All he wanted was to be part of the team.

But Rick Snodgrass knew there wasn't much need for a 5-foot-4, 130-pound kid on the Butler football team.

"It was my senior year and I wanted to be on the team,"Snodgrass recalled. "I knew they struggled in the placekicking department the year before, so I spent the following summer teaching myself how to kick soccer style."

He wound up setting records at Butler High and Clarion State College, kicking for a semipro football team and trying out for the Steelers and Baltimore Colts.

Now the feats he performed with his foot are landing him in the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Snodgrass, who also had a tryout with the Baltimore Orioles as an outfielder, will be one of seven inductees at the Hall of Fame's 43rd annual banquet April 26 at the Butler Days Inn.

"I ended up trying out for two pro teams in different sports in the same stadium (Baltimore's Memorial Stadium),"Snodgrass said. "That's something different."

A 1974 Butler graduate, Snodgrass played football and baseball only one year each in high school. He tried out for the baseball team every year and was cut every year before sticking on the roster his senior season.

As for football, Snodgrass began his self-taught kicking lessons a month before training camp started in 1973.

"I was out there every day, kicking footballs for two to three hours a day," he said. "By the time camp started, extra points were not a problem."

But Snodgrass progressed well beyond extra points. He kicked a school-record 45-yard field goal against Sharon and scored a kicking record 25 points for the Golden Tornado in 1973.

"When you make a good kick, you don't think or feel anything," he said. "When you miss, you feel all sorts of bad things."

Snodgrass went on to set school records at Clarion State College for field goals in a season and career with nine with and kicking points in a season with 45.

He eventually kicked for the Pittsburgh Wolf Pak of the Mid-Atlantic Football Association before earning tryouts with the Steelers and Colts. He retired during training camp with the Colts because of a torn quad muscle.

"Isuffered that injury with the Wolf Pak,"Snodgrass said. "Calcium deposits formed and I hurt it again with the Colts.

"I could kick 10 or 12 footballs, then couldn't walk for two or three days. It wasn't worth it."

In baseball, he went on to play shortstop and center field for Clarion and hit over .300. He played American Legion and Eagle County League baseball for a number of years.

"I liked the game of football, but I didn't like to practice. I didn't have a great work ethic," Snodgrass admitted. "Baseball, I could practice day and night. It was my passion."

The Major League Scouting Bureau picked up on Snodgrass and he earned tryouts with the Cincinnati Reds and the Orioles.

Once his baseball career ended, he switched to softball and has played on 14 national championship teams.

At age 51, Snodgrass remains an active softball player today.

"I've played organized baseball or softball for 45 years straight," he said. "We won two national titles last year. I play for a weekend team, Damon's Grill, in Baltimore, Md. ... There's that city again."

Despite his numerous athletic achievements, sports do not occupy the best moments of his life these days.

"My 12-week-old granddaughter is sound asleep in my arms right now," Snodgrass said. "Nothing compares to that."

<I>This is the second in a series of articles profiling the 2008 inductees into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame.</I>