Mark Vignali

When Harvard offers a course on rushing the football, expect to see Mark Vignali giving the lecture.

The junior tailback already has an impressive list of qualifications, a list that grows every Saturday. His 172-yard day against Army was the 10th best ever for a Crimson running back. The 39 carries in that game established a new Harvard record. And if he continues at the pace he's going, he'll shatter Jim Callinan's school records for one-season yards and attempts (see box below).

"He has the potential to be one of the best backs ever at Harvard," says Offensive Backfield Coach Larry Glueck, who coached Callinan as well.

Vignali leads the NCAA's Division I-AA in kickoff return yardage (four returns for a 36-yard average), and he's fifth in yards per game (115.7).

So far Vignali has taken his success, like his running, in stride. "Going to Harvard, everybody has specialties," the Leverett House resident says. "Mine just happens to be playing football."

And Mark Vignali takes his specialty seriously. "It's really not a game," he says. "To me [running the football] is really beautiful. I think it's like an art. I just try to make that play perfect."

His paint brush is his feet, his canvas is the playing field, and his technique is that of a master. Vignali uses his head to make up for his lack of bulk.

"Mark can run with a lot of presence and sense about him." Glueck says. "He can take a blocker and use that block very well."

"Mark can really use his blocks," sophomore fullback Robert Santiago says. Santiago. Harvard's second leading rusher, adds that Vignali shared some of his knowledge early in the season. "He was just kind of a scaled-down coach," Santiago explains.

But though he might enjoy offering a timely bit of advice, what he really likes to do is run, run again, and then run some more.

"I like to run inside and outside," he says. "I love carrying the ball. I like to get my hands on the bail as much as possible. I just love to carry the ball." Get the idea."

His 39 carries against Army Saturday was the most by any player in NCAA Division I-AA football this year. "At the end of the game I weighed 172," says Vignali, who is listed in the game program at 185 pounds. "I couldn't study all weekend because I was so sore," he adds.

It wasn't always like that. Last year he carried the ball just 10 times. "I definitely want to be sore," Vignali says. "I don't think I was sore once last year."

For someone who carried the ball 25 times a game in high school, the new-found obscurity was a bit frustrating. Returning kickoffs helped, as did being kept on the traveling squad.

"They only usually take two tailbacks," he said. "Last year they took three." Vignali was the third.

But he had the reaction of most specialists when deprived of the opportunity to perform their specialty. "I thought I could have done as well as or better than the guy who played," he recalls.

This summer he took positive steps to avoid a repeat of his sophomore year. He cut his playing weight from 194 pounds to 184, and he spent the summer living at the Pi Eta Club, working for Buildings and Grounds, and practicing his football. It helped.

"He had a super [training] camp," Glueck says. "He's making me a heck of a coach. He hasn't missed a practice."

In fact, Vignali hasn't missed a practice since ninth grade. His memories of football go back as far as first grade. When he was six he played catch with his father Larry, who was an All-American at Pitt, drafted out of college in the fifth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Vignali says his father encouraged his football efforts but didn't pour on the pressure. When the time came to apply to college, he promised his parents he'd visit three Ivy schools as well as three other universities. Vignali almost went for the big time, signing a letter of intent to accept a scholarship from the University of Minnesota.

"I remember Minnesota," he says. "They had girls all over everybody."

But when a Harvard coach came to see schoolmate Eric Fee, Vignali was impressed, and when he left the coal-mining area of Union-town, Pa. for college, he headed east rather than west.

"It came down to Harvard or Yale at the end," Vignali recalls. "Yale had the football tradition. That kind of made up for it being in New Haven."

At Harvard he has gained an appreciation for the less glamorous side of an offensive back's job. "I get as much out of a good block as I do out of a good run," he says. "I never had to block a kick in high school."

Vignali repeatedly praises those who block for him both on the offensive line and in the backfield.

"They told me I have to take them out to dinner at Anthony's Pier 4 if I break any more records," he says.

But if he breaks another record be still won't be recognized by at least half the student body, a fact that he has learned to accept. "It's just the way Harvard," Vignali says. "I had somebody ask me the other day if we'd won the game." Running for the Records Player  G  TCB  Yards  Avg.  TD  Year Mark Vignali  3  71  347  4.9  2  1983 Mark Vignali (projection)  10  236*  1156*  4.9  6  1983 Jim Callinan '82  10  209*  1054*  5.0  9  1981

*Harvard Record, *Projected Harvard Record.

*Harvard Record, *Projected Harvard Record.