Eagle Rock Has Its Day : Occidental Blew Its Cool When Raiders Drafted Mueller in Fourth Round
Aspiring Raiders materialized Thursday from all corners of the map--from Boise State, Elon, Mankato State and, most improbably of all, Eagle Rock’s own Occidental College, a school of 1,650 students that prides itself on sending 70% of them to graduate school.
Now it is out of its gourd for sending one, running back Vance Mueller, to the Raiders, a grad school with very different entrance requirements.
It was Mueller whom the Raiders made immortal, in Eagle Rock anyway, by taking him in the too-heady-to-dare-dream-of heights of the fourth round.
And only then did they select Navy’s Napoleon McCallum, who is infinitely more famous, if infinitely less available because of his pending tour of duty.
At Navy, the announcement was greeted with delight.
That was a bunt compared to Eagle Rock.
“It was crazy,” Mueller said between opening sessions of the Raider rookies’ mini-camp. “People were yelling and screaming all over the place. It turned into a 24-hour party.
“My friends, Brian Emerson and Mike Molfetta, had cable TV in their room in our fraternity house. Everybody gathered around it, but the show stopped at the end of the third round.
“We thought they were going to go six rounds and then carry updates after that. Everybody was all disappointed. Nobody expected me to go that early. The guys on TV just kept talking about Bo Jackson.
“Then, only about half an hour after they went off the air, another friend of mine walks in and says, ‘Congratulations, I heard you’ve been drafted on the fourth round by the Raiders.’
“We said we hadn’t heard that. He said he’d heard it from the coaches. I didn’t believe it until I got the phone call. Then everybody just went crazy.
“I was elated, getting picked high. It was like a shot in the arm. It makes you think they believe in you.”
Said Oxy publicist Frances Hill: “I know he was too happy to take a mid-term. He told the teacher, ‘I don’t think I could come down enough to take this test. The teacher said, ‘I understand.’ He took it two days later.”
Mueller is from the Sacramento area, where he was initially recruited by biggies like San Jose State and Cal. He had a shoulder injury in his senior season of high school, though, and the biggies shied off, causing him to wonder if his football career was meant to be.
“I didn’t believe it wasn’t meant to be but I knew if I wanted to play football, I was just going to have to take the long way around,” he said. “I chose Occidental because they’d let me do both football and track.
“We’d have 4,000 people at a game. The playoffs, maybe 5,000. It’s a special type of experience. In Division I, you have the TV coverage, the big press on you. I think a lot of the time, they stress football more than academics. If you play there, you’ve got a pretty good shot at going pro. Occidental is the type of place where they play football for football’s sake.
“I watched a lot of Division I games on TV. I was very happy where I was, but you always kinda think what it would be like to play there.
“I had an idea I was going to be drafted because I tested well. People come by your school. I got asked to come to a couple of places, here, the Rams. I had a tryout with a Canadian team, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“I don’t want to say I was intimidated, but when you walk in and you look at just the size of some of the guys, the sheer awesome size, it’s kind of intimidating.
“But it’s like any track meet. You go to any good Division I meet and you see a lot of fast guys. What it comes down to is how well you do. It is intimidating, but I try to block that out and do the best I can.
“Like the day I came down here. Mike Sherrard was here from UCLA. I ran a 4.33 (40-yard dash). He came out and busted like a 4.21.
“A lot of people thought I might have a shot. A lot of it is determination. A lot of Heisman Trophy candidates never really made it, and a lot of free agents make it all the time.
“Do I feel less like a dark horse? I’d like to stay a dark horse. I think it makes me work harder. I don’t ever want to take anything for granted. I feel fortunate to be in the situation I’m in. I could be in Joe Dudek’s position.”
Dudek, a halfback at Plymouth State in Plymouth, N.H., appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, finished ninth in the Heisman balloting and wasn’t drafted.
Coach Tom Flores said of Mueller: “He comes from a small school, and we studied him very carefully. You could say he’s a bit of a gamble. Then again, you look at the physical qualities and you have to go by that.”
So Vance Mueller of Occidental takes his place alongside Bob Buczkowski of Pitt and Brad Cochran of Michigan, and prepares to contend for a spot behind Marcus Allen of USC. Pinch yourself again, you Oxy Tigers.