The football center is a little like an airline pilot and a lot like a garbage man. Only failure attracts attention; success passes unnoticed.

Even the great centers have trudged anonomously. Stolid, meaty behemouths, their senses grow dulled by thousands of slaps to the head, delivered in the split-second of vulnerability while they shovel the ball to the quarterback.

Dave Scheper is a center, but that never fooled anyone. What Warren Beatty did for hairdressers in Shampoo, this man might do for the gentlemen with the high numbers who spend their week-end afternoons in that most inelegant of positions.

Some Have It

Scheper says he's always been "naturally verbal" and a conversation with him proves the comment to be a rare understatement. The voices--sometimes his own, sometimes The Harvard Booster, sometimes the broadcaster come and go in a flash.

In fact, chances are that more people know Scheper the Broadcaster than Scheper the Center. He's the voice of Harvard basketball for WHRB and Marc Sobil, the station's sports director, says "everyone knows he's our best sports-caster."

Returning to the gridiron for his third year on the Harvard varsity, Scheper's football prowess earns similar praise from his football teamates and coaches. Offensive line coach Dick Corbin says, "He's a leader on and off the field. Scheper's strength is his ability to block bigger people," the coach adds and teammates agree.

Don't Like Them Tall People

Bigger people than Scheper is about as selective a group as the Omaha telephone directory. At 5-ft. 10-in., he has probably not met a defensive lineman his size or smaller since high school. With a vocabulary peppered with phrases like "test of will" and "if we're inspired enough," it's clear his height--or lack of it--has never really bothered him.

"I get pretty enthusiastic about playing college football." Scheper says, but his ardor for the college football of another academic institution matches, if not surpasses his dedication to the home team.

Notre Dame. "Don't call it a fetish. Call it a passion," he says, though either description may fit. An early childhood in Indianapolis --with a diehard Irish fan for a father--served as the catalyst, and his devotion survived a move that might have left an average fan with split sympathies.

A Long, Long Time Ago...

Scheper recalls the exact day when his family left Indiana for Northridge, Calif.--the heart of USC country. It was Nov. 30, 1968, when the Irish and Trojans battled to a 21-21 tie.

Did he want to play football at Notre Dame?

"Of course," he says, "But when it came time for recruiting, Dan Divine wasn't in the market for five-ten, 210-lb. centers." A pause. "Well," he adds, totally serious, "he let a prize nugget get away."