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Editor's note: The following article was originally published in October, 2004.

OXFORD — After 76 years, the practice field is still his office. It's the place where the world makes sense, where he has taught blocking and tackling for most of his adult life. It doesn't matter to John Pont that the practice field has changed, whether he's coaching a magical season in Indiana, starting a company team in Japan or assisting next to a high school stadium with aluminum roll-up bleachers. It's just a patch of grass, but it still pulls at his heart.

"When I'm on the practice field, I don't know the world exists, I don't care what practice field it is," Pont said. "It could be Indiana University or it could be Talawanda High School. This is what I want to do, so this is what I'm going to do."

Pont, a legend in the coaching fraternity, is working this season as a volunteer assistant for Talawanda High School and coach Jim Vanatsky. It's a life gone full circle, from playing days in Oxford that started in 1949 to coaching all over the world. Now, he drives five minutes to high school practice. He's back at the beginning. Although the task might be simpler, the passion is still sharp.

Last season, Vanatsky invited Pont to speak to his Talawanda players. Pont agreed, and the players took to him. After the season, Vanatsky called again with a different request — to join his staff.

"He came in the first meeting, slapped a note pad down on the desk and didn't stop taking notes the whole time," said Vanatsky, in his third season at Talawanda. "The other coaches and I were looking at each other wondering if we should be taking notes like that, too. He's been so committed from the start."

For lifers, the passion for football doesn't fade. Just ask Pont when he watches an Ohio State game on television, analyzing every play. He knows that Buckeyes coach, the son of his good friend and former Baldwin-Wallace coach Lee Tressel. Plus, Lee's boy spent some time in Oxford, as a Miami assistant from in 1979 and '80, and Pont always roots for Miami guys.

"We don't consider it a vocation," said Miami coach Terry Hoeppner, who has become well-acquainted with Pont and has extended to him an open invitation to RedHawk practices. "I jokingly say I don't go on vacation because I don't have a real job. I'm sure he doesn't consider this his job. It's his life."

A full career

The son of a 38-year steel worker and Spanish immigrant, Pont joined Miami's varsity from Canton in 1949 after a stint in the submarine service. He would become the first athlete in the school's history to have his jersey, No. 42, retired.

On his initial collegiate touch, Pont returned the opening kickoff of his first game, against Wichita, 98 yards for a touchdown. He ended his three-year career, during which he earned All-Mid-American Conference honors from 1949-51, with 2,457 rushing yards, still seventh all-time at Miami. And he did it all while playing for a couple coaches with high standards: Woody Hayes and Ara Parseghian.

Pont returned to Miami as a coach at Parseghian's request in 1953. When Parseghian left to take the head coaching position at Northwestern, Pont inherited Miami in '56. He went 43-22-2 in seven seasons and is third on the school's career victories list.

His collegiate head coaching resume also includes stints at Yale ('63-'64), Indiana ('65-'72), Northwestern ('73-'77) and Mount St. Joseph ('90-'92).

In 1967, he was named the national coach of the year after leading Indiana to the only Rose Bowl appearance in its history. And that was no small task in Bloomington, Ind., where the Hoosiers had gone 14-50-1 in the seven previous seasons, including 1-8-1 in '66. It didn't come easy in '67, either — six of their nine wins came by 5 points or less.

Indiana lost that Rose Bowl 14-3 to No. 1 USC, which featured O.J. Simpson at running back. But there was more to it than winning for Pont.

"I was thinking, 'Let's enjoy ourselves,' " he said. "Everybody went through a very hectic and exciting season, so we decided as a coaching staff that the Rose Bowl game was a reward."

During his time at Mount St. Joseph, Pont gave a lecture about football to a group from Japan. A few weeks later, he got a call. A printing company in Tokyo was starting a team and wanted him as coach. He's been involved since, often spending several months at a time overseas. These days, he communicates with the team through e-mail, dictates practice schedules and grades game film sent to him from Tokyo.

At first, the Talawanda players didn't know what to think of their new assistant coach. Some had heard of him, some hadn't. One of Pont's pupils, defensive tackle Brand'n Byrd, got a sit-down lecture from his father about Pont and his history in Oxford.

"He said that if I was to learn anything about football or about life, I could probably learn it from coach Pont," said Byrd, a junior. "He's seen it all. We're lucky to have him back here helping us."

The only one he has trouble persuading is Sandy, his wife of 48 years. He can't seem to get her into the bleachers on Friday nights.

"I told him I retired," Sandy Pont said with a laugh. "I think after 48 years of sitting in the stands by myself, that was enough. But I'm sure I'll break down at some point and go. I know he loves what he's doing, and he knows I support him. He enjoys working with young people so much."

Immediate impact

Pont, of course, gives players a get-out-of-jail-free card with other coaches, the power to say, "This is what coach Pont said to do." How do you dispute a man who, for most of the Talawanda staff, has been coaching since before their parents met?

"We were working on double teams," Byrd said. "We were supposed to hip into it, fight through the double team and get to the ball. But coach Pont said, 'If you get double-teamed, fall to the ground, wrap some legs up, make a huge pile and don't worry about it, because it's going to be too hard for you to make a play.

"Then, the first time you do it and you're on the ground, everyone's looking at you funny, but you don't feel stupid because that's what coach Pont told you to do."

He doesn't unleash that passion during games — "that's not my place; Jim is the head coach, I'm just an assistant" — but when he says something to a player or one of the younger coaches, it's accepted without question, without hesitation.

His passion for the practice field has resonated throughout Oxford.

"He just has extraordinary passion for the value of participation in athletics," said Brad Bates, Miami's athletic director. "He sees how incredibly it can transform people's lives when it's facilitated properly. And he's one of the great facilitators I've ever been around."