Where Are They Now?: Mike Dennis
By David Driver
Next year marks the 40th anniversary of the end of Xavier football. It was a turning point in the history of the University. Agree with it or not, one thing can’t be argued: Xavier produced some quality players—and people. We tracked down some of them to see what they’ve been doing in the years since they left campus.
Mike Dennis '73
A little romance helped Mike Dennis end up at Xavier. A football standout at St. Mary’s High School in Sandusky, Ohio, Dennis was recruited by Navy, Penn, Case Western and Toledo, among others. But none of the others stood a chance.
“I met a girl down there on my visit to Xavier,” he says. “She lived near Toledo.”
So is that girl now his wife? Does the story have a fairytale ending? “No,” he says with a laugh. She was just a girl. But she was enough to land the center at Xavier.
Dennis was also attracted to the Xavier program by Dick Selcer, the head coach in 1970-1971 who later went on to be a longtime assistant coach in the NFL. “He was an excellent salesperson and very charismatic,” says Dennis.
Dennis graduated from Xavier with a bachelor’s degree in physics and then got a master’s degree in radiological physics from the University of Cincinnati in 1974. He followed that with a doctorate in medical physics/biophysics from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Science in San Antonio in 1979, and he is now an associate professor of radiology at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo.
He has a son who is an engineer in Arizona, an older daughter who has a doctorate in bioengineering and a younger daughter who has a nursing background and is a captain in the Air Force.
Tim Dydo '74
John Shinners '69
Bill Howe ‘74
Mark Pfeiffer ‘73
Herman “Buck” Moss ‘54
Steve Bailey ‘68
Carroll Williams ‘69
Bob Pickard ‘74
Web Exclusives
More Players from the Past
The Next Generation
Did You Know?
Why the Program was Dropped
The Silver Years
The Three Musketeers
