Issue date: 9/22/06 Section: News

Photo illustration by Adán Peña

Texas A&M is no longer the only school worthy of observing the 12th Man.

On the night of Sept. 2nd, spectators of a football game between the University of Nevada - Las Vegas and Idaho State witnessed the re-enactment of a tale sacred to the Aggie faithful.

For those who do not know, the Aggies were playing top-ranked Centre College in January of 1922. Injuries forced head coach Dana X. Bible to call down E. King Gill from the stands to suit up as a reserve player. Gill was a student and former member of the football team.

Although Gill did not enter the game, he stood ready to play as the only reserve left on the sideline.

"I wish I could say that I went in and ran for the winning touchdown, but I did not," Gill said after the game. "I simply stood by in case my team needed me."

UNLV kicker Ben Jaekle, a true freshman walk-on, took his Twelfth Man story a step further than Gill.

Jaekle, not playing because he was redshirted, was sitting with his family at the game when he noticed kicker Sergio Aguayo was hurt.

"At the start of the second quarter our kicker hobbled off the field," Jaekle said. "During that week of practice his heel was hurting, so I thought he probably hurt his heel."

Jaekle did not know it at the time, but Aguayo had suffered a knee injury that would keep him from returning to the game. Moments later, Jaekle received a strange phone call.

"A few minutes later I got a call from my friend saying I had to come down to the field," Jaekle said. "But I was thinking to myself 'yeah, right'. Then another team member got on the phone and said 'This isn't a joke, and you need to come down.' All of a sudden our head coach got on the phone. He started talking to me and said I needed to get dressed so I could kick for the second half."

UNLV head coach Mike Sanford recalled the event.

"I started yelling at someone to call Ben Jaekle, who was in the stands," Sanford said. "They got him on the phone, and I told him he needed to start coming down and get dressed and he asked 'who's this?' He was up in the stands, drinking lemonade, probably had a hot dog in his hand when I called him, so he didn't really get a chance to warm up."

Still in disbelief, Jaekle hurried to the UNLV locker room to get dressed. However, none of his equipment was available, so there was a scramble to get the necessary items. Jaekle is listed on the roster as number 86, but wore number six in the game.

"They gave me all different (equipment)," Jaekle said. "I didn't have my cleats because I was supposed to redshirt. They didn't have my helmet, cleats or pads."

In the second half, Jaekle accomplished what Gill never had the chance to do: he played. Jaekle kicked three extra points and a 26-yard field goal.

When asked if there had been any rumors of statues being raised in his likeness, Jaekle's response was modest and eerily similar to Gill's statement.

"It's a good story, but for me, it's just what I had to do because it's what the team needed," Jaekle said.

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