Catching up with the Incredible Hulk

By Darrell Laurant

Published: April 2, 2008

Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves. With Mickey Fitzgerald, it’s on his ride.

He rumbled into the parking lot of the Colonial Restaurant just south of Lynchburg on a recent bright spring day, straddling a low-slung, custom-made Harley-Davidson. The bike was glistening in Virginia Tech maroon and orange, and on the back — just above the license plate — it bore the proclamation “VA TECH #88.”

The former E.C. Glass and Virginia Tech football star wore an “NFL Alumni” shirt, and he limped noticeably as he walked into the restaurant on two aching knees.

Even if he wanted it to, football won’t let Fitzgerald go.

“Girl, Interrupted” was a popular movie a few years ago. If they ever did a biopic on Mickey Fitzgerald, the title could be “Career, Interrupted.”

Fitzgerald carved out such a reputation on the powerful Glass teams of the mid-’70s that storied college coaches Woody Hayes and Bear Bryant came to Lynchburg to introduce themselves. Now, players who combine Fitzgerald’s size (around 250 pounds), strength and speed are everywhere. In Mickey’s day, they were rare jewels. His nickname as a player was “The Incredible Hulk.”

Instead of succumbing to the aura of big-time college football, however, Fitzgerald decided to go to Virginia Tech and help hoist that program to national prominence. It eventually got there, but long after he had hobbled away from it.

Two years into his time at Blacksburg, Tech started losing. Fitzgerald had been switched from the offensive line to tight end, but there was really no one to throw him the ball.

Then, in his senior year, Tech coach Jimmy Sharpe had an inspiration. I remember it well, because I happened to be covering the game when Tech came out for its first offensive series, and there was Fitzgerald — wearing a tight end’s number, 88 — lined up at fullback.

He was an instant sensation there, leading the Hokies to consecutive victories. Then, against West Virginia, Fitzgerald planted his right knee as he surged into the line and linebacker Fulton Walker (later a Miami Dolphin) collided with him violently at the same instant. The knee came apart.

“The doctor who operated on me said it was the second worst injury he’d ever seen,” Fitzgerald said. “Pretty much every ligament in my knee was shredded.”

He didn’t ask about that doctor’s worst injury.

Fitzgerald took a year off from football to recuperate, then tried out with the Atlanta Falcons and made the team. He actually led the Falcons in rushing during the pre-season, but then hurt his other knee.

Finally, after a brief stint with the Philadelphia Eagles and a few seasons with the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League, Fitzgerald moved from football to business.

“I started a company (Dynamic Orthotics and Prosthetics) in Atlanta with one of the doctors who had operated on my knees,” he said.

He also took a chance on marketing a neural monitoring device designed to track vital signs in the spine during surgery. It made a quick and substantial profit and enabled him to live as comfortably as a man with seven knee surgeries behind him can.

“I was visiting a hospital one day, “ he said, “and they let me go into the operating room, and I heard doctors talking about how easy it was to damage a nerve during surgery, because they couldn’t tell it was there (we can only hope the patient was unconscious during that conversation).”

Fitzgerald has since sold that part of his company to a larger medical service group in Maryland. He was on his way back from closing that deal when he stopped in Lynchburg to visit family.

He was also here to talk about former Glass teammate Jeff Morgan, who died in a plane crash in 2000 after graduating from (and playing football at) Virginia Military Institute.

According to Fitzgerald, Morgan was the “heart and soul” of a Glass team that finished runner-up in the state and sent players to Tech, North Carolina and Ohio State, among other “football factories.”

“And the nicest guy in the world,” Fitzgerald said. “The kind of guy you’d want knocking on your door, asking to date your daughter.”

So when he became a successful businessman, Fitzgerald established a scholarship at Glass in Morgan’s honor.

“It’s $1,000,” he said, “and they gave it out for a couple of years. Then, when I called last year to ask who had won, somebody said, ‘What scholarship?’”

Apparently, when Ed Landis (another former Fitzgerald teammate) had left as Glass football coach, the link with Fitzgerald was cut and the scholarship was lost in the shuffle.

“We got it straight,” said Glass athletic director Chip Berry. “It goes to a student/athlete of our choice, who has to have a 2.5 average, good character and contributes to a team. We’re going to pick it up again next year.”

Fitzgerald talked about all of this as he devoured a plate of meatloaf and nine side dishes at the Colonial.

He still eats like a football player.