Mark Marquess
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p.1 STANFORD UNIVERSITY PROJECT: Bob Murphy Interviews INTERVIEWEE: Mark Marquess Interviewer: [0:03] We're recording now. We've got a new tape. We got new batteries. OK. We are rolling with Mark Marquess. We're ready to go here. We're going to talk a little baseball. Ready to roll now. Five, four, three, two, one. Go. Hello again everybody. Bob Murphy here and our list of great names will continue today as we look through the Stanford year book and pick out the name of Mark Marquess, a young man I've known for, gee I hate to say, forty years. [laughter] . I'm not embarrassing him. Mark Marquess: [0:45] Make me feel old but it's true. It is true. About forty years. Interviewer: [0:50] My goodness. Well let's start in Stockton cause I played a little baseball over in Stockton for the old Stockton Ports. In fact I tried to close the franchise but it didn't quiet work. You were just a little boy at that time. You came over here years ago. Gosh it goes back to 1965. John Rosston had been here two or three years. What an experience. I remember when you came over. What do you remember about that? Marquess: [1:16] I remember it was very special because Coach Rosston was one of the few head Coaches at that time that said I could actually play both Football and Baseball. Most of the other schools that were recruiting me for Football wouldn't let me do that. Coach Rosston said no, you can do that as long as you want to. I was excited about that possibility. And it was Stanford and it was close to home, you know Stockton was an hour and a half. He had a great recruiting class. Gene Washington, George Beiler. We had a great group coming in so it was an exciting time. Interviewer: [1:50] You went to Stag High School, over in Stockton. I always remember Rosston in that inimitable way, I'm very proud of Mark Marquess because he got better grades at Stanford than he did at Stag High School. Was that true? p.2 Marquess: [2:03] That was true. [laughing] . It was amazing. But again, I think when people find out it was Stanford, the hardest part was getting in. Once you get here you relax and you're not intimidated by all the 4.0 students. Well, they're not all 4.0 students as you know. The nice thing about Stanford is you have a chance to interact with the Professors. I really enjoyed that and then when you got into your majors and your seminars and stuff. It was fun. I surprised a lot of people, especially when I played. I was always in season. I think, as you know, when you're always in season you always got to budget your time and say, hey I got a do my work tonight because I got practice. Or sometimes in the off season, yea I got a lot of time, and you fall behind. I never fell behind so I was able to do pretty good in the classroom. Interviewer: [2:47] Well, we're way ahead now Mark, of where we were then. Tell the folks a little bit about it because most people have forgotten that Freshmen were not eligible for Varsity competition in those days. Freshman got kind of the hand me down uniforms. I remember when I went through that. I think we got Baseball uniforms that Cody Thomson wore back in 1938 or something like that. It's a come down from High School. I mean, the Freshman sports were not much but they did get you ready for what followed. Marquess: [3:15] I started with Football. The Freshman Coach that year, if you remember, was Dick Vermeil. I think we played five games. You didn't come in early. When school started, you started practice. We had a Freshman Baseball team, and a JV Baseball team and then the Varsity. It was different. You weren't the big thing. I think about kids today. If they're not starting as a Freshman on the Varsity, they're disappointed. Where as, you weren't even on the Varsity. If you didn't start on the Freshman team, then you could be disappointed. Again, we were very fortunate. As I mentioned with those Football players, we had a great class. Baseball-wise we had Bob Boone, Gallagher. We had Sandy Vance, Rod Poteet, Don Rouge. Guys pitched, all played in the big leagues. And Boom was a legend. So, in fact, our freshman team, I will never forget, we beat the varsity. Interviewer: [4:04] Yeah, I bet. p.3 Marquess: [4:05] Our freshmen bet the varsity, we had a pretty good team. Interviewer: [4:07] No surprise. Marquess: [4:07] No. we had some great players. So, I came to Stanford with some great athletes at a great time, a lot of excitement. Interviewer: [4:15] I'll tell you what we're going to do. We'll make it simple for the folks. We won't confuse them too much. We're going to talk about football and then we'll switch to baseball. Marquess: [4:22] Absolutely. Interviewer: [4:22] A little bit later. Now football, you played '66, '67, and '68. You never played on a losing team. And I remember one year, let's talk about that first year. You were five and five the first two years, and you played a lot of positions. You were all over the place in football. Tell the folks about that. Marquess: [4:40] Well, my first year, my sophomore year, was the first year, you know, you are on the varsity. Dick Vermeil liked me. I could tell that. And he was... Interviewer: [4:48] He's a little guy too. Marquess: [4:49] Little guy too. Interviewer: [laughs] [4:51] Marquess: [4:51] He was coaching defensive backs. So he wanted me to play defensive back, and wasn't going to play quarterback. I think a guy named Lewis was the quarterback then. Not bad, Dave Lewis. So, I played safety my first year. I was excited. I got to start as a sophomore. As you mentioned we were five and five, or whatever we were, six and four. My junior year, which is a funny story, Dick Vermeil was the quarterback's coach. Interviewer: [5:19] Still liked ya though. [laughs] p.4 Marquess: [5:20] Yeah, still liked me. And were running an option, so why don't you play quarterback? So I went to quarterback an I'll never forget this; This time of year I go into coach Ralston office and he says, "Mark, " he says, "have you quarterback because we're not sure of this red-shirt guy we have Plunkettt. I say I want you to be quarterback." So two weeks later, Ralston calls me to the office. Interviewer: [5:42] Ralston figures he can coach him though. [laughs] Marquess: [5:44] Yeah. He says, "Mark, I think we feel real comfortable with Plunk." I guess so, he didn't throw an incomplete in two weeks of early ball. Interviewer: [laughs] [5:52] Marquess: [5:55] Coach, I figured that out myself. So I switched back to defense again. I was great. And that's when we changed. We went from an option to a dropback, and with Plunkettt's arm it was total change. And that was the thing that made the difference. Interviewer: [6:07] You know, football was on the move then, and everybody could kinda feel that. John came in. I always kidded John because Jack Curtis thought he'd saved his job. That last year he went five and five and beat Cal twice in a raw. And he didn't. John was going to turn the program. I always kidded John about this. He did, he was three and seven that first year. [laughs] I said you did, you turned it around. [laughs] But, it was the only losing year he ever had. And it was a building year; and it was an incredible base on which to build. Five and five in '66 and in '67, I remember you leaving the [laughs] football team, changing uniforms, and leaving the country. But you came back. Tell the folks about that. Marquess: [6:50] That was in '68. There was a big world tournament in... Now as you know, Dutch Fehring, who helped with the football and was a head coach in baseball. They were trying to get baseball to be an Olympic sport. There was a world tournament in Mexico City, which followed the Olympic Games in '68. But it was a week after the Olympics. But they wanted to try and generate some interest in baseball. There was a tournament in Mexico City for about 10 days, and I'd have o miss a football game. [7:18] I said, "Coach, I'd like to go this but I don't want to leave the team." He said, "You should p.5 go." So I played a game at UCLA, down in the Coliseum. Darn it, we lost that game, but then I got on a plane and went down to Mexico City and played 10 days there. We won the gold medal there. A number of years later it was an Olympic sport. But not many football coaches would let you do that.