The 2024 Detroit Lions were fighting for a Super Bowl berth in the NFC championship game when I suddenly got a text from Kirk Hughes. Kirk wanted me to comment on a teaser video he had just created for his interview with Austin College Coach Vance Morris. I told Kirk that the teaser looked great and that I was excited the watch the entire interview when done. I returned to watching the dream of a Detroit Lions Super Bowl evaporate like a fantasy of Walter Mitty.
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” tells the story of a simple man with larger-than-life dreams, none of which come to fruition. The Detroit Lions enjoyed a Walter Mitty-like season in 2024, falling short of the Super Bowl despite a winning percentage not seen since the dominant Lions teams of the 1960s. Those teams, led by Head Coach George Wilson, included NFL stars such as Joe Schmidt, Lem Barney, and Alex Karras (Mongo in Blazing Saddles, which celebrates its 50th anniversary TODAY PEOPLE).
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was written by James Thurber and published in the New Yorker. George Plimpton, another New Yorker contributor, could be accused of harboring Walter Mitty-like dreams. Plimpton, an amateur athlete at best, made a career of competing in professional sports and then writing about it. In 1963, Plimpton convinced Coach George Wilson of the Detroit Lions to allow him to attend preseason training camp as an undrafted quarterback.
Wilson and his coaching staff were aware of Plimpton’s project. Schmidt, Barney, & Karras were not, but soon figured it out when Plimpton’s patrician accent and noticeable lack of athletic talent became clear. Wilson eventually put Plimpton into an actual Lions scrimmage, but the writer somehow managed to lose yardage on five consecutive plays. Plimpton’s book on his experience in Detroit referenced both his lack of football skill and the team for whom he played. He titled the book “Paper Lion.”
The success of “Paper Lion” was enough to spark the interest of Hollywood, which turned the work into a 1968 movie. Alan Alda played the part of Plimpton. Schmidt, Barney, and Karras played themselves. A screenplay rewrite changed the Detroit scrimmage to a preseason game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Louis. Schmidt, Barney, Karras and the rest of the Detroit Lions enthusiastically suited up alongside Alda for the scene.
But the film’s directors had a problem: who would help fill the roster of the St. Louis Cardinals? The answer? Austin College Coach Vance Morris
From “100 Years, 100 Yards: The Story of Austin College Football:”
“[Vance] Morris, while coaching at a high school in St. Louis, played the part of Cardinal great Jerry Stovall in the movie “Paper Lion.” The movie was about author George Plimpton playing a few downs at quarterback for the Detroit Lions in an exhibition game with the Cardinals. Morris and his wife Paula lived in the same neighborhood with several of the Cardinals. When Stovall decided he did not want to do the movie, Morris was invited to wear Stovall’s #21 and play cornerback. His role was covering Lem Barney.”
Vance Morris coached at Austin College from the early 1970s until the late 1990s. AC football enjoyed outstanding success during his tenure, consistently notching winning seasons, earning conference titles and NAIA playoff berths, and winning one national championship. But it’s not the victories that come up most frequently when I chat with his former players. It’s their relationship with Morris and the impact he had on their lives. Every football Roo Tale I write and every conversation with a former player almost always mentions Coach Vance Morris.
You can catch Kirk Hughes chatting about “Paper Lion” with coach Vance Morris in episode #5 of his 5-part interview. Episode #1 is now available and shared in the comments. The next four episodes will be dropped by Kirk in the weeks to come. I’ll be listening to them all and sharing. Thanks Kirk; great work.
Despite the Detroit collapse after Kirk’s text, I’ll still be dreaming of an eventual Lions championship. Sport is all about Walter Mitty-like dreams after all, like the Lions finally winning a title, Plimpton trying out for QB with the Lions, or Austin College’s Vance Morris taking on Alex Karras (Mongo in Blazing Saddles, which celebrates its 50th anniversary TODAY PEOPLE) in the movie “Paper Lion.” With just a little dreaming, we’ll never just be Walter Mitty and Mongo “pawns in game of life.”
