He’s the Middle-Aged Man in the Middle of the Line

In an era when adults are in better shape than their children, Bob Blechen, 51, isn’t satisfied with slapping on headphones and jogging around the neighborhood. He’d rather slap on a helmet and butt heads with men less than half his age.

Blechen, of Agoura Hills, is the oldest player ever to compete in the High Desert League, a semi-professional football league and a refuge for NFL castoffs and former college and high school players.

And in his case, there is no concession to age. Last season Blechen, the center for the California Wolves, was named top offensive lineman by the league’s coaches.

Perhaps the only person not astounded by Blechen’s enduring skill is his old college coach, George Allen. The former coach of the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins coached Blechen at Whittier College from 1953 to 1955.

And yes, Allen remembers Blechen way back when the center had a full head of hair.

“Blechen use to run like he had a piano on his back,” said Allen, now the chairman of the National Physical Foundation, “but he was the smartest player I ever coached.”

Allen, 65, loved aging players so much that his Redskins were nicknamed “The Over the Hill Gang,” but none of the players approached Blechen’s age.

“It’s great he’s still playing but it doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Allen, who has long been impressed with Blechen’s achievements.

Blechen recalls asking Allen whether he could show up a half an hour late to practice so he could attend a chemistry lab class. Allen was a stickler for punctuality but relented because he feared Blechen would face academic ineligibility.

“I wasn’t worried about getting a C,” said Blechen, an independent management consultant. “I was trying to get the highest A in the class. Allen got a lot of mileage out of that story on the lecture tour.”

Now it’s the Van Nuys-based Wolves getting a lot of mileage out of the 6-4, 260-pound Blechen. They won the state title last season with an 11-2 record.

“He isn’t some old man we bring out for novelty reasons,” Wolves nose guard Don Kiefer said. “He does as good of a job as any young player, if not better.”

Kiefer, 25, has played his share of games against young blockers. He was a standout defensive player at Cleveland High and Pierce College and started one year as a linebacker at the University of Tennessee. While playing for the Wolves, Kiefer frequently lines up against Blechen in practice.

“He doesn’t give you anything,” Kiefer said. “He doesn’t try to outmuscle you. He beats you because he keeps moving his feet and he’s a good fundamental blocker. It’s like running into an endless brick wall that gets wider and wider.”

Wolves Coach John Bowker, 46, is one of Blechen’s foremost admirers.

“I’ve seen Bob get slammed on every play,” Bowker said. “He gets helmet-slapped, poked in the face, kicked when he’s lying on the ground. He never gets a break, but he never misses a down. I’m at least five years younger than he is and I wouldn’t want to play out there.”

So why does Blechen subject himself to this punishment while others his age and younger have exchanged their cleats and shoulder pads for tennis rackets?

“I don’t think I’m too old to play,” Blechen said. “I like playing football because I’m good at it and I like the team aspect of the game.

“Football parallels life. The harder you work, the better you do. Self-discipline helps you achieve. If you work together as a team, you’ll do better than as individuals. I like the feeling of success as a group. It’s great to share those feelings.”

One can excuse Blechen if he sounds like a recording of the greatest locker room speeches of all time. He has heard enough of them during his career, which has spanned nearly four decades.

What makes Blechen even more remarkable as a player is that he overcame a mild case of poliomyelitis, a muscle-crippling disease.

“In elementary school, I was the fastest kid in my class,” said Blechen, who contracted the disease at age 10. “I quickly became the slowest kid because of polio.

“My mother also had polio and she recognized the symptoms. Doctors just put hot packs on my back and tried to sweat it out of me. Back then, there wasn’t much they could do.”

While most children would have given up hope of playing sports, Blechen used his illness as a driving force for self-improvement. He forced his damaged body to develop until he became successful in sports.

“I had to find ways to compensate for it,” Blechen said. “I worked on my quickness and learned how to play smart. Football is a thinking man’s game, contrary to public opinion, and I learned to be its best student.”

Interestingly, Blechen used to have to convince people he was old enough to play football in the same manner that he now must convince people that he isn’t too old.

When Blechen began playing football as a sophomore at Covina High in 1949, athletes played both offense and defense and wore leather helmets without face masks.

In 1956, Blechen, then 20, was drafted in the 21st round by the Detroit Lions upon the recommendation of Allen, who was one of the team’s scouts. The Lions had made Heisman Trophy winner Howard “Hopalong” Cassady of Ohio State their No. 1 pick.

Blechen was one of the last five players cut by the Lions that year and he failed a similar tryout in the Canadian Football League after playing one season of minor league football.

Blechen gave up his football to start a business career and did not return to the field until 1960. He joined a Baltimore city league and has now played semi-pro football for 26 of the past 27 years. Blechen missed one season because he underwent surgery on his left knee.

During his always-tough semi-pro career, Blechen has played on several fields that didn’t have a single blade of grass, seen a team bus catch fire and watched teammates scramble off a single-engine plane that was overloaded.

But one of Blechen’s favorite stories occurred while playing against a prison team in Chino.

“We couldn’t stop the game for injuries because the prisoners had to be back in their cells,” Blechen said. “A player got hurt and they sent a fire engine to pick him up and remove him from the field. On the next play, we ran a sweep and the referee was blind-sided by the fire engine. He didn’t get hurt, but we almost died laughing.”

Blechen said the most frightening incident he’s been involved in took place last season at East L.A. College.

“It was in the middle of the game when we started hearing gunshots,” Blechen said. “The P.A. announcer warned us to hit the ground. Some players climbed a 15-foot chain-link fence. I hid behind a plaster wall. I thought about running toward a trash dumpster, but I never made it. Where else could a 6-foot-4, 260-pound lineman hide?

“It turned out to be a local gang firing warning shots to protect its territory.”

Despite the enjoyment he receives from football, Blechen worries that one good hit could put a sudden end to his career.

“I’m large-boned and I don’t get injured very often,” said Blechen, who will turn 52 in October. “I’ve had my share of scraps and sprains. I am at an age where I can’t risk an injury. Things don’t heal as fast. I’m concerned that I might be foolishly risking my health.”

But he won’t even consider retiring to a couch to simply watch football on TV like most men his age.

“No, never,” Blechen exclaimed. “I’d rather play than coach and I’d rather coach than watch. Besides, I don’t think I’m ready to retire.”

Allen, his old coach, would urge Blechen to keep on keeping on.

“He’s built like an ox,” Allen said. “If you’re not being tested, you’re not living. Few players understand the game of football like Bob. As long as you know the basic fundamentals of football and have stayed in good shape, I think it’s possible for someone to play as long as Bob has. His position helps. If he were a running back or a wide receiver it’d be a little bit more difficult.”

The High Desert League already has begun play this season. The Wolves are 1-1 and next play Sept. 20 at 11 a.m. against the San Jose Bandits at Birmingham High. And the oldest player on the field will feel like the youngest.

“As I was growing up, I was the youngest in my family, the youngest in my class, the youngest on my team,” Blechen said. “The net result is that I feel I’m the youngest on the Wolves even though I’m the oldest.

“I think people grow old because they lose spontaneity. They get into a routine and stop trying new things that can be fun.

“I like the kid part of me. I hope it never grows up.”