Blake Elliott's journey into legendary status at Saint John's University may well have begun in a rhubarb patch in Melrose.
More on that later.
But the three-time All-American, who still holds most of the school's receiving records (and a number of kickoff and punt return marks as well), said the process really took shape at Eau Claire's Carson Park on an early September evening in the year 2000.
That game against Wisconsin-Eau Claire – the season-opener for the Johnnies – marked Elliott's collegiate football debut. He'd sat out all of what would have been his first college season after suffering a fluke back injury on the first day of practice in 1999.
But he was back a year later, waiting under the lights to receive a Blugolds' punt.
"It was my first college game and I was so excited to touch the ball," Elliott said. "The guy punted it and I was waiting. I was never going to call for a fair catch. I always wanted to try and return every ball kicked my way.
"So I did and a guy just crushed me. He hit me perfectly .. I mean he drilled me. And sometimes when you get hit clean like that, it doesn't hurt at all. I just remember lying there looking up at the lights and thinking I was going to be just fine. That I had gotten hit as hard as I possibly could and it was OK.
"I realized I could do this."
Could he ever.
Elliott went on to catch 369 passes for 4,826 yards and 63 touchdowns while rushing for 744 yards and eight touchdowns. He also piled up 3,065 yards in punt and kickoff returns, including seven returns for touchdowns.
He was a three-time All-MIAC pick and a two-time recipient of the MIAC Most Valuable Player award, while his teams went on to record 50 victories in his four seasons (2000-03), the most of any four-year class.
As a senior in 2003, he became the second Johnnie to win the Gagliardi Trophy, named for his head coach – the legendary John Gagliardi.
The trophy is awarded annually by Jostens and the SJU J-Club to the most outstanding player at the Division III level – on and off the field.
That same season, Elliott helped lead the Johnnies to the program's fourth national title – scoring on a 51-yard touchdown run (
left) in a 24-6 upset win over Mount Union (Ohio) in the national championship game.
The 2003 season also saw Gagliardi pass former Grambling coach Eddie Robinson for the most wins in college football history.
Elliott, meanwhile, was playing in honor of his younger brother Adam, who suffered a serious brain injury in a car crash before the season began.
He remembers it as an emotional time.
"It was tough, but we got a lot of support and that meant a lot," said Elliott of Adam, who still lives with his mother in Melrose.
"The 2003 season itself, though, was about as perfect as you could ever dream. If you wrote it up as a movie script, people wouldn't have believed it. Everything went so smoothly.
"I was on a lot of good teams (at Saint John's)," he continued, including in that number the 2000 team that advanced to the national championship game before falling 10-7 to Mount Union on a last-second field goal.
"I actually think the 2002 team was just as talented as the team we had in 2003. But we lost down in Texas to Trinity (41-34 in the national semifinals) in a game we had a lot of chances to win. So, by the time we got to 2003, we had a lot of confidence in ourselves."
Of course, Elliott had always been confident in his own abilities. Which brings us back to the aforementioned rhubarb patch.
"We used to play football at Lance Stueve's house in Melrose," recalls Tom Linnemann '00, who was a few years ahead of Elliott in high school, but formed a dynamic connection with him as the starting quarterback on the 2000 team.
"We called it Stueve Field. And Blake was the smallest kid in the neighborhood. But he would beg us to let him play. We'd tell him he couldn't because he was too little. But he'd keep asking and asking.
"Finally, we said we'd let him play with us. But if he cried, he had to go home. People always said how hard to catch and elusive he was. He was that way even then, playing against older, bigger and stronger kids.
"Of course, he had to be, because if we did catch him we'd toss him into the rhubarb patch."
Elliott escaped his leafy fate and went on to become one of the top players in Saint John's history.
"I have to correct you there," Linnemann said. "I believe he's the best player to ever play at Saint John's. Period. There have been so many amazing guys over the years. But just look at all the things he was able to do on the field.
"By the time he was a senior, my heart would start beating faster every time he touched the ball. Because there was a good chance he was going to score – no matter what the situation was."
Elliott's efforts earned him a rookie free agent contract with the Minnesota Vikings, but an injury suffered in his first training camp with the team ended his NFL aspirations before they had the chance to take flight.
Instead, with friends and teammates from SJU, he went on to found BRIDGES MN, a company that has built foster care systems for adults with special needs. It was an organization inspired by the experience he and his family went through with Adam.
He is also the principal co-founder of Northstar Behavioral Health MN, a company that assists those battling opioid addiction.
And he's remained involved at Saint John's, serving as president of the J-Club for four years and on the school's Alumni Association Board.
"The most special thing about SJU from my perspective is the intergenerational aspect if it all," he said. "I have mentors and friends … great people … who graduated in the '70s, the '80s, the '90s and the early 2000s. And I've formed bonds with lots of guys who graduated in the last 10 years as well.
"We all share that common bond."
