The excitement of the college bowl season approaches, and we hope that your favorite school or alma mater is participating in one of the many games to be played in the coming weeks. Pick Heaters has an interesting connection to college football. We go back to October 3, 1942, when the Northwestern Wildcats were hosting the Texas Longhorns, coached by Dana X. Bible. The Southwest Conference powerhouse came to Evanston as the previous season’s fourth ranked team in the country, with the goal of claiming the national championship in 1942.
Northwestern, coached by Pappy Waldorf came in as big underdogs. They were led on offense by the great Otto Graham. But it was the unexpected heroics of Al Pick, the eventual founder of Pick Heaters, Inc. that ended up giving the Wildcats their lone victory of the season.
43,000 fans packed Dyche Stadium and witnessed futile efforts by both teams to score until midway through the fourth quarter. It was then that Northwestern took advantage of a Texas short punt and excellent field position. Otto Graham took over and got the Cats down to the Texas 24. A couple of plays later the strong Longhorns defense held at the 13-yard line.
The story has it that Coach Waldorf turned to their first-string place kicker and judging from the sick expression on the player’s face, determined he was not up to the job. He picked Pick.
At that time Alan, a senior, had spent two years on the bench as a third-string guard and logged little playing time. Alan strapped on his leather helmet and ran onto the field. Quarterback Dud Kean kneeled at the 19-yard line and received the snap. Pick’s kick was good from 29 yards and Northwestern had a commanding 3-0 lead.
Alan got his team “out of hot water”.
The next day’s Chicago Tribune sports article was titled – “Pick’s Kick Beats Texas”.
Alan’s heroics continued in the following years as he served in the Navy during World War II, with more stories to tell.
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