After Tom Luken was recruited to play offensive guard for the Boilermakers out of La Salle High School in Cincinnati, his focus was staying on the field. Officially, Luken’s major was Management, but as he puts it: “I graduated majoring in Eligibility.”
When asked about the brothers who most impacted his time at Purdue and why, he points to those were also his “tutors. Because they kept me eligible.” In particular, he singles out Bob Schwartz ’72.
All their help paid off. In 1972, Tom parlayed his college playing career into his first job out of school as a third-round draft choice of the Philadelphia Eagles. His pro football career, however, didn’t get off to a smooth start.
“I wasn’t real happy after my rookie year,” He told the Eagles team website. “I loved (Eagles coach) Eddie Khayat, and when he got fired, that kind of upset me. I wasn’t even real sure I was going to come back for my second year.”
But he stuck with it, experiencing a season-ending knee injury and another coaching change in 1975, before he ended up playing for Hall of Fame coach Dick Vermeil, who began his NFL coaching career in Philadelphia for the 1976 season. Tom would play his next three seasons under Vemeil before being traded to the Bills and ultimately retiring from the NFL.
In the same piece on the Eagles team site, he explained, “In ’79, (Vemeil) had a playbook dedicated to, he called, the Dirty Dozen. That was 13 players that were left from (previous head coach) Mike McCormack’s roster. And then when he traded me to Buffalo on Labor Day, I said, ‘Now what are you going to do? Call it the Elusive Eleven?’
“He said I couldn’t pass protect. He asked me (later) at one of his golf outings, ‘Why could you run block, but you couldn’t pass protect?’ And I said, ‘Well, I liked Wilbert Montgomery a hell of a lot better than I liked (Ron) Jaworski.’”
After his pro career ended, Tom returned to his native Ohio, and after a short stint selling cars, transitioned into work with Kroger grocery store chain, holding several management roles. Eventually, his work with Kroger took him to Indianapolis, where he also volunteered as an offensive line coach at Cathedral High School.
Looking back on his time at Phi Delta Theta, which he remembers as being best known for famous alumnus Neil Armstrong, he especially remembers a Spring Break road trip to Daytona Beach during his sophomore year. Tom prizes the feeling of “brotherhood” and points to “loyalty,” in the form of friendships that have lasted long after graduation.