MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Zach Frazier will be the 125^th West Virginia University football player since 1987 to participate in the NFL Scouting Combine when activities commence in Indianapolis on Tuesday.
 
This event found a permanent home in Indianapolis after the pro football prospect camps run by the National Football Scouting Inc. (NFS), the Bears-Lions-Eagles Steelers-Talent-Organization (BLESTO) and Quadra Scouting were merged, thus the name NFL Combine.
 
Before 1987, the camp was held twice in New Orleans, once in Phoenix and twice in Tampa where it originated in 1982 and was called the National Invitational Camp. 
 
And running that first-ever NFL Draft camp was Tampa Bay's director of player personnel, Ken Herock, who played college football at West Virginia University and later with the Oakland Raiders, Cincinnati Bengals and Boston Patriots. 
 

"The reason we started this was because we were concerned about the players' medicals," Herock, now retired, said recently from his home in Gainesville, Georgia. "We had about 150 of the top players (163 actually), and we were flying kids all over before the draft and fighting over their medical information because we thought that information was important."
 
Back then, pro football organizations had scouting departments, but also utilized scouting services to help with the process. Herock said the Buccaneers were using National Football Scouting Inc. to assist with their draft day prep.
 
"Our scouting, we thought, was very through, and we had pro days," Herock recalled. "Back then, I could go to a school and sometimes even time a player during the season. You could get away with a lot of things then and get personal information that you can't today."
 
Herock said the most difficult thing was getting good film on prospects because of the lack of technology scouting departments had in those days.
 
"There was always a big fight over getting film," he said. "What I'd do is if I really liked a guy, and I had good film on him, I would hold it and not give it out, but everyone was doing that, though. If they were doing it to me, then I'm doing it to them."
 
Inexact information such as exaggerated heights and weights were also prevalent, requiring teams to do more research.
 
"Height, weight and speed are obviously very important," Herock conceded, "but we could go into schools not knowing the height, weight and speed of a lot of players. What you saw in a program was an estimate, and if you wanted it, you had to weigh them, measure them and time them yourself. The most important thing was how the hell he played; that's No. 1."
 
Herock continued.
 
"Whenever you put up your (draft) board, you base it on how he played. The height, weight and speed will take care of itself once we started the combine. That's when you make adjustments, 'Well, we thought this guy could really run, and he can't.' You might lower his grade or raise his grade a little bit, and that's when testing became very important."
 
When the decision was made in 1982 to identify the top pro prospects and bring them to one location, Herock said they decided to work them out as well.
 
"We graded them as athletes and players, and we needed their medicals, and then when we thought about it, we said, 'Well, since we've got them here let's just work them out, too.' All the drills they are using right now, except for one, we did. We used to do the 4-Square Drill and what they do now is the L-Drill. That's the only drill that's changed over the years."
 
WVU quarterback Oliver Luck was among the top pro prospects invited to participate in 1982, making him the first Mountaineer to ever attend an NFL Scouting Combine. He recalls going to the event after competing in the Olympia Gold Bowl at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, California.
 
That game, sponsored by Olympia Brewing, featured most of the top college players and had a cash payout to both the winning and losing teams. It lasted just one year before folding.
 
"The Raiders coached one team and the Eagles coached the other, and it was a big deal because they actually paid us," Luck recalled. "Our eligibility was done, and I think they paid $3,000 to each player on the winning team and $2,000 to each player on the losing team."
 
It was in San Diego where Luck met most of the top guys in the draft that he worked out with later that spring in Tampa, including quarterbacks Jim McMahon and Art Schlichter. That year, Luck was the No. 4-rated quarterback in the draft behind those two and San Diego State's Matt Kofler, although Luck ended up going four spots ahead of Kofler in the second round at No. 44 to the Houston Oilers. Kofler landed with the Buffalo Bills at No. 48.
 
Schlichter was taken at No. 4 overall by the Baltimore Colts and McMahon went one pick later to the Chicago Bears at No. 5. Luck recalls a sad story regarding Schlichter and his well-documented struggles with gambling.
 
"After playing in the Olympia Gold Bowl, we're taking the bus back to the hotel from Jack Murphy Stadium," he said. "Art Schlichter was the MVP of the game, and he got like an Isuzu truck or something, and before we got back to the hotel, he lost that truck playing poker on the bus ride. It's just sad that he had a gambling addiction that couldn't stop."
 
In Tampa, Luck recalled it being only a one-day event, unlike the week-long extravaganza it has now become in Indianapolis.
 
"I remember going to Tampa, because I had never been to Tampa before, and I remember the stadium they had there because of the undulating top of the stadium. I remember the (New York) Yankees also had their spring training complex right next door, and I remember it being very unsophisticated."
 
Luck recalls meeting Herock at the camp, but no coaches. 
 
"I remember Ken, and I remember throwing passes down there," he said. "Whatever number of quarterbacks were invited, they took us out on the practice field, and we were throwing to various receivers, tight ends and running backs, and I remember some other workouts they put us through."
 
Only 16 teams were at that first draft camp, meaning the ones that didn't show up needed to see their top targets in person to medically examine them. Luck said he had to fly to New York to visit with the Jets and take a physical.
 
"That was the only sort of one-off I did," he said.
 
After taking responsibility for putting on the first draft camp in 1982, and continuing it in 1983, Herock was ready to pass it on in 1984.
 
"I didn't want it anymore because I didn't want the responsibility because it was outside on grass," he explained. "It was good grass and a good field, but my concern was if it rains where do we go? We had an indoor facility set up at the University of South Florida, but it wasn't really suitable for what we wanted to do. I said, 'Hey, I don't want this anymore. Take it somewhere else.'"
 
It moved to New Orleans in 1984, then to Phoenix in 1985 and back to New Orleans in 1986.
 
"New Orleans was great, but what happened was they didn't sign a lease for the (Superdome), so we lost that. We had to go to another place," Herock said. "There was some discussion of rotating it around to different cities, but the thought was if they do that, they will lose a lot of continuity that they had over the years of how to handle the mechanics, the travel and the logistics of going to hospitals and all that stuff."
 
Once the decision was made to combine the camps to maximize resources, the NFL settled on Indianapolis and the Hoosier Dome, later Lucas Oil Stadium, as a permanent site. The agreement to hold the event there runs until 2025. This year's NFL Draft Combine will feature 321 prospects taking part in workouts over an entire week. The event will be televised nationally on NFL Network and NFL+.
 
Herock, who became general manager of the Atlanta Falcons in the late 1980s and later worked in the personnel departments for the Raiders and Green Bay Packers, retired from pro football in 2001. However, he continues to run a draft consulting service called Pro Prep.

"The interviews have become such an integral part of the process, and everybody wants to meet (the players)," Herock explained. "I started doing this years before. I'd go to the East-West Game, or the Blue-Gray Game, and I'd take one of our interns, sit them down in a room, send guys up to the room and we'd interview them off certain questions we'd ask them."
 
Now, he prepares players beforehand for their interview process in Indianapolis.
 
"I've spent enough of my life at combines," he said. "I don't want to go to another one."
 
Once, when Herock was sitting at the starting line of the 40-yard dash with coach Bill Parcells and others, Raiders owner Al Davis began talking about the immense potential for this event.
 
"I sat down early, and Mr. Davis and I are talking, and he said, 'Ken, you know, we could put this on TV and make a lot of money. TV would pay for everything.' I thought to myself, 'Who in the hell would want to watch some kid run 40s?' Herock said. "That's how dumb I was. He said, 'People will want to see this.'
 
"I didn't have the vision he had," Herock added.
 
Indeed, Al Davis was a visionary.
 
As for Frazier, Herock is aware of him and believes he is a strong pro prospect likely to be taken in the top three rounds in this year's draft.
 
"I like him," he said. "He's a good player and center is the right position for him in the pros."