Mark WiedmerWith his Friday night induction into the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Athletics Hall of Fame, John Tyszkiewicz became one of 213 former athletes, coaches or supporters who have been so honored.
But the retired Sayreville (N.J.) War Memorial High School teacher and coach is surely the only one of those to be singled out in a song by the rock band Bon Jovi.
"I think my kids knew about the song before I did," the 71-year-old Tyszkiewicz (pronounced Tiss-ka-vich) said just before the induction ceremony began at the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club. "It was nice to hear about. Jon (Bon Jovi) and I are very good friends. I never coached him, but I always thought he was a good enough athlete to have been a pretty good running back or defensive back."
The reference to the Mocs' two-time Little All-American comes near the end of Bon Jovi's "Just Older," one of 14 songs on the "Crush" album released in 2000.
An ode to growing older rather than old, it contains the line "Tell Coach T I cut my hair."
Tyszkievicz's 33-year-old daughter Lauren said that Bon Jovi, the group's lead singer, now sometimes changes that line at concerts to, "If you see Coach T, tell him I still have my hair."
So does Tyszkiewicz, though it now runs a distinguished shade of silver.
"I was so honored and humbled when I got the call (about the Hall of Fame)," he said. "At first, I wasn't sure it was true. I called the school back: 'Is this legitimate?'"
Assured that it was, he headed back to the Scenic City for the first time since he graduated in 1969, accompanied by 10 family members and friends.
"It wasn't that he didn't want to come back," Lauren said. "He just felt like that chapter of his life had closed. He'd become a teacher, coach, husband and father. He didn't want to be stuck in his glory days."
The school inducted five former UTC athletes Friday night whose glory days are worthy of being honored forever: women's basketball player Julie Copeland Christian (1988-91), football player Kenyon Earl (1991-94), women's tennis player Julie Dunn Heim (1977-80), wrestler Chris Thornbury (1986-89) and Tyszkiewicz (1965-68).
But those who played with Bon Jovi's favorite gym teacher - former teammates such as Dr. Harvey Ouzts (his roommate), Nubby Napolitano, Roger Catarino and Rick English - tell of an athlete who might have, were it not for injuries to his knee and back suffered in his senior year, made it all the way to the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
"There's film of him absolutely pancaking an All-American defensive lineman from Auburn," said Napolitano, who was a longtime Hixson High School coach.
"Did you tell them about Mean Joe Greene?" asked English, referring to the pro football Hall of Famer and former Pittsburgh Steeler who got roughed up by Tyszkiewicz one autumn afternoon when UTC played Greene's North Texas State team.
"After the game, Greene came up to us and said, 'I'm glad I don't have to go against No. 70 (Tyszkiewicz) again. I've never played against anybody that tough."
Added Napolitano, who'd also grown up in New Jersey, just like No. 70: "He was a tackle and I was a tight end. Sometimes I'd just hold onto his pants and enjoy the ride. If we were double-teaming somebody, he was the one doing all the work."
It all started when former UTC assistants Harold Wilkes and Joe Geri came to Sayreville High looking for a big, strong lineman. Tyszkiewicz signed on the dotted line, then redshirted. UTC head coach Scrappy Moore took him on road trips in 1964, even though he couldn't play.
Said Tyszkiewicz of his first glance at Tennessee's Neyland Stadium that season: "Holy Moly, this place is huge. I realized I was in the big leagues when I saw that stadium."
Before his career was over, Wilkes had replaced Moore as head coach and the schedules took them to play in stadiums at Auburn, UT, Houston and Ole Miss (to face Archie Manning) and that pairing against Mean Joe Greene.
Moreover, Tyszkiewicz, Napolitano and Catarino - Jersey boys all - graced the back cover of the 1968 media guide their senior season, then went out and posted a school-best 9-1 record.
Asked about his time as a Northerner in the South, his parents and grandparents having come to this country through Ellis Island, Tyszkiewicz replied, "I never thought of myself as a Yankee. I was just from the North. After awhile, we were all just speaking the common language of football."
Whatever language he spoke, he spoke it well enough to make dean's list every semester. Then he moved home to Jersey, where he later married Joan, whom he'd known since grammar school, the two of them raising three children before she passed away after 23 years of marriage.
"He is a gentleman and carried himself with dignity all the years that I knew him, both as a student and later as a co-worker," Eileen D. Giovenco of the Sayreville School District wrote in an email to UTC. "He is an icon. He is truly loved."
Said Napolitano of that teammate and friend: "UTC's produced a lot of great players in a lot of sports. But only a few of them transcend that to become legends. John Tyszkiewicz is a legend."
Just ask Jon Bon Jovi.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com