Blaine

This is the last in a series of articles profiling the 2007 honorees of the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame. The annual banquet is Saturday night at the Butler Days Inn.Raymond "Wes" Blaine figured he got lost in the shuffle.After all, the 1967 Butler graduate was a member of perhaps the best offensive line in Golden Tornado football history.Four of his fellow linemen — tackle George "Mike"Kelly, guards Ron Saul and Bill Quigley, and tight end Rich Saul — already are members of the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame.Now Blaine, the center on that line, will be joining them Saturday night."This is an achievement I'll always remember,"Blaine said. "It's nice of them to remember an old, fat lineman."Maybe now I can convince my kids that their dad wasn't always fat and slow."Every member of that Butler offensive line went on to play football at a major university. The Saul brothers went to Michigan State, Kelly to Notre Dame, Quigley to North Carolina, tackle Rick Rowe to Marshall and Blaine to Army.A captain on the 1967 Butler football team, Blaine became an all- conference and all-state performer as well.Also a swimmer for the Golden Tornado, Blaine set the school record in the breaststroke his junior year and swam a leg of the medley relay that finished second in the state his senior season."It was funny because everybody thought I was going to be a great basketball player,"Blaine said. "I was 6-foot-0 in eighth grade and Ed Hepe was our coach."Problem was, I didn't grow anymore and everybody else did. Rudy Corona is the guy who convinced me to give up basketball and get into swimming. I guess he noticed my 2-inch vertical leap."Blaine played three years of varsity football at Army, again at the center position. The Cadets were 6-5 his junior year and 2-8 during his senior campaign."The schedule we played was ridiculous," he recalled. "My senior season, we played Notre Dame, Tennessee, Nebraska and Penn State right in a row. Most of our team was in the hospital after that."Now living in Fairfax, Va., Blaine has three children who were involved in sports. As a result, he wound up coaching soccer, basketball and swimming."The swimming program is huge down here," he said. "There'd be as many as 10,000 kids come through the gates on a Saturday."His daughter, Leslie, swam for Old Dominion and is competing in a triathlon in St. Petersburg, Fla. Blaine has a son in the service who has served two tours in Iraq and is serving a third tour in Afghanistan.Blaine said he relishes his years of playing football in Butler."That was a golden time for football back then,"Blaine said. "I loved the atmosphere at those games. It's nice of people back home to remember me for something I did so many years ago."