Student-Athlete Alumni Spotlight: Art Kehoe
Nov. 5, 2003
Art KehoeClass of 1982
by Tracy Gale
Coral Gables, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) — In the summer of 1975 Art Kehoe worked as a plumber’s assistant so he could earn the money it would cost to attend Milford Academy Prep in Connecticut. He had just graduated from Archbishop Kennedy High School in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and knew of a contractor who had a big job repairing a building in Philadelphia: his dad.
“When I graduated from high school there was some interest in me, but from schools like East Stroudsburg State. I thought I could play major college football somewhere and when I didn’t get any Division-I scholarship offers I was bound and determined to prove myself. I figured I could always come back and go to East Stroudsburg State.”
Art researched the different prep programs and decided the best chance to showcase himself to college coaches would be at Milford Academy. Tuition was $5,000 a year, a lot of money to Art and Patricia Kehoe, parents of six kids. Art remembers his dad’s plan:
“My dad told me, ‘You’re going to be my human backhoe for the summer while I finish this job’. So I am crawling and climbing around, working my butt off on this building. It was a great workout every day. My dad had to feed me on the job so I earned my prep school tuition money in trade! That summer after high school I would run and lift weights, and work full time as my dad’s plumber’s assistant. By the time I got to Milford I was in unbelievable shape.”
After a year at prep school Art followed up with a family friend, who had connections at UC-Berkeley. Art’s plan was to walk on at Berkeley, but when he got to California his connection, a coach, had left for another school. Already in San Francisco, Art called around to the junior colleges in the Bay Area, trying to find a place to play football and start college.
“I called all of the junior colleges, but it was July and the head coaches were all on vacation. The one coach I got hold of was Bob Pawek, the defensive line coach at Laney Junior College in Oakland. I met with him and he said to play at Laney I would have to do well on the sled drill. The sled was set up in the weight room, and I was in jeans and street shoes. I drove it all the way back and Coach Pawek said, ‘Welcome to the team.'”
Art had no money or place to live. To earn money the coach took him for a drive–into downtown San Francisco. Art picks up the story:
“Coach Pawek, we all called him Dog, he takes me in to San Francisco, to a restaurant and bar called Barklay Jack’s. Coach takes me up to the owner and says to him, ‘this guy will do anything you want him to do for $2 an hour.’ I looked around and said, ‘Who else did you bring with you?'”
Art started working right away at Barklay Jack’s for the agreed-upon price of $2 an hour, taking the train from Oakland to the Embarcadero District in San Francisco. He began by washing dishes, moved up to prep cook, then waited tables and tended bar. By the time he graduated from Laney, Art was the assistant manager responsible for the inventory.
“When I was graduating from Laney the owners wanted me to stay, go to Berkeley and major in restaurant management. But I came out there to go to college and play football. Since I was sleeping in the coaches’ office, I’d answer the phone or be in the office when college scouts came in. When they’d come by to look at film I’d tell them to watch number 66-I was my own recruiter!”
For two years Art played both ways at Laney, starting as a defensive tackle and offensive guard. He earned all-league and national junior college honors, and was recruited by several Division I teams, including Nevada-Reno and New Mexico State. Art leafed through the Coaches Blue Book looking for additional schools to visit and called then-UM Head Coach Lou Saban.
“I called Miami and said I was a coach! When Coach Saban got on the phone I started selling myself to him. I guess he liked me because he offered me a visit. I had already gone for an official visit to New Mexico State, and was supposed to go to Nevada-Reno, but I really wanted to go to Miami. I looked at their upcoming game schedule and it was great: Penn State, Notre Dame, Alabama, plus Florida and Florida State. I wanted to play the best, and being back on the East Coast would be easier for my family. My head coach at Laney, Coach Peter, was really pushing Nevada-Reno, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Miami. So I took my last official visit to UM.”
An eventful weekend was awaiting him.
“Well for starters I lied about my height to Coach Saban. I told him I was 6’2″! When I get off the plane defensive line Coach [Hal] Allen meets me and says, ‘What happened to you on that plane? Did you shrink?'”
After meeting with Coach Allen and Coach [Mike] Archer, Art was introduced to his host for the weekend, defensive tackle Jim Burt. Mayhem would ensue, as Art recalls.
“First off, Jim is nuts. He is also huge, not fat or anything, just real cut. He was into martial arts and really defined for a big D-line guy. Jim takes me to this bar where he would sometimes bounce; it was called ‘Morry’s Meat Market’ on South Dixie Highway. We hung out there for a while and had a good time. Then as we were walking out, some guys, I think there were three of them, said something to Jim. I was about 15 feet away from what was going on, and before I could even get to what was happening, Jim had karate-kicked them all–they were all on the ground. It was the most amazing thing I ever saw. I thought I was out with a giant-sized Bruce Lee.”
Art liked that the University of Miami was a private school. Equally important was the strength of schedule UM would be playing the next two years, along with the sunshine and the ocean. Art definitely wanted to stay by the ocean.
“Jim takes me out, and we eat great. I remember that, after all these years! I thought the guys on the team were all great, we had really good food, and while I was on my official visit I saw the Atlantic Ocean. I was sold.”
Art finished up at Laney then moved back home. He hadn’t seen his family in almost two years. On his second day home he got some interesting news that would affect his football career and beyond.
“My dad hands me the newspaper and it says that Lou Saban was fired as Miami’s head football coach, and Howard Schnellenberger was in. Here was the guy that I sold my abilities to and he gets fired. My dad asked me if I was worried, did I still want to go to Miami. I had already fallen in love with the place and I knew we would be playing the top teams. Plus, Schnellenberger was a coach with the Miami Dolphins, and if he was bringing in a pro-set offense then we would only get better. I really couldn’t wait to come here.”
Art definitely remembers meeting his new head coach for the first time.
“Coach Schnellenberger just blew me away. His presence, his gravelly voice and that Super Bowl ring. Wow. Tailback Smokey Roan and I were his first two signees.”
In January 1979 Art arrived in Coral Gables. Since he arrived later than returning football players, Art ended up living not with another player but in the freshman dorms.
After his first semester Art moved into an on-campus apartment building that was renovated and this building-Apartment #36-became known as the football apartments, site of many escapades. Jim Burt, his recruiting trip host and future star of the NY Giants, asked him if he wanted to be roommates, and Art said yes. The two of them spent the summer living in the apartment, which is designed for four people.
“In August when the players reported back to campus,” Art explains, “Jim had written a note to one of the guys who was supposed to room with us. He wrote, ‘you can’t live here’. That was that! He didn’t live with us. The fourth guy assigned to our apartment was Tony Fitzpatrick. Tony was a freshman defensive tackle. He comes in, sees the set-up and thinks, ‘oh, the single room is mine.’ BIG mistake! Jim gets back to the apartment and lets Tony know he was wrong and moves his stuff for him. But instead of moving it to the other bedroom, Jim takes all of Tony’s stuff and throws it out the window.”
The three of them remain very close friends to this day, though the harassment of Art and Jim’s freshman roommate had just begun.
Art remembers his first practices as a ‘Cane very well.
“In the spring of 1979 Coach Schnellenberger and his coaching staff brought in some tough discipline. I don’t just mean football discipline: you had to sign in for meals, you had to run, your class attendance was checked. This was a total overhaul from the previous administration. Seriously, 15-20 guys were run off that spring. We lost so many guys.”
Art came to Miami thinking his best skills were at noseguard, but after a couple of practices he was listed at third-string. The coach called Art into his office.
“Coach Schnellenberger said ‘Art, you can continue splitting time with Tony Chickillo at defensive tackle or you can play all the time on the offensive line. I think it would be a good move for you.’
One thing I know, it’s about playing time. There are some guys who get recruited at a certain position, they are a big-time QB in high school or whatever. They may feel like for them it’s better to wait, be a backup for two or three years before you get your chance to play. Other guys, if they are a QB in high school and the coach says ‘you can start for us if you switch to WR’ they’ll do that. That’s how I was. Coach Schnellenberger thought I could be a starter on the O-line so that same day I went to my first meeting for the offensive line. I knew right away that I loved it and I belonged there.”
Art’s first Hurricane practice as a member of the offensive line left quite an impression on then Offensive Coordinator Kim Helton.
“My first practice Coach Helton watched as I smacked a couple of people and he was like, ‘boy, you’re so good you can have my truck, you can have my huntin’ dog, and you can even have my wife.’ That’s pretty high praise coming from a redneck Gator, he was ready to give up all three.”
After his playing days came to a close, Art knew what he wanted to do: coach.
“I always had great coaches. I mean, all the way back to when I was seven years old and my mom signed me up for midget football. I was really lucky all the way through my football and school days to have had great coaches, great men as teachers. Plus, my dad’s passion for the game was instilled in me so young, we shared that.”
After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in business administration Art stayed on at UM as a graduate assistant coach. He has been with UM ever since. Art often gets asked if he ever wanted to leave UM and take a coaching job somewhere else.
“This is the truth: I have actually been offered only one job my entire life, and that was here. In 1985 Jimmy Johnson asked me if I wanted to join the staff as the assistant offensive line coach and I said okay. I talk to a lot of guys I’ve coached with here that have gone to other schools or whatever. They tell me, ‘the grass isn’t any greener’ or ‘you are so smart to have stayed at Miami.’ I don’t know how smart I am, but I do know we have something really special here. Would I have guessed we’d win five national championships with four different head coaches? No! Who can predict something like that?”
Art came to UM when the coach-player relationship was much different than it is now. Today it is very common to see players hanging out and laughing with their position coaches in their second floor Hecht Athletic Center offices. But this wasn’t the case just a few years ago.
“There is no comparison to the old-school mentality of the head coach and today. First off, players feared Coach Schnellenberger. You were scared to do anything wrong around him or you’d end up in the Breakfast Club, which could be one week to one month of running at 6 a.m. With Jimmy [Johnson] it was the psychology of it, what is he thinking or whatever, the mood was different. But with Butch [Davis] and now Larry [Coker], the whole atmosphere is fun. Well of course winning is fun, but we won before. Kids want to come hang out and BS with us. The respect level for us is there as coaches, absolutely, but they want to hang out in our offices, laugh a little, watch film. The players we recruit want to be coached and absorb from us as much as possible, it’s why we have the success we have.”
The University of Miami has changed a great deal since Art arrived here 25 years ago, both in architecture and in stature.
“When I came here, the SAT average was lower than it is now, and we had 14,000 undergraduates. The campus wasn’t that beautiful and on an athletic level our facilities weren’t that great. Now, our SAT average is over 1200, we have only 7,000 undergraduates, the campus is stunning and we have great football facilities. On top of all this, the University of Miami is this great private school with close to 20,000 students applying every year, and UM takes only 2,000 students each year. We have a great faculty and small class sizes. I know I am biased-a little-but UM has an unbeatable mix of academics, location and athletics. When you bring a kid here, how can they say no?”
Before a kid can or can’t say no to playing for the Hurricanes, they have to be scouted. Art is responsible for recruiting football-rich Pennsylvania, plus Canada as well as much of South West and South Central Florida. Many evenings Art can be found on the phone cultivating relationships with high school coaches from Lake Okeechobee over to Bradenton and Sarasota, and down through the Naples area.
“When I recruit I am looking for two things: is the kid hard-working and is he tough, both mentally and physically? He has to be able to handle both football and the academics. That’s what I ask the coaches when I recruit, about the kid’s work ethic and his toughness. If there is any hesitation in their answers, I know the kid isn’t going to be a Hurricane.”
Recruiting players can mean tough decisions. To separate potential Hurricanes from the wannabes Art works a number of high school football camps.
“I usually find out in camps whether a kid is tough or not. You are around them for a few days and you learn about them, more than just watching film or hearing what their coach does or doesn’t say. But honestly, the only thing I’ve figured out about recruiting is that I haven’t figured out recruiting.”
Being a part of such a successful football program for so long, Art counts many former teammates as close friends. In addition to the ‘Canes now on the coaching staff, Art stays in touch with teammates including Clem Barbarino, Smokey Roan, Tony Fitzpatrick, John Canei, Jim Burt, Jim Kelly and Don Bailey.
“We played together and know that the UM success story, our national prominence, started with us. We were on Schnellenberger’s first teams. We went up to Penn State and beat them when they were ranked number one. The teams I played on were the beginning of this great run we’ve been on for 25 years. A lot of these guys I’ll see at a home game or an away game each season. Clem, Smokey, John Canei and Jim Kelly are all going to be at the Virginia Tech and Pitt games this year. We get together for a little bit after the game. It’s nice to stay in touch and know that what we accomplished at Miami, that each successive coach has kicked it up a notch.”
To make his goal of playing major college football a reality, Art went from high school to a prep school, then across the country for junior college in the hopes of walking on to Cal. Through his own initiative he ended up convincing a coach 3,000 miles away at the University of Miami to schedule him for an official visit–a coach that wouldn’t even be around once he boarded the flight. After 25 years, one degree, five national championships, hundreds of players coached and even more friendships made, Art sums it up this way:
“I am really lucky. Somebody gave me a bus token on the greatest bus ride in college football history.”
Actually, Art has it only partially correct: Yes, the greatest ride in college football the last 25 years has indeed been the Miami Hurricanes. But it is the ‘Canes who are lucky–to have had Art Kehoe on the bus all this time.
