summer came to an end my roller coaster life was on the down swing. I went through my first divorce. (First Divorce story) And then came the sophomore year.

Sophomore Year

After you read the first divorce story I must say that I was devastated. I moved back in with my parents and had a horrible start at football. Not that I was doing so bad but Coach Tucker had it in his mind that I was not going to start. I think he had something in for Newport Harbor players. They were all rich and spoiled brats. Or maybe it was just me. Anyway I had a freshman player replace me in the starting lineup. Clarence Taylor from Laguna Beach. Why is it that school always had me riding the pines. Anyway he was a gifted athlete but not very smart. I knew sooner or later I would prevail. We had a scrimmage one day against Long Beach City College. It was for the players who weren't playing much to better evaluate them. Our head coach Dick Tucker didn't attend the scrimmage down in the stadium but all the assistant coaches did. I did pretty well. I intercepted three passes and back a couple of punts for TDs. All the assistant coaches praised me and said they thought I should start but Coach Tucker just had it in for me. Anyway about the third game (again we were losing) I got a chance to go in and I did well. I made some interceptions and some good tackles and stayed on the starting line up. Actually I was having one of the best years of my football careers despite the fact that I was paying child support and getting to visit my daughter once a week. I started dating again but felt very uncomfortable about it. I was just working at the liquor store and was finally starting to feel better about myself and my situation. I finally an old high school girlfriend to go out with me. I had been asking her for about three weeks. She came to the game that night. I was selected captain that week and all was fine. Then another bump in the road. I came up to make a tackle on a sweep when I had a pulling guard hit my knee from the inside with his helmet. I felt the excruciating pain and knew there was something really wrong. The game that night was being televised and I was told that I got replaced with a beer commercial. Anyway the injury was season ending and possibly career ending. I remember taking Sue Barto home to my house and having fun even though my knee was swelling. I took her home and was sad about the injury but happy that I was finally starting to feel good about myself again. The divorce did leave me devastated. Anyway Sharon had called me that week and asked if I was coming on Sunday to see Tammy and the support money. I said I was and she said that she would come to my place because there was something she wanted to talk about. (a letter changes everything story). Anyway I finished the season with never missing a practice. Standing on the sidelines with crutches was not fun. If fact I never missed in practice in 8 years of football. I pretty much had decided that that was it for my football career. I did receive some scholarships offers but most of them were not for a married man with kids. Did I mention that when Sharon and I got back together again she got pregnant. Anyway My plan was to a least graduate with an AA degree and then go to work for Southern California Edison and be a reader meter guy. I worked a lot of hours at the liquor store (Thanks E-Z-Inn Liquors and to the owner Mr. Leitchfuss). I did receive my degree that spring and had an unexpected visit from Coach Coury (The Coach Coury Story). That summer 1966, was the only summer I didn't attend summer school. I worked a lot and got ready to hopefully play ball at Long Beach State. I had to turn down some scholarships because they wouldn't take a baby and a wife. I ended up going to Long Beach State as a walk on with the promise if I did well they would put me on scholarship. Which they eventually did. Thanks again Coach Coury.

Junior Year
The first thing I had to do when I got to Long Beach State was change my major. It seems a major in biology at State needed 47 semester units I didn't have in courses like chemistry, physics, Zoology, Botany, and so on. The only majors I could still do and get a BA degree in two more years was PE, sociology, and anthropology. I had taken courses at OCC in these areas and was up to par to be able to take upper division courses at LB State. The next big thing I had to do was get time off from work to go to football camp at Terminal Island. A navy base in Long Beach for the football team's hell week. When I reported for camp I wasn't alone. Terry Lorentzen, my best friend went with me. He and John Weber (probably one of the best natural athletes I had the privilidge of playing with) went also. John was an all american at OCC in football and baseball. He turned down a full scholarship to USC so he could stay near his girlfriend Rozzi. When she transferred to LB State so did he. He only played baseball though. I would get him a job at the liquor store and we became close friends. We both went into teaching as did Terry and Rozzi. During hell week I found out right away that the talent at this level was something else. There were no weak players. The whole defensive secondary were all seniors coming back from a 9-1 season. To say the least it was going to be an impossible task to break into that lineup. The first game I didn't get into. My friend Terry like he did at OCC got to play. At OCC he was the starting tightend and at State he snapped the ball on the punts and extra points. I remember watching the first away game on TV because I didn't make the traveling team. I didn't quit eventhough I was discouraged. I just kept hanging in there. As happens in football people get injured. A couple of other players moved into starting roles and I got to play a couple of plays on home games. Eventhough I didn't start or play much at first I still would spend alot of my little free time studying game films of our upcoming opponents. Just in case I got into a game. Plus I was kind of getting interested in being a football coach. We were playing San Luis Obispo and they had a receiver (Cecil Turner) who was the NCAA sprint champion. This guy could just fly. During that week of practice I remember playing against the first offense as the mock SLO defensive team and I stepped in front of our great wide reciever and intercepted a ball. I know it was only a goalline offensive practice session but when I intercepted the pass I just started running for the other endzone. I ended up running through the coaches who were stationed behind the offensive huddle and they had to dodge me and the offensive players trying to catch me. I collided with some of the coaches as they held out their arms and blew whistles. OK, hold up everyone. I heard them say, "Good job Pohl, what happened, why did we get picked off?" I was impressed that they even knew my name. As I studied the films on Turner, I noticed his was one of those recievers who was lazy when the pass play wasn't call to him. He also did an out and up in which he didn't turn his head back to the QB when doing the out move, so you knew he was doing an out and up instead of a out pattern. This gave you an advantage on covering him. During the game he was tearing us up and the defensive back on him couldn't stay with him. I was OK fast but since my knee injury back at OCC I wasn't up to full speed yet. I remember much of my junior year playing with a lot of pain in my left knee and asking someone when does a knee finally heal and stop hurting. The reply was that it doesn't you just get use to the pain. After that I didn't notice the pain as much. Anyway back to the San Luis game. I got my named called to cover Turner and went into the game. Respecting his speed I played kind of soft. It was a third down play and I was lined up on him on the wide side of the field. The play started and Turner did his out move but not turning his head and looking for a pass. I knew it was an out and up. I turn and started sprinting down the sidelines ahead of him (I thought) I looked back to the inside of the field and saw the QB had let the pass fly. I was just on course. I then turned my head back to the sidelines in front of me and there was Turner having to slow up to wait for the ball. God was he fast. I judged my leap to get the ball and both of us went up to catch it. Because the ball was underthrown and my full head of steam in the catching up mode, we met on the sideline and we both came down on my coaches who must of been discussing something while all standing together. All's I remember was being picked up by the coaches and getting congratulated on doing a good job and stopping Turner. Remember that thing I talked about, "LUCK". Well it reared it's head that week in practice and again in this game. Because it was now forth down and the punt return guy didn't go out with the punt return team I stayed on the field. A bench wormer is always looking for an opportunity to get into the the game. I fair caught the punt and jogged off the field as the offense came on. When I came off the coaches were still congratulating me and were amazed that I could field punts too. We won the game and I was elevated to first team and we were off to Arizona the next week for our next game. My first time flying except on a short ride back from Catalina Island when I was little. In Arizona I had a pretty good game eventhough we lost. It was an afternoon game and we got back late that night. When I got to our apartment Sharon met me and said we had to go to the hospital. My second daughter was born that next morning and Nechia Lee Marie Pohl entered the world on Oct. 23rd, 1966. She was born on the same day my mom was. Sharon tried every thing to have the birth before or after that day but destiny has it's way. She was born in the morning I was able to get to work still to open the liquor store up. Orlo my boss opened it up at 6:00am and I was there before 7:00. My Dad came in that morning too. Unfortunately he had been drinking. (Dad's last drink story) For the rest of the remaining games I got better and stayed lucky too. I even got selected as player of the week a couple of time. The last game against University of the Pacific I intercepted a pass and returned it for a TD early in the game. I always bragged about that interception against that quarterback as he went into the NFL and played for many years. There were also two players who played behind me that made the pros also. Something I was kind of proud about too. I'll talk about my pro football decision later in grad school year. That interception for a TD against UOP was my first in my football career. I had more interceptions in that game and because it was televised a lots of people who knew me saw that I was playing well. I continued into the rest of the school year commuting up to Long Beach from Newport Beach. I was getting student loans along with the scholarship I was promised by the coaches. Still working full time at the liquor store we were able to pay the bills and keep afloat. I was moving along on schedule and getting ready to enter my senior year.

Senior Year
Prior to my senior year I was attending summer school. This I found is the secret to graduating on time. It's intense but you can catch up. As the Terminal Island week came along there was talk about me being a captain that year. I wasn't elected by the coaching staff but was seriouly considered. They went with some local players from the Long Beach area. I was selected to the game captain position a couple of times however. I also ended up being the teams punter as we had lost our punter. That's a little bit of a problem since I was also the punt and kickoff returner. I basically learned how to punt being around the game most of my life. Also when I shagged balls for Huarte and Mike Hunter I would kick the ball back to them. I was OK but not great at it. Eventually we picked up a real punter about half way through the season. The first game was an easy win and I did well. Living up to all the hype in the paper done on me about being not only a good back but a very smart one too. It was fun to see my name in the paper after those times where I was a nobody riding the pines. Anyway the second game was against San Francisco State and we flew up to SF to play an afternoon game. We got hammered 55-29. It was a high scoring battle in which their QB tore up our secondary. Our only bright spot was our top receiver who caught 17 passes for a school record. His name was Billy Parks and we got to be pretty good friends during hell week. We both played beach volleyball and their was a vb pick up game on the base that we played when we didn't have practice or meetings. He had the best hands of any player I ever played with or against. He went on to play in the Pro's and did well. He was leading receivers in the NFL his rookie season before he broke his arm playing against the Oakland Raiders. A game I watched in person. Anyway back to my senior season. After the SF game my confidence was a little shaken. I knew I was playing with the big boys and I was starting to doubt myself. The next game was against San Fernando State (now called Cal State Northridge). Funny that this was my hometown in the 50's. Anyway they were a up and coming team and we were pretty well handling them. I had picked off a pass and returned it for score. Right before half-time we were on their one yard line going in for another score which would have pretty well put the game away, but our full back fumbled the ball up in the air and a linebacker picked it off in their endzone and returned it for a touchdown. It really caught us by surprise. They were jacked up and had the look in their eyes that we had when we played Anaheim in my senior year of high school. Slowly and merticuously they came back in the second half and our offense was stopped. On the last drive they were coming down and I felt helpless. They were not throwing to my side at all. One time I cheated over and picked off my second interception and ran it back about 30 yards to set up our offense in good field position. But unfortunately there was a defensive holding call that was away from the play that negated my pick. They got the ball back and continued their drive. Again I was getting anxious because my receiver now was just standing around doing nothing. Not even running a pattern. I would contiune to see this and then leave him to pursue inside and help with a tackle or pass defense. Little did I know I was being set up. The next play the quarteback sprinted right, away from me. I checked my receiver and he was just standing again, so I left him to go help inside. As I started I saw the QB sprinting to the opposite side of the field and without looking stopped and turned and threw a pass back over my head to the corner of the endzone. The player bluffed like he had been doing the whole series and when he saw me leave him he sprinted to the corner of the endzone. We still had time to score and were only a couple of points down but our offense failed and we lost the game. I was demoted to second team because of that. My DB coach that year was new and his name was Tom Morgan. Turned out he played with my dad back at LA State. I think he was trying to get me motivated. I only sat out the first quarter the next week against San Diego State. In those days SD State was a powerhouse. Coach Coryell was there coach who went on to coach the San Diego Chargers for many years (Remember Air Coryell). I remember waiting to receive the kickoff at the begining of the game and looking up at the 50,000 fans in that stadium thinking in a few seconds they will be eleven crazy men coming down the field to try and tear my head off. The excitment and adrenaline was no different than the feeling I would later in life with an intramural or ultimate game years later. It doesn't matter what stage you're on, just as long as you are on a stage somwhere. Wow I just made that saying up. Pretty good huh. Meanwhile back to the game. I was covering a great receiver named Haven Moses who went on to have a great pro career with the Denver Broncos. He was really good but I held him to only one reception that night. That's cause they didn't pass much that night. They ran the ball down our throats. I made a lot of tackles against their huge backfield. If I making the tackles that means they're gaining a lot of yardage. I think we lost 21-7. I did the punting that night too and I kicked the ball and made a saving tackle on the sidelines in our territory. Coach Reed (the head coach) yelled at me to kick the ball out of bounds so the speedster wouldn't get the chance to return the punt. The next punt I angled to the sideline. I can still remember waking up the next morning in San Diego (we stayed at our friends Jack and Pam Ferguson apartment) and reading the newspaper. "Following Pat Pohl's 8 yard punt, the Aztecs went in to score their second touchdown. Nothing about shutting down Moses. Oh well I didn't shut him down. I was just lucky they didn't use him a lot that night. He was exceptional. As the rest of the season went we did OK. I remember being move inside to a free safety position to try and improve our pass defense. I picked off two passes against SLO and played OK against LA State. Our last game was at UOP. The year before against the Tigers is where I scored my first pick six. Again this time I was in the free safety position and still was not getting use to crack back blocks from wide receivers. I would forget about them being outside and when I came up to make a tackle I got blocked by them without seeing them. Ouch! Anyway I went up and broke up a pass and when I came down I got kicked really hard in the shin. I tried to run it off, but I couldn't. It was too painful and had to leave the game before half. We lost our last game and the trip home was not happy. I didn't go back with the team as my wife's family wanted to go to camp at Pismo Beach on the way back to home. We got the permission from the coaching staff and as I woke up to the sound of the ocean that next morning I thought back on my football career. My senior year was OK but less than I expected of myself. I was voted most valuable back that year and was honored. I later received some pro football letters to come try out for the Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers. In those days the NFL draft wasn't like it is today. I would have to say my energy level was not what it use to be. I think the heavy schedule from school, football, work, and raising kids was starting to get to me. I finished my classes at State and graduated "Cum Laude" that June. I was offered a graduate assistant job with coaching the freshman football team and some PE classes. I chose this over the pro football path as it was not guaranteed income. Plus I always knew that I loved coaching and the strategies invovled in the game of football. And so I did it. My teenage rebellion to prove to all those people who said I couldn't work, go to school, play football, and raise a family at the same time. Well I did it and did it with honors. Now I had to go and get my teaching credential.