David Cichoke Remembered, Not Avenged

The last time Santa Clara and Cal State Northridge met on the football field, a linebacker named David Cichoke tackled a Northridge runner a yard short of the end zone to save the game and ultimately a conference championship for his school.

Thirty-six hours after making that tackle, Cichoke was dead of a brain hemorrhage. He was found on the floor of his off-campus apartment, his hand outstretched towards the telephone he had knocked off the hook while apparently trying to call for help.

The hemorrhage was thought to have been caused by the blow to the head Cichoke received on the tackle in the closing minutes of the game. He complained of a headache and nausea and was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center to be examined but was released after one hour of observation.

Almost a year had passed since his death, but David Cichoke was still very much on the mind of Santa Clara football players as they prepared for a game against Northridge today at Buck Shaw Stadium.

But not for the reason one might think.

Santa Clara coaches and players say an attempt at a measure of revenge is the furthest thing from their mind.

“We prefer to remember the good time we had with David,” Coach Terry Malley said. “I don’t think anyone in our program, both Northridge or anyone of its players are responsible for what happened. That would be ridiculous.”

That should be of some comfort to Northridge tailback Richard Brown, the player Cichoke caught and tackled Saturday, Nov. 9, 1985.

Brown said he wondered if he might have inadvertently caused the death. “I had thoughts that it might have been my fault,” Brown said in an interview before practice Thursday. “And I also started thinking that the next time I stuck my head down, it might be me.”

As a result, Brown, arguably Northridge’s most physically gifted runner, said he has had to force himself to run hard again.

“What happened stuck with me a long time,” he said. “It might have made me kind of timid since then, but the coaches have been telling me to run hard and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

If it’s any consolation for Brown, some Santa Clara coaches and players think Cichoke’s problem may have started well before he took the field at North Campus Stadium that night.

They say the 6-1, 220-pound, 21-year-old had made a bone-jarring tackle the week before on a kickoff against San Francisco St. He had come off the field rather wobbly, said Kevin Collins, Santa Clara’s standout receiver.

And wasn’t the tackle Cichoke had made on Brown one of those catch ‘em and drag ‘em down jobs? “I don’t think they ever even hit heads,” said Malley. “Chris Hessler (a cornerback) was the first guy in on the play.”

Linebacker Reggie Wauls said Brown wasn’t the only Northridge player affected by Cichoke’s death.

“Everyone was hurt and sad,” Wauls said. “When you watch someone play and then hear two days later that he died, you feel like you knew him. I know it hit me especially because he was another linebacker.

“Something like that makes you think about how much your brain slides around in there every time you make a tackle.”

There will not be a moment of silence or any another rememberance of Cichoke’s death at today’s game.

“We’re not a win-one-for-the-Gipper school,” Malley said. “I think there will be a mass on the anniversary of David’s death. That’s about it. We don’t need anything special to help us remember David because we think about him all the time.”

Tony Cichoke, David’s brother, who is in his first year as an assistant at Santa Clara, said he still prays for everyone who was involved in the game.

“I especially want to talk to the guy David tackled. Maybe before the game,” Tony Cichoke said. “I want to let him know that what happened wasn’t his fault.

“He was out there doing the best he could. And so was my brother.”