In 1947 he walked-on to Coach Cherry’s freshman football team. He lettered as the starting fullback and he played in the 1949 Orange Bowl against to Georgia Tech and the 1950 Cotton Bowl against Tennessee. Alpha Epsilon Pi named him the national outstanding athlete. All four of his children swam for Texas. In 1998 he was inducted into the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame.

 Football 08.22.2002

A Reward For Hard Work

ARTICLE IS FROM TEXASSPORTS.COM

AUSTIN, Texas — Michael Ungar’s parents will be in the stands at Darrel K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 31, when the Longhorns host North Texas in the 2002 season opener. They’ll see their son wearing No. 29 and gracing the field as a fan favorite after he has earned a reputation as a special teams standout during the last two seasons. They’ll also still be digesting the fact that their son, who is a senior, will be a full-scholarship player after spending the last three years as a walk-on.

By the time the Longhorns face off against the Mean Green, the news will have sunk in a little more with Ungar since he first heard it at a team meeting on Tuesday night. His parents, however, are on an overseas trip to Ireland and will not talk to him until Wednesday, Aug. 28.

So instead of telling his parents the news, or even his brother for that matter since he usually works until 11 p.m. as a chef in Boston, Ungar headed straight to his best friend’s house upon hearing the news that he was no longer a walk-on, that he no longer had to worry about how to pay for school and that four years of hard work had paid off like he never dreamed possible.

“I had no idea I was going to get a scholarship,” Ungar said. “When Coach Brown announced it in front of the guys, I teared up. All the guys were screaming for me and they all gave me a hug. It was one of the best moments I’ve ever had.”

Brown made sure the occasion wasn’t a small one. It was at one of the final meetings of two-a-days, when the fifth-year head coach took center stage to address the team and told them he was going to talk to them about the importance of unity and how, in order to be successful, they needed to play for each other. However, the speech never happened.

The Longhorns players had proven over the course of the summer that their cohesiveness would be one of their strengths. So instead of giving a talk, Brown immediately started describing how one player has been at every practice the last four years, how integral a part of special teams he had become and how much that meant to the success of the team. He then announced Ungar would be on scholarship for his final season.

However, Brown didn’t stop with Ungar. Not letting hard work go unrewarded, the UT coaching staff also awarded scholarships to senior wide receivers Richard Hightower and Kyle Shanahan.

“Michael, Richard and Kyle are guys that are always working hard and doing everything they can to help the team win,” Brown said. “Michael and Richard really do a lot for our special teams with their attitude, while Kyle is a guy that we think will be a factor at receiver this year. We had three scholarships to give and those three guys have done everything imaginable to earn them and they deserved to be rewarded.”

Considering high school coaches prepared Hightower for the likelihood he would never step on the field in a Texas uniform, to be a scholarship player on one of the top teams in the country exceeded any expectations.

Standing at only 5-foot-8, Hightower has earned the respect of his teammates after playing in all 25 games the last two seasons. Hightower welcomed the surprising, yet welcome news from Coach Brown and immediately called his mom, who just had knee surgery the previous week.

“I was really happy to call my mom after Coach Brown told me I got a scholarship because I think it lifted her spirits,” Hightower said. “I’ve always been treated like a scholarship player here, but I’m still extremely honored that this happened.”

To Shanahan, the son of Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan, being a scholarship player isn’t as foreign of a luxury. During his freshman and sophomore years, Shanahan was on a full ride at Duke, where he hauled in 13 passes for 173 yards despite missing most of his sophomore year with a hamstring injury.

“The coaches know I gave up a scholarship at Duke, but they also knew I never expected to get one when I came here,” Shanahan said. “The fact they awarded me one along with Richard and Michael is something they didn’t have to do, but I’m extremely grateful.”

Grateful almost understates the appreciation expressed by Ungar.

After the team meeting, Ungar went into an empty locker room and sat on a stool in front of his locker. He looked around at the empty lockers with the helmets and jerseys in them. Above the lockers are posed action shots that manage to capture some of the players’ personality. It’s the same place where the players sing “Texas Fight” after every home game. That’s when it all started to sink in.

“I realized I’m really going to miss this place next year,” Ungar said. “I knew that moment was something I would remember for the rest of my life. I have so much love for this game and this university. Everything I have gained from the two of them is awesome.”

The scholarship is just a bonus.

When the Longhorns convened for their first team meeting this week, the coaches and staff announced to the team that two junior walk-on players had been awarded one year scholarships. Under NCAA rules, universities are allowed to maintain in a single year no more than 85 scholarship players. Traditionally, when through attrition Texas has been under that ceiling, the coaches and staff have at times deemed particularly deserving walk-on players eligible for a one-year scholarship.

And Sunday night, they dipped right into their theme of sacrifice to grant full scholarship to two players whose backgrounds are as different and diverse as one could ever imagine — holder/receiver Cade McCrary and deep snapper Nate Boyer.

That night, even through their humility, both had every right to walk proudly with a little swagger.

Cade McCrary was a little boy in the first grade when his dad joined the coaching staff of Mack Brown at Texas in 1998. He grew up dreaming of being a Longhorn, and even after his dad, Hardee, left the staff and moved over to the Longhorn Foundation, that dream never wavered. In high school, he was a leading receiver and one of the top players during Lake Travis’ run of state championship success over the past five years.

When it came time to attend college, he had several offers at other places, but made it clear to his folks that he wanted to be a Longhorn. So three seasons ago, he made the team as a walk-on wide receiver. He also had a special skill that would turn out to serve the team well – he was a holder for extra points and field goals. When the Horns were looking for a holder two years ago after Jordan Shipley left, Cade McCrary stepped up and won the job.

The tradition of, “Justin Tucker….out of the hold of Cade McCrary” became a common announcement for the Longhorn kicking game. In fact, as Justin was lining up for the winning field goal in College Station last Thanksgiving against Texas A&M, all I could think about was, “Tucker, out of the hold of McCrary.” The rest, of course, is history. You never hear much about a deep snapper or a holder unless they screw something up, and in one of the grandest moments in Texas Longhorn football history, Cade McCrary became a hugely important footnote to legend.

A walk-on for two seasons under Mack Brown, the Coppell, Texas native initially arrived on the Forty Acres in the fall of 2010, intent on one day attending medical school. The self-proclaimed science nerd chose to major in biochemistry after a recommendation from a friend while also joining the band to continue his passion for music. During his time with the band and performing at football games, Izadi began to think about playing football, something he had not done since his sophomore year at Coppell High School.

An unsuccessful open tryout in the spring of 2011, followed by another in the fall of that year, did not discourage Izadi, who made the team as a walk-on in 2012 after a third open tryout.

A look at Izadi’s schedule during his two seasons as a walk-on is a testament to this. He would typically wake up by 5 a.m. for early morning weightlifting sessions at 6 a.m. Classes followed this throughout the morning – consisting of biochemistry, analytical chemistry, and physical chemistry – then lunch and a short nap before practice at 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. Practice would run until around 6:15 p.m. At that time, Izadi would make his way to band practice, which was held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. three or four nights a week. On the evenings he did not have band practice, Izadi would schedule his labs, which ran four hours per session. He would return home to study until midnight or 1 a.m., then do it again the following day.

“Sally and I are so proud of Shawn,” Brown said. “When he sets his mind on something, you better believe he’s going to achieve it. He’s so smart, engaging, and energetic, and pours everything he has into his studies, work, and life. We are thrilled to see him earn his medical degree, know he’ll do great things in Oregon, and are excited to follow him and all he accomplishes. We always knew there were big things on the horizon for him, will forever be supporters and love him so much.”

But Vergari has always known what he wants. After quarterbacking tiny Bronxville High to the New York state playoffs as a senior, Vergari decided on a college experience completely different from what he was accustomed to.

Vergari opted for Texas’ big campus — and no football. But when he watched the Longhorns win the 2005 BCS title with a stunning upset of USC, he knew the football itch still needed scratching.

“I love the game,” Vergari said. “It wasn’t about playing time. I just loved being part of a team.”

Vergari began working out at Forme Rehabilitation in Scarsdale. When tryouts for walk-ons were held in the summer of 2006, some 60 candidates came out.

“My son [Bohn] and I made a $20 bet that he wouldn’t make it,” Jane Vergari said. “Not that he wasn’t determined, but it just seemed so improbable — everyone wanted to be on the team.”

For three days Vergari went through the Rudy treatment. Then he was given a helmet. Vergari was one of eight walk-ons to make the squad.

“We couldn’t practice without them,” Texas coach Mack Brown said of the walk-ons. “We have a wall, Warrior Wall, and we put a sticker next to the players’ names who had a good week. We do that every Sunday.”

Vergari has gotten a sticker each week.

This would have given his father, Bohn, tremendous pride, but leukemia claimed his life in 2002.

Vergari’s older brother, Bohn Jr., got out of the Twin Towers in time. The stress, doctors said, ignited the father’s disease.

So Bohn Sr. never got to see his son play this season against UTEP and Kansas.

“A lot of kids might have given up, or taken a different path,” Bohn Jr. told The Post. “It took a lot of heart to do what he did.”

lenn.robbins@nypost.com

From the book One Heart Beat by Mack Brown with Bill Little

“It was the fever that had done it when he was just a year and a half old. But years of reading lips, learning to sign, and adjusting to a hearing aid that brought “environmental sounds” such as a knock at the door or honking a car horn had given him the confidence to believe in himself.”

Enough confidence to walk-on at Texas ultimately led to respect from both the coaches and the team members. Respect is an essential component of the mental makeup of individuals that is hard to quantify. In team sports, players don’t just wake up one day and get respect from a teammate. Respect is earned, not given. There is no “get respect” free card in team sports.

All Longhorn football players’ road to respect starts at the doorsteps of Assistant Athletic Director of Strength and Conditioning Jeff “Mad Dog” Madden. Jeff’s job is to mold the team’s character and its players. It only took Mad Dog a short time to determine that Brad was not the most exceptional talent, but he had the biggest heart. Jeff Madden became an advocate for Brad Hermes.

In some of the most grueling drills, Brad won the event. He may not have heard the respect from his teammates or the coaches, but he could sense he had earned it.

Brad made the kick-off team against New Mexico. For Brad, it was a proud moment, a moment of accomplishment that is no less significant than Notre Dame’s walk-on Rudy’s joy when he entered his first game. It was an important lesson learned for Brad’s teammates that success starts with spirit, drive, and heart, not football stats. HORNS ???? UP!