Correct me if I'm wrong but I remember him getting hurt real bad on one of those over the top endzone plays. What I remember was him going up and over , only to be met on the way by a linebacker who placed his helmet smack in the middle of his chest and crushed it. It was his last play. Does anyone else recall the play. Trying to setttle an argument with a friend who says we traded him.
I don't remember him, but according to this website, http://www.databasefootball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=AUGUSMIK01, he played 3 NFL seasons all with the Jets. BTW, its spelled Augustyniak.
Mike Augustyniak had a lung punctured on a play you described during the 1981 season in a win at Foxboro. He nearly died in the locker room, at least that's what I remember hearing - I was kind of young at the time. He missed the rest of that season but did recover and play a couple of more years for the Jets. I believe he was released by Joe Walton. He may have tried to hook up somewhere else but I'm 99.9% sure he never did. He was an over-achiever type player.....He was not traded
I remember Mike but '81 was my first year that I could remember and I dont' remember his injury. In his bio at the Jets site(link below) it mentions multiple broken ribs as the injury. http://www.newyorkjets.com/players/...ter=A&return_to_page=2&return_to_action=index http://jordan.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/top50/august.php
I remember this. Severely injured on a dive play, and I think it was a lung injury. This guy was a big fan favorite and one of my own favorite players from the era. Fans used to chant "Augie."
Our backfield was Augie / Kevin Long and Scott Dierking.. On a sie note they used to call Drking the locomotive and they would put up this horrible traion graphic on that old miserable scoreboard they use to have at Shea. NOt the one that is still there, but the one that was in left center field all those years..
Augie was in the middle of the play, that ignited the win, that started the winning streak, that led to the return to the playoffs for the Jets. 1981, Game 4. The Jets had dropped their first 3 games of the season, and the pressure was on Michaels and Todd following the previous year's 4-12 debacle. The Houston Oilers, led by the Snake, Ken Stabler, came into Shea looking for an easy win...they walked into an ambush. Walton got the Jets untracked with a flea flicker play: Todd, handing off to Augie, who pitched it back to Richard, who hit Wesley Walker for the 1st of a bunch of TD passes that day. This was also the day the Sack Exchange was "born", as the Jets front four teed off on Stabler and made him really look his age. From there, the Jets finished with a 10-2-1 run and the first berth in the playoffs since 1969.
Yes, it was broken ribs - one of them punctured his lung and the team doctors had a hard time stablizing him in the locker room...it was a real serious situation for a few moments. In fact, the injury suffered by Chris Simms earlier this past season, while a different type of injury, reminded me of Augie's situation.....
Back then the turf at Foxboro Stadium was like a parking lot, guys would get hurt bad there a lot. Augie did come back, he was part of the 1982 team that went to the Championship Game. Dwayne Crutchfield was drafted and expected to take his job but it never happened.
Wow thanks everyone for the input. I would say i win the bet. Well close enough. I remember someone describing it as caving in his chest...OUCH!!!!!
Not sure. I just see that stupid train graphic in my nightmare's. It is seemingly brought up at one of our tailgates every year...
Yes, I think that was even in the yearbook one year. That or Jets Report, the short-lived fan magazine. Anyone remember that one? Went out of business in year one, 1981.
