BOULDER, Colo.—Siasau ‘Sal’ Pepa Aunese is still an influence on the Colorado football program 20 years after his brave battle with cancer inspired the 1989 team to an undefeated regular season and run to the national title game.
Each time a player visits the team meeting room they see a large picture on the wall taken the week after Aunese’s death in September that season. The Buffs were in Husky Stadium before a game at the University of Washington pointing to the sky with their left arms because they’re closest to the heart. The gesture became the Buffs’ way of honoring their fallen teammate that year.
It’s not the only spot in the Dal Ward Center where memories of Aunese and tributes to him can be found.
Each time a player steps inside running backs coach Darian Hagan’s office, a custom-made wood replica of Aunese’s No. 8 jersey is displayed prominently on the wall in back of Hagan’s desk.
Hagan, who replaced Aunese as the starting quarterback in 1989, had the jersey made.
“I think about him a lot,” Hagan said. “I always use him when my guys are feeling down, underappreciated and all that stuff. I always refer to Sal and things he had to endure in his short life. I always tell them, ‘You think you have it bad, but there are a lot of guys who have it way worse than you.'”
Hagan said he has a plan for honoring Aunese. Each season beginning this fall, he will hang the jersey in the back of the locker of the player who wears No. 8. This year that player will be junior tailback Demetrius Sumler, who fittingly hails from the San Diego area, where Aunese was raised and is buried.
There is a room in the lower level of Bill McCartney’s Boulder home filled with memories of his life in football. Some of the most special are from Aunese and the 1989 team. McCartney said he takes pleasure in reliving those memories and the accompanying emotion with visitors.
But the McCartney family doesn’t need old photographs, newspaper clippings or trophies to remind them.
The year before his death, Sal fathered a son with McCartney’s daughter, Kristy.
Timothy Chase McCartney was born April 24, 1989, just five months before Aunese lost his fight. T.C. McCartney is now nearly 20 years old and a 6-foot-3, 227-pound walk-on tight end at Louisiana State University. He wants to follow in his grandfather’s shoes and become a college football coach.
“My grandson is a living memento,” McCartney said. “We have a Samoan in our house. Sal’s memory is never very far from us.”
Two decades have come and gone and players and coaches from the 1989 team can hardly believe it. In many ways the overwhelming emotions from that fall are still fresh. Members of that team remain very close, despite being dispersed around the nation. Many of them get together one weekend each spring in Las Vegas to watch college basketball and reminisce.
Spring, after all, is when Aunese was first diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer that was inoperable. He was given six months to live.
“A tragedy like that forces you to communicate with each other,” former CU wide receiver Jeff Campbell said. “It forces you to probably have deeper communication than you would if you weren’t rallying around a certain point. Probably the best friends in my life are from that team.”
Campbell was in the hospital room along with other teammates, McCartney and Sal’s family on Sept. 23, 1989, when Aunese died. He spoke about his fallen friend two days later at a memorial service attended by more than 2,000 at Mackey Auditorium on the CU campus. He said Aunese is still never far from his thoughts.
“I will never forget him,” Campbell said. “I can promise you that. I will never, ever forget that guy.”
Campbell said he still speaks to five or six of his 1989 teammates on the phone at least once a week. He is living in Southlake, Texas, these days and wasn’t able to make it to the recent reunion in Las Vegas, but he has been to many in the past.
The season put Colorado football in the national spotlight for two years and touched off a decade of success that included the 1990 national championship, a Heisman Trophy, 17 first-team All-Americans, 91 victories and nine bowl games.
It all began with Sal, one of McCartney’s early high-profile victories in recruiting.
He came to Colorado from Vista High School, where he became a sought-after player who ultimately chose CU over rival Nebraska. He became a two-year starter for the Buffs and led them to the 1988 Freedom Bowl before becoming ill.
The day he died, he wrote a letter to his teammates that concluded: “I love you all, go get ’em and bring home the Orange Bowl.”
The Buffs fell just short 2 1/2 months later, losing 21-6 to Notre Dame and finishing the season 11-1. They had dedicated the season to him. They had SAL sewn on the sleeves of their jerseys and drew broad attention as they knocked off every team on their schedule, including Oklahoma on the road and Nebraska at home on consecutive weeks.
They were fueled by emotion and a love for one another.
“They accomplished something very significant, and you can only do those type of things, turn the corner like they did, if you have unity,” McCartney said. “The fact they were bonded is the reason they did what they did. If they hadn’t had that special unity and that special closeness and resolve that comes with that, they would never have accomplished that.
“They had the kind of character where they trusted each other and that allowed them to get very close. When you get trust and honor and loyalty and commitment, all bets are off. Anything is possible.”
Some criticized the program and the players themselves for “exploiting” Aunese’s death. The Omaha World Herald published an editorial on the subject just days after CU had beaten the Huskers that season. A Chicago Sun Times columnist followed along.
“I think it was classless,” Hagan said. “I think you have to have walked in our shoes to have the sense to make a comment like that. If you haven’t walked in our shoes and been around coach McCartney and how he perceives things, you shouldn’t be talking. Everything we did was from the heart. What we did was no different from those guys putting Bob Devaney on their jerseys.”
Longtime linebackers coach Brian Cabral was in his first season on the coaching staff in 1989 as a graduate assistant after a successful pro career that included a Super Bowl victory. He hardly knew Aunese, but seeing how the team reacted to the young man still makes him emotional 20 years later.
Sitting in his office, Cabral became misty eyed in a matter of moments reflecting on what he said was an unmatched emotional experience during his life in football. He said he is reminded of Aunese each time he steps foot in the team meeting room where he sees the picture from the game against Washington.
“That was probably the moment where they let go of the tragic part and bought into the life part and what he meant to the team,” Cabral said. “That was a very powerful, emotional time.
“There was a connection with that team and Sal Aunese that I don’t know if words can describe. Love could probably be the strongest word to describe that relationship.”
McCartney said he only occasionally sees members of the 1989 team these days, but those times are a rare treat. He is steadfast in his belief that the 1989 team led by captains Michael Jones, Bruce Young, Bill Coleman and Erich Kissick laid the foundation for winning the championship the next year. Aunese was an honorary captain.
“We have a bond,” McCartney said. “It’s a special bond. It’s very rewarding and satisfying and gratifying. It’s the kind of a thing where even though it’s 20 years ago, it doesn’t lose any of its significance.”
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