A moment that might have ended Merril Hoge’s football career long before he played for the Highland Rams, Idaho State University Bengals or in the NFL didn’t come on a football field. It was a farm field.

The then 14-year-old Hoge was moving irrigation pipe with his brother Marty in a field in the Michaud area between Pocatello and American Falls when the unthinkable happened. His hand became caught in an irrigation wheel line on July 3, 1979.

“I remember thinking I’d never play football again,” Hoge said.

Lucky for him, the moving mechanism stopped when the motor shut down.

For nearly an hour, Merril and Marty fought to free Merril’s badly mangled hand. Hopelessness was beginning to set in when they spotted a trail of dust on the access road to the field. Farmer Kent Shiozawa was driving his pickup out into the field to check on the boys.

It was something the farmer rarely did, but as he walked across the field toward the Hoge boys, he had tools in his hand.

“He had a hammer and a screwdriver,” Merril said.

After freeing Merril from the mechanism that drove the wheel line, the injured teen was taken immediately to the hospital in Pocatello.

“I woke up in the hospital, and they had it (his hand) wrapped in a big ball,” Hoge recalled. “I thought they had amputated my hand.”

Fortunately, Dr. Gil Bacon had repaired the damage, and that hand would go on to help Hoge set a school record for pass receptions for a running back during his third season at ISU and set the stage for a career in the NFL playing for both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears.

Hoge was in Pocatello on Friday afternoon meeting with ISU students prior to receiving the ISU Distinguished Alumnus Award at the Stephens Performing Arts Center.

Despite the near tragedy, Hoge said his years of moving pipe as a youngster helped shape his will and determination to succeed in life.

He first landed the job when he was 12 and irrigation pipes filled with water were too much for the youngster.

“I remember crying,” Hoge said. “I had six lines to move and it took me all day.”

It didn’t deter him and by the end of the summer he could move those same lines in less than two hours.

“I learned to work and not give up,” Hoge said.

Hoge took that determination to the football field at Highland High School where he was coached by Dirk Koetter. When he graduated in 1983, Dirk’s father, Jim Koetter was head coach of the ISU Bengals where Hoge would end up playing.

“The decision was very easy because it was the only offer I got,” Hoge said.

And although Hoge had an outstanding high school career in Pocatello, he ended up fighting for a staring position with the Bengals.

“I was eighth on the depth chart, and there were eight of us,” Hoge said about the running back position. He rose to the challenge and became the Bengal’s starter setting 44 school and conference records and two NCAA football records during his four years at ISU.

Drafted by the Steelers in the tenth round of the 1987 NFL draft, Hoge played seven seasons in Pittsburgh before going to the Chicago Bears as a free agent. Several concussions he suffered playing with the Bears ended his NFL career. Hoge has been an on-air analyst for ESPN since 1996.

Hoge also serves as board chair of the Highmark Caring Foundation and Caring Place Centers.

His heart has remained on the football field as he has watched his son Beau become an all-state quarterback in Kentucky. Merril starting coaching his son in little league football and said he was amazed at Beau’s abilities. They culminated when Beau’s team, the Highlands High School Bluebirds won the state championship this year.

“They were down 42-14 and came back to win 49-42,” Hoge said. “Beau threw a touchdown on fourth down with eight yards to go for a first.”

Pride in his son’s achievements will just grow because Beau has accepted a scholarship to play at Brigham Young University.

“He’ll be competing for the backup spot behind Taysom,” Hoge said about another outstanding Pocatello athlete and BYU standout, Taysom Hill.

Meanwhile, his brother Marty’s son, Tristen, has signed to play center for Notre Dame.

“I told my brother we should swap houses,” Hoge said about both of them being closer to their sons’ home games.

Hoge gives credit for his success to all the good mentors and coaches he has had over the years. Steelers’ coach Chuck Noll is high on the list along with Dirk and Jim Koetter.

“Dirk was great with his words and kept me from being an idiot,” Hoge said about his old high school football and basketball coach.

But it was a moment as a Bengal and the actions of Jim Koetter that stick in his mind.

ISU was beating UTEP and the then sophomore Hoge was eating upyardage.

“I was just killing this team,” Hoge said.

That’s when he fumbled.

“We ended up losing the game and I was devastated,” Hoge said.

Coach Koetter walked up to him and told Hoge he had done a lot more good things than bad in the game.

“When he did that he saved me in a sense,” Hoge said. “There’s a lot of times when coaches don’t do things well and ruin kids.”

That didn’t happen to ISU’s Distinguished Alumnus for 2015.