Ex-Bronco punter kicks on

By Mike Kaufmann

Thirteen years after the Santa Clara football program was laid to rest, only one Bronco alumnus remains in the NFL.

Punter Bryan Barker, who graduated in 1986, walked on as a true freshman for head coach Pat Malley's squad four years earlier. Even though Barker starred in several sports at nearby Miramonte High School in Orinda, he was not a recruited athlete, and his decision to come to Santa Clara was not based on athletics.

"After listening to my dad's stories about his time at Holy Cross, I wanted to have a similar experience in college. It was kind of known that Santa Clara was the Holy Cross of the West, so I decided to go there," Barker said.

It was not until the August before his freshman year that Barker decided he needed to do something extracurricular so that he would not get bored. He decided to try to walk onto the football team.

"I met with Pat Malley, and he told me to go for it," Barker said. "So I tried out, made it through double days and beat out four punters that were already on the team."

Barker went on to play for four years at Santa Clara, establishing himself as one of the premier punters in Bronco history. He still retains the school record for longest punt at 81 yards. When he graduated, though, Barker wasn't quite sure what he was going to do. However, after staying in playing-shape for three years, Barker finally got his chance and signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1990, where he played in 60 games over the next four seasons.

"One of the highlights of my time in Kansas City had to be in 1993, when Joe Montana came," he said. "I was in school right when they started to build that dynasty and Joe was one of my favorite players. After meeting him, Joe and I became good buddies and played golf together during training camp."

Barker has played for six different NFL teams throughout his career, including the Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Washington Redskins, the Green Bay Packers and most recently with the Saint Louis Rams. Perhaps his most important stop came in Jacksonville, where he and his wife, Leah, started the Let Us Play! Foundation, of which Barker is the director and his wife is the president. The foundation was created on the premise that girls deserve the same opportunity as boys to attend sports camps during the summer.

"Leah literally woke up one night during our first year in Jacksonville and had this dream about creating a sports camp for girls," Barker said. "At the time, boys could go to camps for all types of sports, but the only camps for girls were cheerleader camps."

The Barkers also strongly believed that being involved in sports was an important part of everyone's childhood. "Sports are a way to promote good health and a consistent work ethic," Barker said. "They did a lot for me and I just want to see others have the same opportunities."

The camp also drew other athletes from the area that helped coach and encourage the girls.

"The camp isn't just about sports. We're here to encourage these girls to go to college. On top of that, we provide opportunities to play sports that a lot of girls normally wouldn't have," said Barker. "We even had some of our athletes who started in our foundation receive athletic scholarships."

This year, the Let Us Play! Foundation will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Although jump-started by the United Way, the NFL's closely-linked charity organization, Let Us Play! has evolved into its own entity.

Two hundred girls attended the first camp and the numbers have been growing since. Additionally, the foundation has been chartered in other NFL cities. In 1997 and 1998, the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys hosted Let Us Play! sports camps, and in 1999, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Carolina Panthers and Oakland Raiders joined.

Life is going well for Barker, but he often reflects on his time at Santa Clara. More specifically, Barker said that he still thinks about the disbanding of the football program at Santa Clara.

"It saddens me that there's not a program anymore, because it certainly was a turning point in my life," he said. "I'm basically in the NFL because of the football program."

Barker, like many of the other football-playing alumni, recognizes that a program like that of UCLA or Cal is unattainable at a smaller school, but he agrees that something is better than nothing. He feels that a lot of athletes are missing out on the Santa Clara experience because of the lack of football here. Nonetheless, Barker concedes that he sees the reasoning behind what was done.

"I understand why the program was cut, but it's just hard to accept," Barker said. "It's tough to see smaller schools like San Diego pull it off. At the same time, I agree that our other sports have gotten a lot better than when I was there."

Barker won't forget his time here, and neither will the thousands of other football players who ended their playing days on the Mission Campus. As it stands, Barker is the last remaining link in the NFL to the once-storied tradition that accumulated a 388-254-31 record over 78 years and captured two Sugar Bowl titles -- defeating LSU in 1937 and 1938.

Although he admits his playing days are numbered, Barker, who has a total of 47,641 yards and an average of 42.1 yards per kick in his NFL career, still believes he has more left in the tank. He is currently a free agent, keeping himself in game-shape in case a team needs help on special teams. Until then, Barker will remain the active director of the Let Us Play! Foundation and present the youth of Jacksonville with the same athletic opportunity that helped shape him into the person that he is today.

Contact Mike Kaufmann at (408) 551-1918 or mlkaufmann@scu.edu.