"Dick was a great competitor. You could see right off he didn't want anybody to get the best of him. I had no time for kids who didn't care. Let 'em go home. And if you wound up with only 12 who stuck, you'd still be better off.

"When Dick took the Eagles job, as far as a coach, that's the best situation. No way to go but up. I knew from a football situation, it was the worst possible place. But he's done a marvelous job.

"What I think about football players is that they're the same, deep down. Sure, some of 'em got some crust on 'em. You get rid of those.

"Most players want it to be the way it's supposed to be. They're not in it just for the dollar. They want it to be the way it was in high school.

"They want success. If they don't want success, you don't want 'em around. And I think Dick's players really believe in him."

Woods taught four subjects, coached football and track, and got paid $3,400. When he got through running off the players who didn't care enough, he was left with a 17-man squad.

Warren Butler, who would go on to be mayor of Calistoga, was one of the 17. The year before, he'd been the quarterback on a single-wing team that went 1-7.

"The coaching was lousy," Butler says. "I'd call the plays. I'd say 'Dick, you feel like carrying the ball?' He'd say 'Yeah.' I'd say 'OK, take it around left end.'

"That game we won, I don't know how we won it. Upper Lake. Their punter kicked the ball straight up in the air and it landed in their backfield. My brother-in-law picked it up and scored a touchdown.

"Later, we're on the one-yard line. I call my play three times and didn't make it. Fourth down I give the ball to Dick. He fumbles, the fullback falls on it, and we win, 13-6.

"We used to play at Cloverdale, on a field that was only 90 yards long. You'd get to the end zone and they'd take it back 10 yards. If a guy broke loose on a long run it was up to the ref to decide if he'd have scored, going 10 more yards.

"When Bill Woods came in, Dick became the quarterback, and I was the halfback. The only game we lost was to St. Helena." In a downpour.

"That loss still sticks in Dick's craw. Raining so hard, they considered postponing it. Then decided to play.

"Jack Kahl was our fastest runner, but he was really light. They had me at 140, but I only weighed 130. Dick was about 10 pounds heavier. We're trying to run in two inches of water. No way."

Vermeil played two years at Napa JC, then moved on to San Jose State as a walk-on. After two days of spring practice, he had his scholarship. After two weeks, he was the starting quarterback.

Bob Bronzan was the San Jose coach. Taught a class called "Coaching Methods." Remembers Vermeil the student, as well as the quarterback.

"I was pretty rough on that class," Bronzan says. "Some rebelled, some took to it. Dick fell into the second category."

In a memorable game, Pacific, quarterbacked by Tom Flores, whipped San Jose, quarterbacked by Dick Vermeil.

"Pacific had this big end who was about 6-4, 230," Bronzan says. "Kid named Farell Funston. Flores completed six or seven in a row to this guy, driving us crazy and wrecking our defensive game plan."

When Vermeil graduated, he asked Bronzan to write a letter of recommendation for his job placement file. Bronzan recently recalled the contents for an Oakland writer.