Victory of a Patriot... on a football field

A famous star of American football is the great-great grandson of Custer's bandmaster

FROM GARRYOWEN IN GLORY! 

It is a long way from the weather-beaten, brownish-yellow buffalo grass that blankets the quiet bluffs of the Little Bighorn battle site in eastern Montana to the turf of last weekend's Super Bowl in New Orleans. But Adam Vinatieri, the New England Patriots kicker whose 48-yard, game-winning field goal catapulted him to stardom (Superbowl, 2005) , links the two American icons.

Vinatieri's great-great-grandfather, Felix Vinatieri, a musician and composer, served as George Armstrong Custer's bandmaster during the Civil War general's Indian campaign. And Vinatieri's great-great-grandmother, Anna, became a close friend of Custer's wife, Libbie.

Adam grew up hearing stories of ''Granddad Felix,'' who came to the United States with his father, a piano maker from northern Italy, and then joined the service and made his way west.

''The story was passed down through the generations, and it was a point of pride,'' Vinatieri said by telephone, between television appearances on ''Late Show With David Letterman'' and ''Late Night With Conan O'Brien''
this week. ''There's a historical museum in the town where I grew up. They have some of Granddad's musical instruments and some of the music he composed.''



''Custer's Last Band,'' a collection of Felix Vinatieri's cavalry marches, was recently recorded by an orchestra in California. ''I listen to that CD and can't quite get over the fact that it's my granddad's music,'' Adam said.


In the spring of 1876, when Custer led the Seventh Cavalry out of Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota to its eventual doom along the banks of the Little Bighorn in the famous battle against Crazy Horse and his Sioux warriors, most of the band -- and its leader -- stayed behind. Had Felix Vinatieri not remained at Fort Lincoln, ''There probably wouldn't be anybody, no Vinatieris, no Adam,'' said Adam's father, Paul.

The writer and historian Bob Karolevitz, of Mission Hill, S.D., said: ''Custer loved music. He believed the band boosted his troops' morale, and they were good entertainment on long trips.''

Custer's band accompanied the troops on marches, but usually not into battle, for the sake of expedience, Karolevitz said. Only the bugler John Martini, another Italian -- who, like many Army musicians, spoke little
English -- was at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Karolevitz, a World War II veteran who has written about local history, watched Adam Vinatieri kick for South Dakota State University in nearby Vermillion in the mid-1990's. ''The name jumped out at me,'' he said, and through research Karolevitz drew the Vinatieri family connection.

Six months after Custer and his troops were outflanked and killed in the original battle between the Seventh Cavalry and the Indians, Felix Vinatieri was discharged from the Army. With an eye on pursuing his musical
career, he and his wife settled in Yankton, S.D., where they raised eight children. Felix composed music, conducted an orchestra and traveled with various shows, including the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus, Karolevitz said. He died at age 57 in 1891 and was buried in Yankton, in the southeast corner of the state along the Missouri River.

Four generations and about 80 years later, Adam Vinatieri was born in Yankton. When he was 5, Adam's parents moved their four children to Rapid City, in western South Dakota, where Judy and Paul Vinatieri still live.


Sports, not music, was the focus of the family. ''We had the kids in everything -- soccer, basketball, football, wrestling, tennis, baseball,'' said Paul Vinatieri, who works for an insurance company. ''Keep them busy
enough, and they can't get into any trouble. They're too tired.''

Adam Vinatieri was a letter winner in football, wrestling, soccer and track and field at Rapid City Central High School. Kim Nelson was his football coach. ''By the time he got to high school he was a very confident athlete,'' Nelson recalled. ''He was our kicker and punter and quarterback. He really wanted that leadership position and thrived under pressure.'' Nelson, a high school football coach for 23 years, admitted being surprised by Vinatieri's success in the National Football League, where he has been the Patriots' kicker for six years.

''Like a lot of kids, Adam told me, 'I want to play in the N.F.L. someday,' '' Nelson said. '' 'Well,' I said, 'You certainly have the ability if you stick with it.' I tell that to everybody.''

On Letterman's show, Vinatieri gave this humble version of his beginnings as a kicker: ''I started playing soccer when I was about 5 years old. And Pop Warner started in about fifth grade. And they said, 'Does anybody know
how to kick?' And I said, 'Well, I play soccer so I'll try.' And we had a minitryout that day and I just happened to be the best kicker that day, and they said, 'You're our guy.' ''

Karolevitz, the historian who also traces his family back several generations in Yankton, said he grew up among Vinatieris. ''There were several Vinatieris about my age, and Joe and A. B. Vinatieri had a plumbing company in town,'' Karolevitz said of Adam's great-grandfather and great-uncle. ''It's kind of curious. There wasn't an athletic kid among
them.''

How would have Felix Vinatieri -- who always carried an E-flat coronet, tutored each of his children in music and left to posterity two trunks filled with original compositions embellished with pen-and-ink drawings -- reacted to his great-great-grandson's Super Bowl heroics?

''Felix was 5-2 and a musician and he probably wouldn't understand it at all,'' Karolevitz said. ''But he, like everybody else, would be very happy the kid had emerged.''