Hall of Fame: Vince Klees (Estancia)

Richard Dunn

When former Estancia High and Notre Dame football standout Vince

Klees was informed of a newspaper reporter’s desire to interview him for

the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, he first had a simple request.

“Will you please explain to my daughter what this phone call is

about?” Klees said, before handing the phone to his youngest of three

daughters, 15-year-old Gretchen, while his plea was granted.

In these pages, of course, his name brings back tremendous memories of

Estancia football and wrestling in the early 1970s, and, despite what the

four women in his Geneva, Ill., household might think, Klees will always

be considered one of the all-time great centers in Newport-Mesa School

District football history.

“I have three daughters, so every once in awhile I need a boost,” said

Klees, the latest featured honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of

Fame.

Klees was too big to play Pop Warner Football in Costa Mesa as a

youth, but made up for it in high school, becoming a three-year varsity

starter at center, as well as a starter on the defensive line in the 1971

and ’72 campaigns.

As a sophomore, Klees helped Coach Phil Brown’s Eagles nearly win the

1970 Irvine League championship, while posting a 9-2 record. Only a 14-12

loss to eventual CIF champion Edison stood in the way. It was Estancia’s

first winning season and a school-record win total that lasted for 19

years.

Klees, who was 6-foot-4, 230 pounds when he graduated in 1973, was a

huge USC football fan. But the Trojans, like UCLA’s Bruins, were looking

for about 30 more pounds.

“It was pretty frustrating as a young man,” said Klees, a second-team

All-CIF Southern Section 4-A selection in the fall of 1972, along with first-team All-Irvine League and first-team All-Orange County honors.

Then, one day, Notre Dame responded, about two weeks after Klees

returned an information card. His grade-point average was, well, average,

but Klees’ SAT scores were exceptionally high and the Fighting Irish made

him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“The day I found out, I cut class and went home during the middle of

the day, and I saw my father (Paul) sitting in a chair in a dark room,”

he said. “I thought he had a heart attack. He’s from Pennsylvania, so he

knew all about Notre Dame and how revered it is. He said, ‘Kid, Notre

Dame just called. Get back to school.”’

Before Notre Dame would sign Klees, he had some explaining to do, such

as the auto shop classes. “I told them, ‘Look, I have a car. If it

breaks, I need to know how to fix it,”’ Klees said.

In high school, Klees was also a heavyweight wrestler and won the 1973

Irvine League title, while meriting a 34-4 record his senior year. He

finished fourth at the CIF finals and competed in the first state

championships that year at Cal State Hayward.

But football was always his priority, and, before Klees could realize

Notre Dame’s great tradition, he was playing on the 1973 national

championship Fighting Irish squad, the highlight of his career.

Klees would play three years at Notre Dame. His senior year was cut

short because of a knee injury suffered on the first play of the 1976

season’s first scrimmage.

“That was an incredible experience (at Notre Dame),” said Klees, who

was primarily a second-string center at South Bend, Ind.

“Coming from Southern California, I didn’t really know much beyond the

Sierra Nevada Mountains. We traveled all over the country. We played Army

at Army, next to the Hudson River in the fall; we played at Miami. It was

amazing for me. Then, all of the sudden, I end up in a position to play

in the national championship game (in which Notre Dame beat Alabama).

Then, the next year, we played in the Orange Bowl (and beat Alabama

again).”

At Notre Dame, Klees was a teammate of quarterback Joe Montana, among

other future NFL stars.

After graduating from Notre Dame, Klees stayed in the Midwest,

attending graduate school in South Bend, then eventually becoming a stock

broker for Prudential Securities.

These days, besides trying to convince his daughters that he once

played sports at a respectable level, Klees lives about an hour west of

Chicago with his wife, Kathy, and daughters Natalie, 20, Madeline, 17,

and Gretchen.