Eddie Kauchick (1986) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Eddie Kauchick

Induction:
1986

Eddie Kauchick gained a reputation for being one of the toughest linebackers pound for pound to have ever played at Southern Miss. At 5-10, 169-pounds he wasn’t your typical college linebacker but no one played with the reckless abandon he played with on the team of 1949 through 1951.
   Kauchick came to Southern Miss from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in the company of Joe Fortunato, the latter a man destined for great stardom at Mississippi State. Kauchick also made a brief stop in Starkville but things didn’t work out for him there with a coach by the name of Slick Morton. There was another fine back at Mississippi State by the name of Bill Stewart, who had been at Southern Miss prior to his being reportedly sneaked out of Hattiesburg by Coach Morton under the cover of darkness. Stewart recommended to Kauchick that he come to Southern, and his doing so proved to be a tremendous asset for Coach Pie Vann and his staff.
When he did finally arrive at Southern Miss he had already served 27 months in the United States Navy during World War II.
Although Kauchick was one of the smaller players on the team, especially on the defense, he never looked at that as a negative, in fact he looked on what everyone else thought was a handicap and turned it into an asset. He might not be as strong as some of the players he would go up against over his three-year career, but he was tougher and was fearless, always willing to lower his head and drive it into the body of an enemy ball carrier.
Kauchick always said that his size or lack of size, had a lot to do with his being a regular on a team that had Clyde (Heifer) Stuart as an assistant coach. He believed that with Stuart being one of the slightest built coaches in the South and Eddie being one of the smallest men on the team, that Kauchick was one of his favorites..
   He played mostly linebacker on the 1949 team as a sophomore (he was also a fullback and had only seven carries for 37 yards) but made big contributions on that team that finished the year with a 7-3 mark.
   Although preseason plans for 1950 were to use Kauchick more as a fullback that season, as the season neared they realized he was too valuable to remove a lot from the defense and his linebacker spot. In fact that year along with being one of the team leaders in tackles he also had two interceptions for 63 yards and even returned one for a touchdown. He also was a valuable member of the special teams as he returned four kickoffs for 48 yards. He ran the ball 10 times for 29 yards as the team was 5-5.
   As a senior in 1951 Kauchick helped led Southern Miss to the Gulf States Conference championship. He carried the ball 18 times that year for 90 yards, had an interception for 20 yards, returned nine kickoffs for 76 yards and returned a punt for five yards.
   Kauchick left Southern Miss as a second lieutenant in the United States Army and later retired as a lieutenant colonel at the age of 43.