BROOK FOREST VOICES AUTHORS

MIKE  BORYLA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  


After long post-football careers as an attorney and then as a mortgage banker, Boryla now considers himself a full-time playwright. He is the son of Vince Boryla, a University of Denver graduate who was playing for the New York Knicks when Mike was born. His career stops also included stints as the Knicks' coach and the Nuggets' general manager.


Mike was in third grade when the family moved to Denver. "I ended up at Regis because I'm actually a scholar, not an athlete," he recalled recently. "I'm a faux athlete. They had the best college prep school, arguably the best west of the Mississippi. I took four years of Latin and was in all the top classes."


Regis High then was in north Denver, on the same grounds as Regis College. Boryla played for coaches he loved, Dick Giarratano in football and especially Guy Gibbs in basketball. "I was actually a better basketball player than football player and went to Stanford on a basketball scholarship, and I talked them into letting me try out for football," he said. "Once I had my second spring practice in football, the coaches came up to me and said: 'You're not playing basketball anymore. You're a football player.' "


Boryla started as a junior and senior for the Indians (now Cardinal), then moved on to the NFL, where he played three years for the Eagles, starting 18 games. Here's how much things have changed: The Eagles' starting quarterback lived in a van in the Bay area in the offseason after his rookie year, because that's what he wanted to do. He hadn't yet met his wife, Annie, with whom he has four sons. He suffered three concussions, one in high school, and two with the Eagles, before he was traded to Tampa Bay, sat out the 1977 season because of injuries, and played in only one game for the Bucs in 1978 before quitting football.


"When I left pro football in 1978, I felt the Lord told me to leave and not look back," he said. "So I dropped out of the whole sports culture. I did not talk about football until two years ago, when I started working on this play. I did not want to be one of those 'Glory Days' guys that Bruce Springsteen talks about."