Walk-on fullback moves toward the limelight

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior fullback Jim Wendler (34) blocks senior running back Kelvin Eafon during a scrimmage game. Wendler, a former walk-on, scored a touchdown against San Diego last week.

He does his work as a part-time player in Arizona's backfield quietly and confidently, then steps off the field into obscurity.

For a few seconds last week in San Diego, though, Wendler suddenly had the spotlight, scoring a touchdown in Arizona's 35-16 rout of the San Diego State Aztecs.

But for the Illinois native the touchdown didn't mean nearly as much as just getting to play at all.

"It was nice," he said. "But it was a lot more satisfying for me to be blocking in the Iowa game or just coming out to practice every day. I'd rather do that than score touchdowns."

A 1993 graduate from Wheeling High School in the small Illinois town of the same name, Wendler originally went to the Air Force Academy, where he spent 1994 as a reserve fullback.

He came to Arizona the following spring and walked on to the team with no scholarship waiting for him, as he just wanted to play.

"Yeah, because of the love of the game," Wendler said. "But also to prove a lot of people wrong. There was one person in particular, who shall remain nameless, the friend of a guy I played in high school with, who said I'd never be able to play college ball."

Wendler sat out the entire 1996 season battling Graves Disease, a thyroid disorder, further dampening his hopes of getting to play for the Wildcats.

But he bounced back in 1997 and lettered for UA on special teams and found a role as a reserve fullback in the team's last seven games.

Wendler was still a walk-on without a scholarship when head coach Dick Tomey assembled the players on the last day of Camp Cochise this August.

He told everyone in the room that Wendler had been given a scholarship for all the hard work he had put in.

"I didn't expect one," Wendler said. "My first reaction was I just started crying. It was just the culmination of a lot of setbacks and hard work. When coach was announcing it was just crazy; all the guys in the room were cheering for me and congratulating me."

Tomey remembered the day as well.

"When we put those guys on scholarships they were ecstatic," Tomey said of the rest of his team. "It's just one of the strong fibers our team has, that togetherness and ability to root for one another."

Senior running back Kelvin Eafon, who splits time with Wendler and Paul Shields at fullback, summed up Wendler in just a few words.

"He's just a tough guy," Eafon said. "I know when he's at fullback and I'm at running back he's going to lay the block down for me."

Eafon said he never saw Wendler as being different despite his walk-on status.

"Everyone out here is a football player in my eyes, trying to do the best they can," Eafon said. "The one thing I commend Jim on is how hard he's worked every day this summer and now in the fall. He's always in the weight room, always working out, trying to get stronger. We need guys like him."

The play that put Wendler on the spot against SDSU was originally called for Eafon. But Eafon had just played on the previous down and Wendler was sent in.

"I had no idea what it (the play) was when I went in," Wendler said. "Trung Canidate looked at me and asked if I knew what I was going to be doing, so I said 'sure.' It was so quick I was glad, otherwise I would have had time to think about it and probably would have been a mental head case."

Wendler's joyous reaction to the five-yard run late in the second quarter caught the eyes of ESPN's cameras as well as his coach's eye.

"It was really wonderful," Tomey said. "I've never seen a guy so happy."

Tomey said it felt good for everyone when thinking of all that Wendler has endured.

"He's one of those guys who's paid an enormous price," Tomey said. "He's contributed to the team in so many ways."

Wendler said he has not even bothered to watch the replay yet.

"I haven't let it sink in yet," he said. "The best part of it was my parents were in the crowd out from Illinois to see it. That and all my teammates giving me high fives on the sidelines and congratulating me just made me feel overwhelmed by it all."

Among those teammates on the sidelines who showed his exuberance on national television was junior quarterback Keith Smith.

"I was so thrilled," he said. "He was only in on certain situations and blocks his butt off every time. He deserved it."

But as the Aztec game drifts into the past and the team focuses its attention on the Washington Huskies, Wendler has only one wish.

"Hopefully that's not my only 15 minutes of fame in football and in life," he said.

Chris Jackson can be reached via e-mail at Chris.Jackson@wildcat.arizona.edu.