Hutchinson ? Life on the farm isn’t for everyone. But it is for Rick Dvorak. He knew that after he left the family’s farm north of Spearville to play four years of football at Wichita State and five more in the NFL.

“You’re around all of those people and you’re in the limelight,” Dvorak said. “It’s definitely a different life and I enjoyed it while I was there. But yet, in the back of my mind, I couldn’t wait to get back home.”

Dvorak’s roots in Spearville run deep. Since 1880, five generations of Dvoraks have grown up on that same farm, where they raise cattle and harvest wheat. Working the land was just part of the family tradition.

“The biggest challenges for a farmer are to make a living and to have no control over what you get for your product,” Dvorak said. “Expenses keep going up with the diesel fuel and fertilizers and chemicals. And yet we accept whatever we get because we have no choice.”

University tragedy

While he’s back now, there was a time when Dvorak left the farm after he graduated from Spearville in 1970. Later that year, Dvorak went to Wichita State when tragedy struck the team on Oct. 2. One of two planes going to Utah State crashed in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver, killing 31 people. Fourteen of those were players.

Freshman couldn’t play NCAA football at that time, so Dvorak wasn’t on that trip. But the NCAA made an exception for Wichita State, whose freshman were allowed to play for the rest of the season.

Dvorak played his first game three weeks after the crash in a 62-0 loss to Arkansas in Little Rock. Dvorak, who had been a defensive end, moved to offensive tackle with only two weeks’ experience at the position.

“Coming from a small town where people pulled their cars up to the field to watch the game, that was mind-boggling,” Dvorak said. “Going to a stadium with 40,000 people in it, giving us a standing ovation as we walked on the field, that was quite an experience.”

Dvorak played defensive tackle for the rest of his career at WSU. The three-time all-Missouri Valley Conference selection made more than 400 tackles as he played in 44 straight games.

Football career

The New York Giants then drafted Dvorak as a linebacker, citing his speed and agility, despite never playing that position.

He played linebacker as a rookie, but in 1975, he started the entire season at defensive tackle. Dvorak played two years more with the Giants and one with the Miami Dolphins in 1978. He was cut before the ’79 season.

“I took that as a hint that maybe I ought to just call it good for now, go back to what I wanted to do,” Dvorak said. “I went back home.”

Family tradition

Dvorak found it easy to make the switch to life on the farm, too, because that was what he had desired ever since he left it. The crops and cattle keep Dvorak both busy and happy.

“It’s just like riding a bike,” Dvorak said. “You just get back on.”

While the farm has been a family affair, Dvorak said he would let his sons decide whether it’s a life for them. In fact, he wants them to go to college and decide for themselves.

Joe, a senior at Hanston, was a sure-tackling linebacker who won two Eight-Man II championships with the Elks. He hopes to play football in college, where he wants to major in communications. Eric, a junior at Hanston, also plays football.

“There’s not pressure on any of us to come back and run the farm,” Joe said. “I think if one of us does, it’s going to be Eric. He’s a little more into the farming end of it than I am.”

Rick and Bonnie Dvorak also have two daughters. Shawna, a business major now at Rockhurst University, averages 5.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per basketball game as a junior this season. Jackie, the youngest of the siblings, is in the fifth grade.

His sons see his enthusiasm when Dvorak goes to work every day. “If you just look from the outside, you might be a little surprised,” Joe said. “But if you were here every day, just watching him working, you can see why he came back. “He enjoys everything he does out here. He enjoys living this way.”