Ironman Insider: Gary Compton, Part 2: Road to the AFL
Tom Goodhines
Monday June 26, 2000
The dilemma – what play should they call?
Well, one thing we do know – it won’t be a surprise if No. 2 is involved.
Gary Compton, Milwaukee’s No. 2, is one of the most reliable receivers in the league and has made a habit of making big plays in “crunch-time.”
We learned in the first part of his “Ironman” feature that he has interesting quirks with new socks and a habit of eating chicken on game day, but you can’t knock him for what he is able to do on the field. Leadership, consistency, stability, and reliability are common words thrown around when talking about Compton on the gridiron.
Compton says that he was a typical kid growing up in Texas. His parents dressed him up in his Dallas Cowboys’ gear and enrolled him in youth football leagues as soon as he could walk. He was destined to play football. “Since I was five-years-old, my parents had a football in my hands,” Compton said. “And the game has been a part of my life ever since.”
Little did Compton know that he would have such a tremendous impact on football – namely Arena Football. But, Compton’s road to the AFL had many different stops along the way.
 When given the option, Gary Compton likes to run the short, possession routes on offense. Image courtesy of Drew Kennedy |
Compton set his sights on the NFL and the first stop would be the NFL Combines.
“I was definitely a little nervous,” Compton said of attending the workouts. “But I was confident in my abilities. My thought process was that I would give it my best shot and if it was meant to be – I would make it.”
Compton did well in the workouts, drawing interest from Seattle, Cleveland, Washington, San Francisco, and the New York Giants. Draft Day came and Compton waited for the call. “It was tough,” Compton recalled. “I got a call from the Giants and I was told that they were looking at me in the fifth or sixth round.” But when the Giants pick came, they selected Ed McCaffrey instead.
Compton was not drafted that day, but was highly sought by a few teams in free agency. One of the first calls came from the Washington Redskins, so Gary hopped on a plane and headed for D.C.
The interest didn’t end there.
While in Washington, Compton’s agent contacted him and told him that San Francisco had made a better offer. Compton left Washington, signed on with the 49ers, which provided Compton one of his best experiences in his professional career.
“We’re talking about working-out with some of the all-time greats,” Compton said. “Jerry Rice and John Taylor were a huge help in my transition from college to the pros. Guys like Roger Craig, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Rice, and Taylor – I walk in and they are my teammates! Let me tell you – it was very intimidating.”
The intimidation subsided when Rice and Taylor took Compton under their wing and offered the rookie advice on route running and different receiving techniques. “I was in awe of those guys,” Compton said. “I was very raw at running routes on the professional level and those guys took the time to help me develop. I became a much better receiver from that experience.”
Unfortunately, Compton felt what many athletes before him have felt when he was eventually cut by the 49ers. “I took it very hard,” Compton said. “Up until that time, I was never told that I wasn’t good enough to play. I thought about giving up my dream to play in the NFL. I was very discouraged.”
But Compton’s competitive sprint could not be dampened that easily.
Compton then got a call from the World League of American Football. He prepared himself for the new league and figured that it was a way to stay in football and get another look from the NFL. He signed on with the Montreal Machine of the WLAF.
But it wasn’t the experience that the sure-handed receiver had in mind.
Upon his arrival in training camp in Orlando – nobody knew who he was. “It was awful,” a still dejected Compton remembers. “I didn’t have a locker. They had no record of me being there. It was like I was a guy who just walked in off the street.”
It was a low point in his career.
Compton went back to Texas and sorted through his options. By this time, his agent had been contacted by the AFL’s Columbus Thunderbolts and head coach Dave Whinham. Compton’s agent had signed him up with the AFL team. In the meantime, Compton got a call from fellow East Texas State alum and then-coach with the Dallas Texans, Michael Trigg. Compton was able to free himself from the deal with Columbus and signed on with Dallas.
“What is this game?” Compton remembered thinking after seeing the field for the first time. “Boards and nets? This wasn’t anything that I had ever experienced.”
Compton quickly shined in the AFL as he pulled in 54 receptions for 792 yards and 12 touchdowns. He also tallied 40 tackles and two interceptions on his way to All-Arena first-team honors in his rookie season. This was where Compton belonged.
Like fine wine, Compton has improved with age.
Compton played another year in Dallas and one in Fort Worth before calling Milwaukee home for the next six seasons. In 1998, he posted career highs in receptions (101), yards (1,484), and touchdown catches (33). He followed it up in 1999 with 87 receptions for 1,242 yards and 18 TDs.
He has become one the AFL premier two-way players and is consistently in the running for the “Ironman of the Year” award. He has also won the respect of many around the league. “He brings a lot of intangibles to the football field,” said Arizona head coach Danny White. “He’s a prototypical player. A great athlete on both sides of the ball – he’s Milwaukee’s version of Hunkie Cooper. He does everything that you ask of him and more.”
What’s the future hold for this veteran?
Playing for a couple more years and possibly coaching in the league should be in the cards for one of the great ambassadors of Arena Football. Currently, Compton coaches and is a permanent substitute teacher at St. Francis High School in South Milwaukee during the off-season.
Like one of his favorite players, Seattle’s Steve Largent, Compton is a player who thrives on beating the odds. “Largent was always an underdog,” Compton said. “People would count him out or question why he was even in the league, but he proved everyone wrong by becoming one of the all-time greats and a Hall of Famer.”
For Coach Frazier, when the odds are against him late in the game, he can count on his underdog – No. 2, Gary Compton.
Tom Goodhines was a writer for ArenaFan Online during the 2000 season.
