Jim Villanueva

Danny Villanueva is blunt about soccer-style football kickers.

"Any little wimp can kick that way," he says. And make no mistake about it: his son Jim is no wimp.

The younger Villanueva has been kicking straight ahead for the Harvard football team for three years. And in the process, he's put his name into the Harvard record books as often as he's put away opponents.

If there's anyone who is capable of understanding the problems of kicking--and kicking straight ahead--it's Danny Villanueva.

The elder Villanueva played for seven years in the NFL as a straight-ahead punter-placekicker and scored 491 points and recorded a career punting average of 42.7--good enough for 10th on the all-time list. He is still widely considered the finest punter-placekicker to grace the NFL fields.

Now, 16 years after a lower back injury forced a premature retirement for Danny, his son Jim is widely considered the finest punter-placekicker ever to grace the Crimson fields.

"He has added very positively to our kicking game." Harvard Coach Joe Restic says of Jim. "It's unique that one player handle [both] phases of that part of the game--and he does it very well."

Unlikely as that may seem. Danny Villanueva claims he didn't encourage Jim to become a football kicker.

"He was playing soccer at an early age," recalls the elder Villanueva of his son. "I didn't want to push him, but he started to kick on his own. When he chose the crazy spot [of kicker]. I helped him. But I wanted him to make the decision."

It is easy to understand Danny's apprehension of his son's choice of position. Kickers are an unusual breed. They play the individual role in a team sport. They fight against themselves as often as the other team.

"It's very strenuous mentally," Jim says. "You have to deal with your body being filled with adrenalin. You have to group all of your mental energy into making the kick, calm yourself and put down the adrenalin. After you do it, you let everything go."

Every football Saturday for the past three years--with just one exception--Jim Villanueva has put himself on the spot for the Crimson. And along the way, he's compiled some impressive Harvard records.

Top career scorer among kickers (139 points)

Most field goals made (127)

Best one-game punting average (48.8 vs. Army in 1982)

Second on the all-time scoring list

Holder of the fifth, sixth and eighth longest field goals (45, 44 and 42 yards, respectively)

Villanueva hopes to make a professional roster as a punter but knows that his numbers--which include a 39.3-yard average this year and a 38.7-yard average for his career--won't help.

"The wind and weather work against me a lot," the Los Angeles native says. Another problem, he adds, is that "Coach Restic is very concerned about field position. He's never willing to try 45-yard or longer field goals."

If he doesn't catch on in the pros right away, Villanueva has other plans. "The idea of wandering from pro camp to camp doesn't appeal to me," he says. "I might try out one year." But if that doesn't work out, he says, his family's Spanish language television business is, after business school, the logical alternative.

"Kicking would just pre-empt those plans," he says.

If he does catch on with the pros, Villanueva would become one of the few straight-ahead kickers left in the NFL. That fact bothers Jim little and Danny less.

"He was kicking soccer-style," Danny recalls. "But he borrowed my shoe one day and has stuck with the straight-ahead style ever since. That's all right, though, because he's big."

Jim Villanueva--now 6-ft., 2-in., 195 pounds--was big enough to play wide receiver and defensive back in high school. He has even run the ball twice for the Crimson this year--once on a fake punt and once on a fake field goal. Both times he has made first downs.

The last time he tried it, though, he injured his thigh. The injury in this year's Holy Cross game three weeks ago forced him to sit out the Penn game--the first contest he missed in his Harvard career.

Villanueva was replaced by Rob Steinberg, a sophomore who attended Villanueva's Los Angeles alma mater, Palisades High School.

Not needing much specific coaching, Villanueva spends most of his time practicing with Steinberg and the squad's other kicking specialists. The absence of coaching, however, is no problem for Villanueva. "The perfect kicking coach lets you kick your style and helps you with your confidence," he says. "The adjustments have to come from within."

Despite his position, Villanueva does not feel isolated. "I feel like a big part of the team," he says. "The kicking game has made a lot of difference. If there was any feeling (of isolation) it has been erased--particularly now that I'm a senior. A big part of that is success. You're an outsider to begin with, but if you're successful, they take you in."

And few people have been as successful as Jim Villanueva.