Pilots

Making it to the big leagues. It's easy to imagine but hard to do. Jim Ritcher made it, and not just once, but twice. In 1980, he was selected as a first-round draft pick by the National Football League's Buffalo Bills. He spent 14 years as a left guard with the Bills before signing with the Atlanta Falcons for his final two years with the NFL. His second "big league" career began two years later, when he became a pilot for American Airlines.

At 6 feet, 3 inches tall and 240 muscular pounds (30 pounds under his old playing weight), it's easy to imagine the 42-year-old filling a football jersey. But get to know him, and his transition from the gridiron front line to a major airline makes perfect sense.

"I grew up in Ohio where it seemed natural to like football and flying," recalls Ritcher. "I can remember as a kid both watching the Cleveland Browns with my father and building model airplanes." In the eighth grade, he joined his school's football team at the urging of the coach, who had noticed the unusually large 14-year-old. He took to football with a vengeance, and by high school he was drawing the interest of college scouts. Eventually he attended North Carolina State on a football scholarship.

Ritcher played center for North Carolina, and was an Outland Trophy winner and two-time All American. His team took the conference championship in 1979, and in 1980 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Ritcher played in four Super Bowls with Buffalo. His first, Super Bowl XXV, was won by the New York Giants 20-19 in a nail-biter. It is considered one of the best Super Bowls ever. "I felt like I was walking on clouds the whole game," he remembers. The next three years witnessed consecutive Super Bowl losses for the Bills. "They were fun to get to, but when we kept losing them, it became a little hard to take."

Aviation came to the forefront for Ritcher in 1985, when Buffalo quarterback Joe Ferguson invited him and Bills offensive tackle Justin Cross on a trip in a rented Cessna 172. The cross-country from Buffalo to Rochester, New York, and back reignited Ritcher's dormant interest. "He let Justin fly to Rochester, then let me fly it back to Buffalo. He showed me how to hold a heading and keep it straight and level. That was it, I was hooked."

Ritcher spent the off-seasons back in North Carolina, and it was there that he began taking flying lessons in 1986. He knew that an injury could end his career at any time. "The average guy in the NFL plays for something like three and a half years," he says. He wanted to have a plan for when his career ended. "I knew I wanted to do something involving aviation, maybe start some kind of company that would require an airplane." A year after he started taking lessons, American Airlines opened a hub (since closed) at the Raleigh-Durham airport. "I couldn't imagine a better fit than flying for a major airline from your hometown."

Ritcher's NFL career lasted 16 years, and it wasn't until 1996 that he finally packed it in. "I could have stayed one more year, but I thought it was time to give some young player a chance," he says. By then he had his commercial and flight instructor certificates, and multiengine and instrument ratings. He bought a Cessna 310 to gain multiengine experience and began instructing.

"I had about a thousand hours, with a fair amount of multiengine time, when Justin encouraged me to apply to TWA." Cross too had pursued a flying career and had already been hired by TWA. TWA eventually offered Ritcher a job too, but not until later. In the meantime, a friend urged him to apply to Continental Express. He was accepted there within a week, and eventually flew both the ATR 42 turboprop and the Embraer 145 regional jet. With turbine time in his logbook, he sent off applications to larger carriers. Offers arrived from TWA, Midway, and American, and he accepted American's.

Nowadays, when he isn't working as Boeing 757/767 First Officer Ritcher, he can be found at home in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, Harriett, and their three sons. He still thrives on competition, enjoying racquetball and golf. He recently learned to fly helicopters "for the challenge," and owns a Robinson R22.

Being an airline pilot, says Ritcher, is like being a professional athlete in some ways. "Professional pilots are dedicated to getting better, even to the point of being a little bit competitive." And, he adds, just like an athlete, "It's when you sit back and think you've got it all figured out that you do your worst."