The Editor’s Note

As a journalist, you never know when you’ll get to ask an interview subject that question that got away the first time. I lived this mantra as I got another crack at Larry Csonka.

I first got to know the Pro Football Hall of Famer and Alaskan outdoors lover in 2014 for a cover story profile. After our 45-minute conversation I kicked myself for not asking him about his brief acting career. (Besides being an angler, I’m a movie geek.)

Of the handful of credits Csonka has on his IMDB page, most are on television series episodes (he also had a stint co-hosting the ahead-of-its-time reality series, American Gladiators). But it probably slipped my mind the first time that Csonka had a small role in one of my favorite movies, Midway. That 1976 film chronicled one of the most tideturning battles of World War II, which was America’s first decisive victory over the Empire of Japan in the Pacific Theater.

It’s an epic flick – if not a little over the top – with an all-star cast headlined by distinguished thespians Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, Glenn Ford and Hal Holbrook. My Navy veteran dad and I must have watched Midway six or seven times over all of our years hanging out together.

Csonka, fresh o of two Super Bowl victories as a Miami Dolphins running back, plays a small role in the film, Commander Delaney. His character worked in the engine room on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown, which was the only major loss for the U.S. Navy in the battle (by contrast, American dive bombers sunk four of the Japanese Imperial Navy’s biggest carriers).

Csonka’s Delaney appears in two scenes updating his commanding o cers on the ship’s engine room, including breaking the news when all hope for the Yorktown was lost. I asked Csonka to selfcritique his acting chops. It was clear he was going to stick with football.

“Well, acting was a new experience for me. I never was much of an actor. It was fun to be there and be in the presence of the stars who were there when I was around. And I liked those people, but I don’t think I belonged in that atmosphere,” Csonka told me. “I had tremendous respect for reality, and you won’t get any more real than that third and 1 on the 20-yard line against (Hall of Fame linebacker) Dick Butkus.”

Still, even if he wasn’t quite a Fonda, Heston or Holbrook on set, being part of reenacting a critical WWII moment was enough of a rush to be proud.

“My dad came home after the (atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Dad actually got to see the Enola Gay (the B-29 bomber that released the weapon on Hiroshima). He was on Iwo Jima and they fought there for weeks. He didn’t talk about it a whole lot,” Csonka added. “I was very much a fan of (WWII) history. Three of my uncles also were in the Second World War besides my father. Two were in the European Theater and two in the Pacific. They all had great stories, and when I was a kid I’d be mesmerized by that. That’s as real as it gets.”

That was an Academy Awardwinning answer to those questions I finally was able to ask. -Chris Cocoles

Football star Larry Csonka got a Navy-approved haircut for his small role in the 1976 film Midway, a favorite of the editor. Csonka didn’t consider himself much of an actor, but he was honored to play a part in recreating such an historic World War II battle. (MIDWAY

PRODUCTIONS/LARRY CSONKA COLLECTION)