Terry Hanratty knows all about timing - good and bad.

"Life is timing," Hanratty, 56, said. "Believe me, I've been on both ends."

He was good enough to start at quarterback for Butler High School as a junior, but the Golden Tornado already had a quality QB in Mike Zaccari, who was a senior during that 1963 season.

Zaccari led Butler to a 7-2 record as a junior - while sophomore Hanratty was recovering from a broken ankle suffered in the final inning of the final baseball game of that summer.

"Terry was very talented," then Butler football coach Art Bernardi said. "But Mike was a returning starter who led us to a big year. There was no way I could sit him down.

"Terry had the talent to start at quarterback for us for three years. But he wasn't alone. That team was loaded."

So Hanratty played safety his junior year instead - and set a school record with 11 interceptions.

"Would I have started in those other years had I not gotten hurt? … Nah, I doubt it," Hanratty said. "There was a pecking order in those days. The upperclassmen played. And Mike was pretty good."

Zaccari wound up playing football at Clarion University in 1964. Hanratty inherited the quarterback spot and led Butler to an 8-1 season and a school-record 299 points.

Hanratty scored 118 points himself - another school record - on 16 touchdowns and 22 conversion kicks. He had combined for 1,400 yards running and passing.

"He could throw the ball well, he could run the ball well," Butler radio broadcaster Jim Lokhaiser said of Hanratty. "And he had one heck of an offensive line in front of him."

"Nobody threw the ball in those days," said Mike Kelly, Hanratty's teammate in high school and at Notre Dame. "But we did. And nobody could stop us."

Butler's lone loss that year was a 41-21 decision at Aliquippa in the season's seventh game. The Quips allowed more points against Butler than they allowed in their first six games combined.

"They scored 28 points on us during a five-minute stretch of the second quarter," Kelly said.

"That was the worst game of my life," Hanratty said. "I kept finding the wrong jerseys."

But playing football at Butler was the best time of his life, Hanratty said.

He scored the first touchdown in the history of Butler's current football stadium.

"He'd run a quarterback sneak and rip off huge chunks of yardage," Bernardi said. "When Terry saw the sneak was there, he called it. There was a signal between him and the center. No one else knew."

"That might have been the greatest high school football team ever," Hanratty said of Butler's 1964 squad said. "We had Division I talent everywhere and the entire community got behind our team.

"Everyone left their doors unlocked when they left to go to the games on Friday night. There was no reason to lock your doors. Nobody had anything. That was a magical time, a wonderful time. It will never be that way again."

Hanratty's receivers - 6-foot-3 Rich Saul and 6-foot-4 Dick Quigley - went on to play at Michigan State and Alabama, respectively. They combined for nearly 40 catches and 600 yards during Hanratty's senior year.

Army, Vanderbilt, Rutgers, Wyoming, North Carolina and Penn State also claimed players from that 1964 Butler squad.

"I thought Terry was going to go to Penn State at first," Bernardi said. "He went to one of Joe Paterno's camps and loved it.

"But when I told him (Notre Dame coach) Ara Parseghian wanted me to send him a tape, well … He was going to Notre Dame. They were impressed with how well Terry handled himself when he ran the ball."

While Hanratty had to wait his turn at Butler, it didn't take him long to grab the starting job at Notre Dame. In his first collegiate start, Hanratty threw three touchdown passes to fellow sophomore Jim Seymour in a 26-14 win over Purdue.

"Freshmen weren't eligible to play college football then," Kelly said. "But in the spring game after his freshman season, Terry just lit up the stadium.

"He threw the ball all over the place and easily outplayed their other quarterbacks."

"I was in the right place at the right time," Hanratty said.

An article in Time magazine quoted some NFL coaches saying Hanratty was good enough to play in the pros during his sophomore year.

He went on to throw for 4,152 yards and 27 touchdowns as a three-year starter at Notre Dame, breaking virtually every Fighting Irish passing record.

He scored 16 rushing touchdowns in college as well.

Kelly wasn't surprised.

"That guy could do it all," Kelly said. "Put any kind of ball in his hands, no matter the sport or season. He was just gifted that way."

Hanratty threw a no-hitter the first time he pitched in high school. He broke his brother's school record in the high jump the first time he tried the event.

Drafted by the Steelers in the second round in 1969, Hanratty began his NFL career with a 1-13 team, eventually beating out veterans Dick Shiner and Kent Nix for the starting job his rookie year.

Then along came Terry Bradshaw in 1970. And Hanratty was never a starting quarterback again.

"What was I gonna do?," he asked. "The guy was a Hall of Famer. There was no way I was beating him out."

Hanratty received a lucrative offer from New York of the World Football League - triple his salary with the Steelers - but he turned it down.

"I never seriously considered it," he said. "I loved the Rooneys and I loved playing in Pittsburgh. I didn't think the new league would make it and wondered if the (NFL) owners would welcome back players who jumped."

Known as a practical joker, Hanratty used to put four cups filled with water underneath Jack Lambert's shoulder pads - located above his locker - before practice.

Lambert would reach to get his shoulder pads and the water would spill on top of him.

"He fell for that four days in a row," Hanratty said.

"Terry is a guy who loves life, loves to have fun," Kelly said. "I don't know anybody who doesn't like him.

"If there had been free agency when he played or he could have somehow gotten to another team, he would have had a great, great pro career."

As it was, Hanratty's final NFL season was in 1976 - with 0-14 Tampa Bay.

"No one else experienced that league like I did," Hanratty said. "1-13, two Super Bowls, 0-14, retired at 29.

"I was ready to give up football then. Some guys never are. Players are different … If Bradshaw could still play today, he'd still be out there."

Hanratty has been an institutional stock broker in New York City for 25 years, making snap decisions in that field as he did on the football field.

"It's a lot like football," he said. "You make a quick decision and you live with it. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.

"My sports background has definitely paid off. I'm grateful for it and to everybody I ever played with."

Hanratty file

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Born: Jan. 19, 1948, in Butler

Current Occupation: Institutional stock broker in New York City

Football highlights

With Butler:

Set school record of 11 interceptions as a safety his junior year. … Led 1964 Golden Tornado to 8-1 record and school records of 299 points scored and 3,487 total yards in only year as starting quarterback. ... Threw for more than 700 yards and rushed for 700 yards.

With Notre Dame:

Three-year starter at quarterback and consensus All-America selection in 1968. … Finished sixth, ninth and third in Heisman Trophy balloting from 1966-68. … Completed 304 of 550 passes for 4,152 yards and 27 touchdowns, had 181 carries for 586 yards and 16 TDs for Fighting Irish.

With Pittsburgh Steelers:

Threw for 132 yards in one quarter vs. Cleveland in first pro start. … Had career-high six starts and played in career-high 13 games in 1970. … Had 6-11 record in 17 career starts. … Threw for 2,478 yards, 24 TDs and 34 interceptions with Steelers from 1969-75.