BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — It was a priceless, out of the blue inquiry spawned by the curiosity of youth.
"Dad, did you have a nickname when you were in college?"
The questioner was Matt Davenport's 12-year-old daughter.
"Yeah, I did," answered the former University of Wisconsin placekicker. "It was Money."
"No, it wasn't," she countered incredulously.
"Yeah, it was," he insisted. "Go ask your mom."
Heather Priester Davenport, a former UW soccer player, confirmed her husband's nickname.
But it begged a follow-up: Where did it come from?
In jogging his memory, Matt Davenport initially tried to explain the genesis by quoting Vince Vaughn's character Trent Walker — "Baby, you're so money and you don't even know it" — from the 1996 movie "Swingers." But it was actually a Davenport quote that was the source of the sobriquet.
During the 1997 training camp, Wisconsin State Journal sportswriter Andy Baggot wrote about the kicking battle between Vitaly Pisetsky and Davenport, who was John Hall's backup the year before after transferring from Saddleback Junior College in Mission Viejo, California.
In 1996, Davenport was 3-for-3 on extra points but didn't attempt a field goal.
When Baggot asked about his range, Davenport boasted, "I'm pretty (much) money from 45 in."
Not long after saying it, he admitted, "I regretted it. I didn't have a lot of media experience."
A couple of days later, he shared his misgivings with some of his friends and teammates.
"Hey, guys, I'm a little worried," he told them. "I may have tagged myself with something."
Mark Tauscher, Pat Gill, and Jason Eck poo-pooed it. Nothing to worry about. Except for one thing. Locally generated newspaper stories on the team were put on a bulletin board for all to see, including coaches, at Holy Name Seminary where the Badgers held their preseason camp in August.
"I had almost gotten over my concern about it," Davenport acknowledged. "But while we were stretching before practice, Coach (Jay) Hayes was walking around and he goes, 'Hey, Money. How's it going Money?' He was just teasing me. And then all the coaches were saying it, 'Hey, Money …"
Jay Hayes was the special teams coach.
Davenport thought to himself, "If you're going to say that then you'd better deliver."
The next thing he knew there was a kicking competition between him and Pisetsky.
"At the beginning of practice, they lined up three field goals from 45 yards — right hash, middle and left hash," Davenport recalled. "I was far more nervous for those kicks than any of my game winners I will tell you that. But I never hit three better kicks in my life. They would have all been good from 60."
Davenport won the job for field goals and extra points. Pisetsky settled for kickoffs.
"And then it just stuck," Davenport said of his nickname. "I honestly think that slip of tongue and the coaches testing me on it, set me apart. I got a lot of confidence out of that and I know the guys on the team loved it because there was a little bit of swagger at that position.
"But it wasn't intended … It really wasn't intentional.
"If I had missed those kicks, I think I'm going home. I wouldn't have survived."
On September 27, 1997, Davenport kicked a 43-yard field goal with six seconds left to beat Indiana, 27-26, at Camp Randall Stadium. The following Saturday, he kicked a 48-yard field goal with six seconds left to beat Northwestern, 26-25, at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois.
"They call him Money," said UW coach Barry Alvarez, "and there's a reason they do."
• • • •
Matt and Heather Davenport and their five kids (ranging in age from 15 to 1) live in Trabuco Canyon, California, a small rural area in the Santa Ana foothills north of Rancho Santa Margarita. Los Angeles is one hour to the north and San Diego is 90 minutes to the south.
Two years ago, the Holy Jim Fire raged through the Cleveland National Forest in Orange and Riverside counties, not far from Trabuco Canyon. Davenport watched 747 Supertankers, loaded with water and fire retardant, fly over his home as the winds carried the flames in the opposite direction.
In 2020, California wildfires have set historic records.
"The fires have been north and south of us, so we're really impacted by the smoke right now," said Davenport, an avid runner. "I like to go running. But I wouldn't run now. It's that bad. It's very hazy and kind of ominous. It has unfortunately become a part of the way of life out here.
"Which actually has become a big part of my business, too."
Matt Davenport (28)
The latter has become an interesting chapter in his story (on which a book is being written).
After getting his political science degree from Wisconsin, Davenport didn't enter the business world right away. Instead, he signed a free agent contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He went through their minicamps and training camp before getting cut after the first preseason game.
"I was committed to having no regrets," he said of pursuing his NFL dream. "I wanted to go as far as I could to the point where I'd say, 'This isn't going to work.' I really didn't have a timetable. I was living with my parents and I actually took a job in the mall at a furniture story to offset expenses."
Davenport had tryouts with the San Diego Chargers and Minnesota Vikings before winding up on the roster of the Milwaukee Mustangs, an Arena League football team. He lasted two weeks. Undaunted, he kept working out in southern California and kept cold-calling NFL organizations.
Finally, the moment arrived when he knew it was time to pursue something else. Davenport was working part-time in sales at a landscaping maintenance company that a friend owned. One of his cold calls got him 30 minutes with a coach from the Dallas Cowboys.
"Look, Matt, we've got your tape, we know who you are,'" the assistant informed him. "But we have a kicker who we really like. All I would tell you is, 'Don't put your life on hold for this.'"
The advice resonated with Davenport.
"It was like a bolt of lightning," he admitted. "I knew that I was done with football and I wanted to get engaged and married. I sort of retired right there. I was engaged 24 hours later."
At 23, he needed to reboot. So he went back to Saddleback Junior College and enrolled in their associate's horticulture program thus making the transition from wannabe pro kicker to horticulturalist, arborist and water manager. In 2008, he founded Monarch Environmental in Dana Point, Calif.
"We had a three-month old and a three-year old and a decent sized mortgage in a bad economy and it was all pretty scary," conceded Davenport, who stayed the course. "At Monarch, we act as a liaison between the owner, typically a homeowners association and the contractor."
Davenport even gave himself a title earlier this year: Chief Encouragement Officer.
"During the beginning of this pandemic, I was honestly looking for what my role would be," he said. "I gave myself that title because I thought one of the things missing in today's world is encouragement. We don't do a bunch of that, especially as you get older.
"What I've been doing is writing and posting on social media Monarch's cure for Mondays. It's sort of a letter — and I think they're funny — to encourage people. My role in the company has been to coach and encourage and drive things.
"There's so much negativity out there, people need to be encouraged."
Nothing lately has been more devastating to Californians than the wildfires.
"We're helping these communities manage how to prevent these fires," said Davenport, who has labeled himself a practical environmentalist particularly in any discussion of climate change or green industry topics. "There are a lot of simple things that we can do.
"Like reduce the amount of water that is wasted. We can plant the right plants where they're supposed to go … and we can do things that don't have to take us down that road to disagreement. And that's kind of what we're trying to do."
Monarch has core values. Honesty. Hardworking. Humble. Smart. UW football values?
"Football for sure," he said. "But that also comes from my parents. If you have these kinds of core tenants, then you're going to be successful in whatever you do."
If you walked into the Davenport's home, you wouldn't know that he played college football.
"You'd see a lot of toys and stuff laying around," he said, laughing.
He did save his Wisconsin football helmet and it's in his son's room.
"Every once in a while, whether it's one of our friends or a family member, they'll be out somewhere and they'll see someone wearing something from Wisconsin," he said. "And they'll tell me that they ran into somebody who told them about me."
Money? Matt Davenport? Oh, yeah, Money was awesome.
"It doesn't come a lot, but when it does, it's kind of cool," said the 43-year-old Davenport who still stays in touch with Tauscher, Eck, Gill, Pisetsky, Tim Rosga and Mike Schneck. "It almost always comes at the perfect time when I need some ego adjustment and a little encouragement."
• • • •
The 5-foot-9, 160-pound Davenport failed on his first field goal attempt at Wisconsin. He missed a 23-yarder. Not that it made a difference in the outcome of the 1997 opener in the Kickoff Classic. Syracuse, led by quarterback Donovan McNabb, routed the Badgers, 34-0.
Davenport credited Alvarez for sticking with him.
"A lot of coaches would have said, 'Let's try something different'" he suggested. "But he came up to me and said, 'You're my kicker.' And he said it to the media, too. I had a couple of weeks of just kicking extra points where I got my confidence back leading up to Indiana."
The Hoosiers, a two-touchdown underdog, took a 26-23 lead with 53 seconds left. After quarterback Mike Samuel connected on a clutch 22-yard pass to Tony Simmons on a fourth-and-15 from the UW 49, it set the stage for Davenport's heroics.
Asked if he had any last-second words of encouragement or inspiration for his placekicker, Alvarez said, "I didn't say anything to him because I normally don't talk to him and I sure as hell wasn't going to now … if I show up, I may rattle the kid."
Davenport had the perfect mindset while lining up the field goal from 43.
"Going into the kick, I was very excited for it," he said. "I just thought, 'Man, this is the culmination of a lot of hard work.' I had a lot of game-winning penalty kicks in soccer. I tend to do better in those situations.
"The other thought that went through my head was, 'There are several billion people in the world right now that could care less what's going on here.' It's big to me. But in the big scheme of things, it's not important. I'm going to focus on good contact and hopefully it goes straight."
Defensive end John Favret went up to Davenport and encouraged him, "Whether you make it or not, we still love you." In addition, Rosga, the holder, reminded Davenport that he had made three straight field goals from almost the exact same distance during the pregame warmup.
After drilling the game-winner against Indiana, Davenport was a bigger story than Ron Dayne who ran for 202 yards. "I've made this kick 100 times before — this kick with the game on the line is a kicker's dream," Davenport said. "To be honest, I knew it was going to be good before I kicked it."
During the victory celebration, Schneck, the long snapper, playfully tackled Davenport.
Landing on his right arm, Schneck dislocated his elbow.
"I was under this mass of humanity screaming at the top of my lungs and I didn't realize that he got hurt until after the game and things sort of settled down," Davenport said. "I went into the training room and he was in a lot of pain. I felt terrible for him."
Mike Solwold, a redshirt freshman tight end, replaced Schneck at Northwestern. After a couple of bad punt snaps — one resulting in a block and safety and the other sailing over punter Kevin Stemke's head and being recovered in the end zone for a touchdown — he was living a snapper's nightmare.
"A lot of teams would have turned their back on me. Or I would have gotten reamed out by the coaches," said Solwold who instead received "keep your chin up" reinforcement. "Coach Alvarez told me, 'Stay positive. We're going to need you to win this game.'"
On the sideline, Davenport assured Solwold that if the Badgers did get a late defensive stop and had one last chance to win the game with a field goal, "You get it back to me and I'll knock it through."
Davenport's mental preparation for the kick was different than it was for Indiana.
"Northwestern was more nerve-racking because you never see it two weeks in a row and there was the idea that if I miss this one who cares about last week kind of thing," said Davenport, whose parents were in the Ryan Field stands celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.
"I had to come back to, 'I've done everything I can. This is my moment.' This is supposed to be fun. I'm just going to let it fly. And if I'm going to miss, I'm going to miss by a mile. I'm not going to be afraid to miss. That was kind of my mindset … We worked too hard for me to miss that kick.
"Six seconds left again. It's crazy. You couldn't have written it that way."
But once again Davenport authored a happy ending.
"I knew I hit it solid," he said. "You could just feel it — the sweet spot.
"And I saw it go right down the middle."
There was a reason, after all, why they called him Money.
