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| Bright Lights,
Big City |
| BY DONNIE COLLINS THE SUNDAY TIMES |
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August 05, 2001 |
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CANTON, Ohio -- It's hot in
Houston. But Mike Munchak didn't know how hot.
There aren't a lot of trees or mountains in Houston -- at least, not as many as there are
in Scranton. |
Didn't know that,
either.
All the kid who grew up on Harrison Avenue and had just spent four years studying in rural
State College really knew is that Houston wanted him. So, he was off to Texas. Off to
sport the red, white and Columbia blue uniforms of the Houston Oilers.
It's been almost two decades since the Central High School graduate left Pennsylvania to
make his way in the nation's fourth-largest city. The Oilers made him their first-round
pick in the 1982 National Football League Draft, just months after he said he would forego
his final year of playing eligibility at Penn State.
And he knew, almost immediately, that this new place wasn't going to be like home.
"I was picked up in a limo at the airport (in Houston), and I had never been in a
limo before," said Munchak, who Saturday was inducted into the air-conditioned Pro
Football Hall of Fame. "Then I got out, and it was like an oven. It must've been 95
degrees and humid. I never felt heat like that."
There were other aspects of big-city life that took some getting used to for a man whose
work on the football field quickly made him a large man in a large place.
Like frustrating traffic jams. Even All-Pro offensive guards had to sit in those.
"Back home, our idea of a traffic jam is getting stuck at the same red light
twice," Munchak joked.
Like monotonous scenery. Texas' wide-open flatlands were quite foreign at first to a man
who's proud to say he's from the Hill Section.
"Everything was so spread out, all you could see for miles was just billboards,"
Munchak added. "You start to enjoy the beauty of the Northeast, is what you do."
But Houston isn't all hot weather and billboards.
Munchak found that out pretty fast, too.
From Astros games to barbecues, he discovered that this was his kind of town.
"For a sports fan, it's all right there," he said. "And the restaurants --
for seafood, for barbecues -- you just couldn't hit all the nice restaurants in Houston.
Financially and personally, Munchak was succeeding there, too.
The 41-year-old father of two daughters got to Houston as the oil business began booming
in the early 1980s. A business major at Penn State, Munchak was able to succeed
financially away from the Oilers, owning several Gold's Gym franchises around Texas and
being one of the first people involved with Snapple beverages.
He said great neighbors in suburban Houston and friendly people throughout the state of
Texas made this an easy place to be.
And then, there were the Oilers fans.
"As a pro, the town was fantastic for its support," he said. "Everyone
knows about the 'House of Pain (the fans' nickname for the Astrodome in the early 1990s).'
Once we started winning, that place was really rocking."
Houston became a second home to Munchak. When he retired, he took as job as an assistant
coach for the Oilers, meaning his days in Houston weren't coming to an end with his
career.
And he didn't want them to, either. Houston became beautiful in its own right to a man
who, eventually, had to move his family from a city that grew on him just as quickly as
his hometown did.
"It was hard to leave there once the team moved," Munchak said, referring to the
Oilers' move to Tennessee for the 1998 season. "If I had a choice, I don't know what
I would have done."
Munchak now lives near Nashville, Tenn. And he'll never forget Houston.
But it's Scranton, he says, for which he'll always have a longing.
"It was a very neat place to grow up," Munchak said. "We used to go out in
the streets and play. Nobody was worried about things happening to anybody. You could go a
mile from your house just to play, and it was no big deal.
"It was just the closeness of being in a small town. I really enjoyed that."
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| İScranton Times
Tribune 2001 |
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