Fullback From Slippery Rock Believes He Earned Some Respect in Shrine Game

He played at the little school with the funny name, but nobody can belittle Slippery Rock University running back Chuck Sanders’ performance in the East-West Shrine game.

Sanders, the first Pennsylvania Conference player invited to play in a major post-season all-star game, helped the East to an 18-7 win over the West last Saturday with 71 yards on 19 carries and one pass reception for five yards.

Despite playing against players from UCLA and Nebraska instead of those from the Kutztowns and Lock Havens he faced in the regular season, Sanders divided time at tailback with Garry James of Louisiana State. The crowd of 77,000 in Stanford Stadium was larger than Slippery Rock’s total attendance for the 1985 season.

Sanders thinks he markedly improved his chances of being an early-round choice in the National Football League draft this spring.

“I think that moved me up (in the draft),” Sanders said. “I think some scouts came out of there saying, ‘That Sanders guy can help us.’ My assets are that I explode off the ball, run strong inside and keep running when I get hit, and I think I showed that.”

The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Sanders was three inches shorter and 45 pounds lighter as a teammate of Atlanta Falcons lineman Bill Fralic at Pittsburgh’s suburban Penn Hills High School. He had no major college offers and landed at Slippery Rock after being recruited by Rockets Coach Don Ault.

Sanders was moved from tight end to running back after he began gaining weight and was the leading rusher in NCAA Division II as a junior, averaging 128 yards per game. That prompted enthusiastic Slippery Rock sports information director John Carpenter to launch a tongue-in-cheek campaign boosting Sanders as a Heisman Trophy candidate.

The campaign got Sanders some national publicity and an appearance on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” and may have led to his selection as one of just two college division players in the East-West game, although he gained only 872 yards in a injury-filled senior season.

“Sure, the publicity helped, but they wouldn’t have picked me if I couldn’t play,” Sanders said at his Penn Hills home. “If I wasn’t capable, I wouldn’t have been invited.”

Only one teammate had heard of him when he arrived in San Francisco for the game, “So I said on the first day of practice, ‘Hey, I’ve got to let these guys know I can play,’ ” Sanders said. “These guys were saying, ‘Who are you?’ At the end of the week, I think they knew who I was.”

Sanders’ practice efforts were rewarded with a starting assignment from East Coach Earle Bruce of Ohio State.

“I really think I got his confidence,” he said. “When it was third and 2, fourth and 1, I got the ball, just like at Slippery Rock.

“I talked to a lot of pro scouts before and after the game and they said I really helped myself with the way I played. With all of the injuries this season, I might not have been drafted until late . . . now I think I might be picked around the fourth round.