Award named for former Witt kicker

Mitchell Award to annually honor top place-kicker at NCAA Division II, III schools.

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By David Jablonski, Staff Writer 10:30 PM Wednesday, July 15, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — Fred Mitchell turned himself into a place-kicker by sticking two bamboo poles in the ground and stringing an old clothesline between them. With a football and a tee his dad gave him for his seventh birthday, he kicked for hours from his backyard into an empty lot.

The scenery changed when Mitchell arrived at Wittenberg in 1965, but he stayed loyal to his foot, even when head coach Bill Edwards tried to get him to switch to wide receiver.

“I said, ‘No, I just want to concentrate on kicking,’ ” Mitchell said. “His first quote was, ‘Doctors are specialists. Football players are football players.’ ”

Mitchell won that argument. Now 40 years after his graduation from the university, his devotion to kicking is paying off again.

The National Football Foundation has created the Fred Mitchell Outstanding Place-Kicker Award. The annual honor will go to the nation’s top collegiate kicker among the 390 NCAA Division II and III schools.

“I’m excited for Wittenberg’s sake, as well as for mine,” Mitchell said. “It gives me another opportunity to talk about Wittenberg on a national basis.”

Mitchell just celebrated his 35th anniversary as a sports writer at the Chicago Tribune. Over the years, he has covered the Bears, Bulls and Cubs beats and has also authored nine books. He helped Chicago sports legends Billy Williams and Gale Sayers write their autobiographies.

Mitchell set an NCAA College Division record for career points by kicking in 1968. He owned 12 school records and five Ohio Athletic Conference records at the end of his career.

Mitchell has stayed loyal to the kicking game.

“With kicking, whether you’re at Ohio State or Wittenberg, the rules are the same,” Mitchell said. “The field is the same size. The goalposts are the same width. It’s a question of whether you’re doing it in front of 5,000 people or 80,000. To me, that’s not as big a factor as you might think.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or djablonski@coxohio.com.

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