Last year I was working out at the track stadium on the campus of UCLA near my home. I noticed a young man working out with a coach who looked very fit and strong but was clearly too old to be a student. During a break in his training he approached me with a smile and told me he could see I was working hard. I told him it was clear to me that he was training with purpose and asked him what he was preparing for. He told me he was getting ready because in a month he would fight for the Middleweight Championship of the World. We spoke a bit longer and he explained that he was just in LA for a short visit before returning to New York and his final preparation. His name is Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin and he would win his fight in heroic fashion. This is a powerful eight minute film that chronicles that fight. PK
Monthly Archives: September 2013
My Interview With Teammate Shake and Bake Davies
I was recently invited to talk football and Hollywood on The Couch Potato Show with my old friend and teammate Walter “Shake and Bake” Davies and the original Couch Potato Sonny Clark. We had fun talking about High School, College and NFL football as well as my work with Clint Eastwood, Patrick, Burt Reynolds and others. Give this show a listen and friend Sonny here https://www.facebook.com/thecouchpoato Click here to here the show.
Pete Koch: My Years in The NFL
As the 2013 NFL season begins I reflect on what playing in our nations greatest sports league meant to me. Foremost lining up on Sundays on an National Football League team gridiron was a great honor. It been said many times but everyone would do it for free – most would pay for the privilege. The fraternity of those who have played on Sundays is literally one tenth the number of brain surgeons in the US. An elite group to be sure and if you tally the number of players that played long enough to earn a pension that number of players, about 20,000 is halved.
People often ask me if I think the game has changed in the quarter century since I retired, and though it has been righteously fine tuned to amongst many things; produce more scoring, reduce concussive injury etc it remains inherently the same. Thankfully, blessedly the bones of the NFL game are intact and incredibly – it’s safer than before.
To one and all I say enjoy the season as it unfolds – embrace it for it speaks to the good of a nation.
Pete Koch 