What do you suppose Ed, Art and Art Jr. did Monday night? One safe bet is that they gathered around a TV set to watch the national college championship football game between the Clemson Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

And why any particular interest in this game? They watched because they enjoy high-quality football but MAINLY because Ed, who is the son of Edward Leland Abreu, was a starting player for the South Carolina team some 40 years ago, in the Gator Bowl.

But as proud as area folk are of Ed Abreu’s athletic skills, the actions of an elderly coach for Clemson’s opponents, Ohio State, we need to accept that the actions of Ohio coach Woody Hayes drew many of the headlines week in 1978.

The name Woody Hayes became a household word because of a punch that might have hurt the puncher more than the punchee.

Close to the end of that year’s Gator Bowl, the legendary Ohio State football coach delivered the punch — more like a love tap than a real blow. Hayes’ pain assuredly came more from the punch that ended his illustrious football-coaching career with the Buckeyes.

Grid fanatics have told and retold the story millions of times. One of the players who was up close to the action was Ed Abreu, part of a crew of super athletes with that surname. Ed’s father is Leland Edward Abreu, the younger brother of the late Ernesto Abreu.

It can be argued that Ernesto’s eight children are better known than the two sons of Leland. But Ed’s days on the playing field are nevertheless impressive.

Ed played for much of the Gator Bowl game between Clemson and the Buckeyes. We needn’t give too many specifics about that meeting except to say that Clemson won. Accounts differ, but some say Clemson nose guard Charlie Bauman, who intercepted a Buckeye pass with Ohio State already in field goal range, may have taunted the 65-year-old Hayes as the defender zipped past the Ohio bench before being pushed out of bounds.

As that happened, Hayes punched the well-padded Bauman, who later said he hadn’t even been aware of the blow. In those days, instant replay was still in its infancy, and the dozens of cameras that capture the action today weren’t as clear or as plentiful.

In a telephone interview this week, Ed Abreu said most of his teammates didn’t even see the Hayes punch. Abreu admits not knowing about it until later. He was one of Bauman’s classmates, who said, “We laughed about the punch in the locker room the next day.”

Other accounts of the 1978 Gator Bowl game mention that Bauman hadn’t expected “the notoriety that came with the interception.” Bauman reportedly was reluctant to talk to the media about the incident.

How much do people remember about the game? Do they recall that the Buckeyes went into the Gator Bowl with an 11-0 record, just a wee bit better than Clemson’s 11-1 season? Did anyone even recall the final score, 17-15, in Clemson’s favor?

To get to Clemson University, a powerhouse in South Carolina, Abreu needed to sift through various offers of scholarships after graduating from the New Mexico Military School in Roswell. Camera footage drew the interest of schools like the University of New Mexico, Tulsa, Colorado State University and the University of Miami.

He chose Clemson “because they ran a strict program like my dad did,” Ed Abreu said of his father, Edward Leland Abreu, then a coach and athletic director in Taos.

Like several others with the Abreu moniker, Ed Abreu excelled in football, baseball and basketball and was a starter in basketball and baseball as a freshman. He said a prep team he played for “went to state four years in a row.”

Art Abreu, Ed Abreu’s younger brother, and possibly Ed’s biggest fan, coached football at Robertson High School, taking his first assignment as defensive coordinator under then-coach Amos Estrada. Art’s classroom assignment was teaching biology, physiology and anatomy. And he also served as a defensive line coach at Highlands University.

Ed Abreu had several fans at the Gator Bowl in 1978 who attended mainly to watch their guy play. Ed Abreu’s parents, Leland and the late JoAnn, were in Jacksonville, Fla., as was his brother Art and even Art Jr., his son. Close relatives, Frank Berged and his wife, Gia, also attended.
Ed returned to New Mexico after his college years and took a state job with Family Youth Services and even served as superintendent at the New Mexico Boys School in Springer.

Ed said that after retiring from the Boys School, he suffered a heart attack while playing basketball and underwent open-heart surgery, forcing him to modify his activities. He’s recovered, however, and says, “I can hunt, hike, take my wife shopping. We walk all over the place. I usually wear Clemson jerseys, and their t-shirts. Anybody who sees me — they’ll see a tiger paw and they’ll know it’s me.”

Art, meanwhile, gets around on crutches, following replacement surgery on both hips. “Over the years, my hips just wore out,” he said. A physician performed surgery on one hip, then the other, “but the first surgery developed an infection and has to be done over,” Art Abreu said.

This past Monday the No. 2-ranked Clemson Tigers took on the No. 1 Alabama’s Crimson Tide for the National Championship in Tampa, Fla.

Can there be any doubt as to which team the Abreu brothers, Ed and Art, will be cheering for?