SE: Keep It Up, Little Man - The Story Behind a Pair of Gloves from Deuce Vaughn

By: Austin Siegel

The father and son started driving before dawn, heading west on I-70.

As towns like Maple Hill and Paxico passed by outside the passenger side window, the son turned to the father and told him it felt like they were driving across the surface of the moon.

Jay Radzavicz laughs at the memory. His son, Andy, is growing up in Jacksonville, far enough from Kansas farm towns that they might as well have been a pair of astronauts that morning.

Jay tells the story of his first time in Manhattan when he was a kid, on some long-ago summer road trip with his family, a real-life National Lampoon's Vacation from New York to California.

"I think I was like an eighth grader," he said. "So, not long after covered wagons."

They stopped at Ohio State and Kansas State on the trip, for no other reason than so Jay could stare at empty stadiums and imagine what they must be like in the fall during football season.

So, when Andy asked his Dad if they could visit Manhattan one day to watch his favorite college football player, Jay didn't really stand a chance.

That's how Andy and Jay Radzavicz ended up driving towards Bill Snyder Family Stadium to watch Deuce Vaughn play in the last game of the 2020 season for K-State.

When Andy met Deuce Vaughn after the game, his favorite player gave him the gloves he wore that day against Texas.

And then the son had a smile on his face as though the father had really strapped their car on a rocket ship, so they could see what it felt like to drive together across the moon.

On Thursday morning, Deuce Vaughn was named the 2020 Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year.

He becomes the first Wildcat to win the award since Tyler Lockett in 2011, joining a list of players that includes Heisman winners and NFL Draft picks.

Baker Mayfield. Robert Griffin III. Adrian Peterson. Not a bad group to be a part of, and not possible without the kind of numbers that capture the rare "do-it-allness" of Deuce Vaughn.

625 yards and 7 touchdowns as a running back. 245 yards and 3 touchdowns as a receiver.

He didn't start returning kicks until the end of the season and Vaughn still racked up 145 yards after just seven attempts on special teams.

For the Big 12 coaches who vote in the end-of-season awards, maybe those numbers were what gave Vaughn the edge over some of the other talented freshmen in the conference.

But that certainly wasn't the case for Andy Radzavicz, even though he can give you a film breakdown on Vaughn that sounds like it came from a Big 12 coach instead of a nine-year-old.

"When they played Texas Tech, I started to see his highlights…I think he's the best freshman in the Big 12. He's just scored so many touchdowns, he's a great runner and he's so hard to bring down," Andy said. "I'm also a big Chiefs fan, so I like Kansas things."

The Texas Tech game, when Vaughn ran for 113 yards and caught a 70-yard touchdown pass to seal the win over the Red Raiders, became appointment viewing in the Radzavicz house.

Andy saw a bit of himself in K-State's freshman phenom.

His jersey number was already a favorite, since Andy's birthday is on February 22. And when you're a little smaller than some of the other kids, an athlete like Vaughn is easy to root for.

"Maybe his number one guy in sports has always been Jose Altuve, because he's undersized and Andy's undersized himself, even though that doesn't matter." Jay said. "Then we saw Deuce and it was like, 'Wow this kid is really something special.'"

That's when the trip to Manhattan began to come together.

Before moving to Jacksonville, Jay was a football graduate assistant with Central Missouri and worked as the sports director with the local CBS affiliate in Joplin.

He became friends with former Pro Bowler and Chiefs Radio Network analyst Kendall Gammon, whose son, Blaise Gammon, played football at K-State and graduated in 2019.

"Andy and I have always watched Big 12 games," Jay said. "The Chiefs are his NFL team. He's rabid. We were also watching a little bit of K-State Football with Blaise the last couple of years."

Andy looked at the K-State schedule and found a weekend in December when the Wildcats and the Kansas City Chiefs were both playing home games.

A trip to watch his new favorite college football player turned out to be an easy sell.

The weather on Saturday morning was bright and clear, but bitterly cold.

Andy layered up under his purple K-State jersey and Chiefs beanie, used to balmy Decembers in Jacksonville, but looking like every other Kansas kid at Bill Snyder Family Stadium that day.

He held a sign with a simple message:

Traveled from Florida just to see the Deuce get loose.

"We made it in Kansas City the night before the game," Andy said. "We didn't want to travel with the big poster board."

A quick trip to Wal-Mart after their flight, and Andy had his sign ready for game day. With a morning kickoff against the Longhorns, father and son headed right to the stadium.

Their seats were in the south endzone, a perfect spot to watch Vaughn's first touchdown of the game, the kind of run full of cuts and jukes that first caught Andy's eye on TV this season.

Lightning in a bottle @C_Vaughn22 #KStateFB ⚒ pic.twitter.com/yE8cfKMJfv
— K-State Football (@KStateFB) December 5, 2020

With the temperature hovering just above freezing, sitting in the sunshine quickly became a priority, as Andy and Jay moved to the north side of the stadium in the second half.

That was also where, near the K-State locker room, Andy hoped he might be able to get Vaughn's attention as he left the field following the game.

"My wife and I want the kids to dream big in every aspect of life, but we also try to manage their expectations," Jay said. "I was thinking, 'OK they just got beat, it's freezing cold.' I was trying to tell Andy you can go down there and try to get his attention, but let's be realistic."

Vaughn lingered around midfield after the game, shaking hands with Texas players, and was one of the last Wildcats to head off the field.

"I just screamed 'Deuce!' like once or twice," Andy said.

And then suddenly, the 5-foot-5 running back from Round Rock, Texas was jogging towards Andy and reaching for his gloves.

"Thank you, Deuce," Andy says in the video, as Vaughn reaches up to hand over his purple and white K-State gloves.

"Alright little man, keep it up," Vaughn says, before going up to give Andy a high-five.

The whole thing lasted about 30 seconds, in a video captured by Tyler Stutzman and a photo of Andy's sign by Chandler Mixon.

It's a moment Jay and Andy Radzavicz will never forget.

Here for it #KStateFB ⚒ @C_Vaughn22 pic.twitter.com/Y8NaFqSz6H
— K-State Football (@KStateFB) December 5, 2020

It also made the flight back home to Florida a little more interesting.

"I put the gloves in my bag, but like super safe in my bag," Andy said. "Every 20 minutes on the flight I would wake up and make sure they were still there."

On the way home, the gloves were all he talked about, with plenty of FaceTime calls to his Mom and brother.

When Andy and Jay made it home to Jacksonville, they built a display box together so Andy could hang the gloves in his room.

In a note that Andy sent to Vaughn after the game, he put into words what watching his favorite college football player that day in Manhattan meant to him.

The criteria was a little different than any of the awards Vaughn won this week.

"Andy wrote that he was inspired by Deuce," Jay said. "Because he's smaller than most of the other kids,"

"All of the other kids," Andy said.

The consensus seems to be that it was the best Christmas present ever. Just don't expect Andy Radzavicz to try the gloves on any time soon.

"I don't want to take the DNA off," he said. "I just wrote thank you so much for the gloves and I really look up to you. I love football, I practice hard and I just love you so much."

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: Keep It Up, Little Man - The Story Behind a Pair of Gloves from Deuce Vaughn

Players Mentioned

Blaise Gammon

Deuce Vaughn

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