The course of someone's life can change in a second.
For Ken Dunek, a basketball player at Memphis State, now known as the University of Memphis, it was in the late 1970s, when he and a buddy were tossing around a football outside of his dorm.
"The tight ends coach saw me and asked me to come over to the football office," Dunek says. "I had never run a 40-yard dash before and I ran a 4.6. He goes, 'Listen, this is something you have to try.' And so I did.
"I realized my future professionally was probably going to be in football. So I played football my senior year in 1978 and then I got a fifth year of eligibility for switching sports, and I actually played football and basketball in '79."
Dunek hoped to hear his name called during the 1980 NFL Draft. But when he didn't, the tight end still had a shot to show he could play in the league after being contacted about signing as a free agent by the Eagles, Rams, and Saints.
Influenced by conversations with two people – Eagles Head Coach Dick Vermeil and Saints quarterback Archie Manning – Dunek chose to sign with Philadelphia.
"I visited the Saints and met with the general manager. He asked me to go walk around the facility and then we would talk about a contract," he says. "I went into the weight room and there was one guy there, Archie Manning. I said, 'I don't want to bother you, but they asked me to walk around and talk to people.' He goes, 'Are you thinking about signing here?' I said, 'Well, yeah.' And he said, 'I wouldn't. Look around. There's nobody here.'
"That kind of took the Saints out of the mix for me, and so I flew to Philly. They had some of the free agents in and Dick Vermeil was spending about five or 10 minutes with each guy, and he talked to me for almost a half an hour, and was selling me hard, trying to convince me that he thought I had potential. Making the team was going to be difficult because they had two established tight ends, but he really instilled a belief in me that this was the place that I wanted to be.
"I knew that the Eagles were a very good team, and if I got cut from the Eagles, maybe the Saints, or somebody, a lower team, might pick me up. If I got cut from the Saints, my career was going to be over before it started."
Dunek started his career off as one of five tight ends, including veterans John Spagnola and Keith Krepfle, who were in Training Camp in 1980. His stock rose in the preseason opener against Buffalo when Spagnola didn't make the trip because he was sick and Krepfle separated his shoulder during the game's first series.
"Lynn Stiles, the tight ends coach, told me I wasn't even going to play very much in the game, that I might play a little special teams at the very end," Dunek says. "I was fine with that. I'm sitting there with my NFL uniform on and looking around Buffalo's stadium, 60,000 people, and Krepfle separates his shoulder. Now I'm in the game, and in the huddle with (Ron) Jaworski, (Harold) Carmichael, (Wilbert) Montgomery, all these players on a team that's expected to go to the Super Bowl.
"Coach Vermeil calls a timeout and brings me over, and he says, 'Listen, I know anybody in your position would be intimidated. But do me a favor. Come off the ball with everything you've got and I won't say a word to you if you make a mistake.' Which was the perfect thing to say to me because I really didn't even know the plays that well yet.
"And the linebackers in that game were Phil Villapiano and Isaiah Robertson, two guys I've been watching play since when I was in junior high school. I came off the ball with everything I had and drove them into the ground almost every play. And the next day at practice, Jerry Wampler, the offensive line coach, came up to me and said, 'I actually might have to learn your name. I didn't think I'd have to.'"
Perhaps not the most heartfelt compliment, but the coaches would get to know Dunek, who made his debut in Week 14 against Atlanta and played in two games, mainly on special teams. The key to Philadelphia's success – posting a 12-4 record and winning the conference title – began in Training Camp, according to Dunek.
"When I tell you that Training Camp was seven weeks of some of the hardest ... It was two-a-days, every day, full pads, full contact, Oklahoma drill," Dunek says. "It was actually the hardest thing I've ever done in my life and it affected my attitude about business. I mean, if you can go through that, you can go just about through anything.
"That was Vermeil's philosophy. If you looked at the talent roster-wise, it was a talented roster, but I'm not sure if a lot of people would have considered it a World Championship roster. It was a bunch of guys that bought into Coach Vermeil's system. They were tough and fit and ready to play, and they showed it on Sundays."
After that season with the Eagles and going to Training Camps with the then-Baltimore Colts and New York Giants, Sundays became workdays for Dunek again when he joined the USFL's Philadelphia Stars in 1983.
It was a new league and a new start. And the way each of the three seasons of the league's existence ended wasn't actually too bad for Dunek either.
"I think for a guy who didn't play high school football, I was able to carve out four full seasons. Funny thing is, I played four full seasons of professional football and I made it to the championship game all four years. So I might be the worst player with the most jewelry in pro football history," Dunek laughed.
"The Philadelphia Stars were an amazing team. We were in all three championship games and we won it twice. I had just signed a deal with the Stars to re-up my contract at three years for $305,000, which was a fairly good bump for me, and then the league folded.
"I'd just turned 30 and figured that was a good time for me to transition in the business. Miles Tanenbaum, the Stars' owner, was friends with Irv Kosloff, who owned the 76ers and a company called Roosevelt Paper. My dad had a printing background, so I knew some of the terminology, and they hired me to go up and down the state of New Jersey and sell paper to printers, magazines, and newspapers."
Transitioning from traveling salesman to author, Dunek wrote a book called An Improbable Journey. It's about famous people, including John Travolta, Mike Tyson, and Don Rickles, whom he'd met in his life. It caught the attention of a local reporter who approached Dunek with the idea of starting a men's magazine in the Philadelphia area.
Dunek founded the quarterly feature-based regional JerseyMan Magazine in 2010, and PhillyMan Magazine four years later. He has since added BostonMan Magazine and MiamiMan Magazine, which he co-owns, under his USAMan franchising umbrella.
Published in print and digital formats since the pandemic, the magazines doesn't rely totally on advertising income and offer unique networking opportunities by having monthly parties for its members.
"It's funny. When you own a magazine and you approach somebody with the idea of them being on the cover, you can get through to almost everybody," Dunek says. "I don't write as much as I used to, but I do write a publisher's column every issue. It's fun for me to talk to these people and get to know them, and they trust me enough to tell their story. That's pretty cool."
Making their home in Mount Laurel, N.J., Dunek and his wife, Terri, have four adult daughters. Ashley, who is his assistant publisher; Alexandra, who runs the office and is responsible for the company's social media; Jamie, who is an operating room nurse at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia; and Taylor, who is also an operating room nurse at Cooper Hospital in Camden, N.J.
"I'm not a guy that likes to talk about himself that much, but I would say the thing I'm most proud of is being a good husband and father," Dunek says. "I am proud of the success I've had, both in sports and now in business. I try to do it the right way. Nobody's perfect. But like Coach Vermeil's philosophy, if you work hard and keep your nose clean, good things happen. And he was right."
