Jim Shaughnessy, an Oil City High School football star whose name is well known nearly 40 years later, is still going strong. The Arizona Republic, a Phoenix newspaper, profiled the former local resident in a sports section personality feature. Shaughnessy has ties to Phoenix, having been a running back for the Arizona State University Sun Devils and lettering four seasons. He also lived and worked in Arizona. He and his family - wife Patty and children Jimmy Joe, 11; Catherine Ann, 9; and Megan Cory, 8 - now reside in the suburban Philadelphia town of Paoli. “I didn't get married until I was 45 years old,” Shaughnessy told the newspaper. “I got married, built a house, had three kids and a triple heart bypass all within four years. A lot of people said, `You're so young. That's too bad.' I'm glad it happened. I got it fixed, and I was off and running. It makes you re-evaluate your life. I love being a husband and a dad.” Shaughnessy, whose family lived in Siverly, was voted to the all-state first team as a running back during his senior football season at Oil City High. He rushed for 1,290 yards and 21 touchdowns in just seven games during the fall of 1964. He also lettered in wrestling and track and earned scholastic honors, later accepting a full scholarship to Arizona State. Here's how the Republic described it: “In the mid-1960s, Frank Kush recruited the undersized but notoriously tough running back from the steel country of his home state, Pennsylvania. Shaughnessy was as known for his antics - including spending the night across Tonto Creek howling at the moon during Camp Tontozona - as for his running and blocking.” In 1988, the newspaper recalled, Shaughnessy became a partner in American Telecast Corp. “His timing couldn't have been better,” the Republic reported. “Television deregulation opened the door to something we're all familiar with now, but nobody had heard of then - the infomercial. While people “might not be familiar with the company by name,” the newspaper noted, chances are “you know its faces if you've seen Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley pitching Total Gym fitness machines. It's also the company that produces the Richard Simmons Deal-A-Meal weight-loss systems, Victoria Jackson cosmetics and a Jane Fonda fitness machines.” Shaughnessy said he still is a supporter of Arizona State football, and he still speaks fondly of Kush, the NCAA hall of fame coach. “There are certain people that no matter what you do in life, they're always there,” he said. “If there is a guy I love in life, it's Frank Kush. When you're there, you don't like the discipline. But later in life you say, `Thank God.' It's like your father. You don't realize it at the time but they're turning you into something special. I love that guy.” Shaughnessy said one of the best moves Arizona State ever made “was putting Ron Pritchard into the Hall of Fame (this fall),” according to the newspaper. “He and I came in together as freshmen at the same position, and he moved over to linebacker. If there was a turning point in ASU football history, it was probably when Ron Pritchard was there.” (Webmasters note: This article appeared in the 9.24.03 edition of The Derrick.)