Rich Aitken '72 had a very important job during his football career at The College of Idaho. As the starting left tackle, Aitken was responsible for protecting his quarterback's blindside as well as spearheading the Coyotes' wishbone rushing attack.
It wasn't an easy job. Aitken recalls blocking a wide variety of opponents, ranging from guys his own size – 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds – to smaller, quicker defenders who relied on speed to rush the backfield.
"You had to be a jack of all trades," Aitken said. "You had to know how to block the fast guys and also the bigger guys who could run you over. But I had a good offensive line next to me. I had [the late] Ken Woodbridge as my left guard and Tony English as my tight end, so we had a good left side of the line, and it made it very enjoyable to play football here."
Enjoyable, yes, but not always perfectly executed. One of Aitken's most memorable moments was a play that went against the Coyotes, but years later, he looks back and laughs.
"Our quarterback was the tennis coach here, Cisco Limbago," Aitken recalls. "We ran the wishbone, [where] you option off the defensive end and leave him unblocked. I had to pull and get the inside man, and I remember looking back at Cisco pitching very nicely to the defensive end from Lewis & Clark.
That's always stuck in my mind, and me not being petite of feet, I couldn't catch the guy."
Aitken won some and lost some during his Coyote career. The final scores of many of those games have faded with time, but the relationships he built and the memories he made both on and off the football field have endured.
"Looking back on it, [coming to the C of I] was one of the best decisions I made in my life," Aitken said. "It was one of the best days of my life when I heard football was coming back. [Student-athletes] will have an education they can market throughout the United States and also the pleasure of playing football after high school, which is a privilege that a lot of kids don't have."
