By Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Kurt Wachtler's NFL career lasted only a matter of days.
After being selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the 15th round of the 1974 NFL Draft, the former Saint John's University standout defensive lineman took part in just a few practices with the team that summer before he was informed he would not be offered a contract due to a knee injury he'd suffered in wrestling the previous winter.
"I had been wrestling one of my teammates and my best friend, (two-time MIAC heavyweight champion) Greg Miller '75, in practice," Wachtler (
left, as a senior on the 1973 team) recalls. "His knee hit mine and it chipped a piece off the back of my kneecap.
"It was bad timing and I didn't recover very well from that."
At least not as well as the Vikings needed to see to provide the former All-MIAC selection an opportunity to make their roster.
Still, until last weekend Wachtler '74 was the last SJU player to be selected in the NFL Draft, although other Johnnies would go on to be signed as undrafted free agents over the years and running back Rick Bell '83 made the Vikings' roster during the 1983 season.
That changed Saturday when senior offensive tackle
Ben Bartch was selected in the fourth round (116th overall) by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
"I was so excited to see that – for Ben and for Saint John's," said Wachtler, a graduate of the former Hill (now Hill-Murray) High School in the Twin Cities and a long-time Texas resident.
"When you get drafted where he did, it means they believe you have a real opportunity to be successful at the next level. I couldn't be happier for him."
The NFL draft is now a cottage industry all its own. It was shortened to seven rounds in 1994, and every round is nationally televised with pre-draft projections and post-draft analysis.
That's quite a change from the experience Wachtler had 46 years ago.
"Back then, there was no ESPN or cameras present when players were selected," he said. "It just wasn't that big a deal. The league was a different place then. Most of the players still had other jobs in the offseason to help pay the bills. You could drive through the parking lot at Vikings' training camp and see a lot of older cars the guys were driving. It was a different time."
But one thing Wachtler described about his time with the Vikings still holds true today: Making the jump to the NFL means facing a higher level of talent every day in practice.
"It's definitely going to be a different breed of player (Bartch) will be going against," said Wachtler, who in all was a three-sport athlete and captain of two at SJU. "I remember dressing for practice and my locker was right next to (Hall of Fame center) Mick Tingelhoff. His body looked pretty battered with all sorts of surgical scars. I thought maybe I could hold my own against this guy.
"We got out there and all it took was one play for me to get smashed into the ground, leaving an imprint like I was a cartoon character. I'd never been knocked down like that before in my life. I realized these guys were pretty good."
(Right) Family and friends gather with members of the SJU football team - including Wachtler (foreground, #72) - following the Johnnies' 40-12 win at Macalester on Sept. 29, 1973.
After he was released by the Vikings, Wachtler said the team helped him contact the Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints, both of which called to offer tryouts. But after thinking it over, the double-major in mathematics and physics at SJU elected to leave football behind and pursue his master's degree at the University of Minnesota.
It turned out to be a good decision in more ways than one. He went on to a successful career with Texas Instruments as a manufacturing material scientist who designed electronic devices for the military and the consumer market. Wachtler
held 29 U.S. patents before he retired last July.
He and his wife Cynthia (CSB '74) raised three children, one of whom played football at Yale. They're now the proud grandparents of seven.
The couple has now been married 44 years, though had things gone differently with his NFL aspirations …
"That topic came up about five years after we got married," said Wachtler, who was inducted into the Hill-Murray Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017. "And she told me she wouldn't have married me if I'd kept playing football. She wasn't going to be a football wife.
"So I guess everything ended up working out for the best."
