7/31/2020 football Edit

Old National Presents: Catching up with ... Calvin Clark

Tom Dienhart • BoilerUpload

GoldandBlack.com, Associate Editor

Calvin Clark still ranks among the Top 20 tacklers in Purdue history with 315, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors as a junior and a senior.

No discussion of Purdue's famed "Junk Defense" of the late-1970s can take place without talking about Calvin Clark.

No. 94 was a stalwart at defensive tackle for Purdue from 1977-80, arriving from Atlanta as part of Jim Young's first recruiting class. And Clark had an immediate impact as a freshman. He then proceeded to help the Boilermakers win three bowls in a row--Peach, Astro-Bluebonnet and Liberty--his final three seasons in West Lafayette.

Clark still ranks among the Top 20 tacklers in Purdue history with 315, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors as a junior and a senior. In his final three seasons on campus playing alongside Junk Defense teammates like Bill Kay, Marcus Jackson, Kenna Turner, Wayne Smith and Kevin Motts, among others, Clark helped the Boilermakers compile a 28-7-1 overall record and a 20-3-1 Big Ten mark.

Clark was selected in the fifth round of the 1981 NFL draft by the Bills. He also spent time with the Redskins before finishing his career in the USFL with the Memphis Showboats.

GoldandBlack.com caught up with Clark.

GoldandBlack.com: What are you doing today?

Clark: I am in ministry, serving as a pastor on Frontline ministry, an inner-city outreach in Denton, Texas. I came here after being with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Memphis, Tenn., for roughly 10 years. And then Tom Nelson, who's the pastor here at Denton Bible Church, asked me to come and serve as a model family to model discipleship here in the inner city of Denton. So, we came here in 1995.

GoldandBlack.com: Do you have a family?

Clark: I have been married 31 years to DeVorah. We raised our kids here. I have one who is a senior in college. And the other three have master's degrees. I have two boys on the book-end and two girls in between. My oldest turned 30 this year. He is married. Everyone else is still single.

GoldandBlack.com: What did you do after you left Purdue?

Clark: I played four years in the pros. I bounced around two years in the NFL with Buffalo and the Redskins, where I was on injury reserve. They actually released me the year they went to the Super Bowl. I was that close to a Super Bowl. I played with Dexter Manley and got to know him. I played with two of the greatest defensive linemen ever in Dexter and Reggie White (in the USFL in Memphis).

After the Showboats, I went and coached a year at Livingstone University. But God had called me to the ministry. I put football behind me. I thought I was gonna be a FCA rep at a college … coach and lead guys from The Fellowship of Christian Athletes platform.

GoldandBlack.com: How did you get into ministry?

Clark: God put me at Livingstone to let me know that I didn't want to coach. You can't raise a family the way these guys are doing it. It put a bad taste in my mouth. And so I started pursuing full-time ministry. I started full-time in Memphis as the area rep for the inner city in Memphis for eight years. I have been in ministry since 1985. I was voluntary even before then.

GoldandBlack.com: How did you end up at Purdue?

Clark: My best friend was Carlton Williamson. He was more highly recruited than I was. He ended up at Pitt with (Dan) Marino, Hugh Green. Everyone thought we would go to the same school. Back then, everyone was offering stuff. My dad asked Coach Young what he was offering. He said: 'We would be honored to have him at Purdue. But the only thing we’ll offer your son is a chance to play Big Ten football, and a great education.' And I made up my mind what I was gonna do. And so that's what I needed to hear. That's when I made up my mind and I reminded Coach Young of that on his 80th birthday a couple years back when some of us went out to Arizona to surprise him. I reminded him of what he said to me and my parents in my living room in Atlanta.

GoldandBlack.com: What were your highlights at Purdue?

Clark: We went 5-6 instead of 6-5 my freshman year. And I feel like it was my fault. Illinois beat us on a sucker trap we had practiced for all week. They went in from about 60 yards … touchdown. It was my responsibility to read that. Jim Young released me of that. I said I was sorry about that. He said: 'I remember the games you won for us.'

GoldandBlack.com: You were the MVP of the 1978 Peach Bowl in your hometown of Atlanta. What was that like?

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Calvin Clark helped the Boilermakers win three bowls in a row--Peach, Astro-Bluebonnet and Liberty--his final three seasons (1978-80) in West Lafayette.

Clark: I was the first ones to know we were going to the Peach Bowl. Coach Young told me on the plane. I got a big smile on my face. It was my hometown. He later got on the speaker and announced it to the rest of the team. And everyone yelled “C.C.!” We went unbeaten in bowls.

GoldandBlack.com: What about the Bluebonnet Bowl?

Clark: I dislocated my shoulder trying to tackle Jimmy Streeter in the Bluebonnet Bowl. Then going into spring practice of my senior year, it came out again and I had to get surgery. And then I found out that I was blind in my right eye because I had glaucoma. I dropped in the draft because of that.

GoldandBlack.com: Did you think about sitting out your senior season to get healthy?

Clark: I got off to a slow start my senior year. I wanted to play my senior year. The coaches wanted to sit out, but I wanted to go out with my class. And I remember telling Coach (Randy) Hart this: 'Am I still better than what you got? He said, yes. Then, let’s not cheat (Mark) Herrmann, Dave Young, Ben McCall, John Macon.' I was the leader on the defense. I'll stick it out. But for the first five games, I couldn’t wrap up. My shoulder hurt. I had no feeling.

GoldandBlack: How special was the Junk Defense?

Clark: That name, the "Junk Defense," came about because of John Mackovic. He coached at Purdue and then went to coach Wake Forest. We played them (1978). It was like a chess match. He knew our defense. Their offense would shift, we would shift. They’d shift again, and we did again. Then he called time out. The crowd went crazy. That happened about three times. The reporters asked Coach Mackovic about the shifts after the game. He said: 'We were trying to figure out what they were doing. They were running all kinds of junk.' That is where the name came from.

We had (Ken) Loushin, who we called the "Hulk." Marcus Jackson and myself up front. Keena Turner and Tom Kingsbury, who I say pound-for-pound was the best athlete on our defense. We would call him “Kamikaze,” because he was real short. But, man, he would get after it. He was a fighter. And then we had (Kevin) Motts and James Looney and Mike Marks. And then we had a good secondary with Wayne (Smith) and Bill Kay. Marcus McKinnie was back there. We had a nucleus of professional talent on that defense.

GoldandBlack.com: Good coaches, too.

Clark: The ingenuity by Coach (Leon) Burtnett and Coach (Randy) Hart, Coach (Doug) Redmann), Coach (Mike) Hankwitz. They were good together. They really used our talents, and our abilities to fit what they were calling.

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