At the start of Albert Kunickis III’s first year as a student and football player at Northwestern, CBS 2 went to Evanston for a segment on him and said the Lemont native was “living his dream.”
Last season, before a Wildcats game at Wrigley Field, Fox Sports’ “Big Noon Kickoff” show featured Kunickis, a 6-3, 225-pound running back, and reported, “Stats don’t tell his story.”
Just this month, Northwestern’s student paper ran a lovely profile on Kunickis that painted him as a picture of achievement and success.
All of them got it partly right about a player who was born without a hand or forearm on his right side. But also partly wrong.
It indeed is remarkable that a player with a limb deficiency made it to the Big Ten. Honor the accomplishment, we must. Yet, there are only two Northwestern games to go before Kunickis graduates in June, and he has but a handful of special-teams appearances and one career carry — in 2024, when he met a Maryland linebacker in the hole and knocked him on his back for a three-yard gain — to show for it. It’s not what he dreamed of, and sometimes that hurts.
“It’s difficult, for sure,” he said after a recent practice.
Some might view what Kunickis has overcome and want to believe the details — the stats — are beside the point. Chances are, they didn’t play the game, certainly not as well as a bruising, all-state back who, as a senior at Lemont High School, ran for 1,393 yards and 22 touchdowns — six of them in one Class 6A playoff game — and caught 14 passes, all without a single fumble or drop. Kunickis is a football player, same as anyone else, and went to Northwestern to do just that.
“I was hoping by my junior year I’d be one of the main, featured running backs,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s not real life, not what happened. …
“It’s definitely been hard, for sure, because I’ve given my all into this. You know what I mean? There’s been a lot of conversations with friends, family back home, like, ‘What’s going on? Why aren’t you in? You tell me you’re dominating practice, but nothing’s coming to show for it.’ I don’t know what to say.”
He’s just being honest. And he deserves an honest telling.
College football is full of players who wish they played more, most of whom nowadays seek solutions in the transfer portal. Kunickis stuck with it through a 2022 ACL tear, through countless mornings of heading to the football facility at 5 or 5:30, through meetings and practices that don’t end until 11, through rigorous classes after that and position meetings that start around 5 p.m. Dinner? Homework? Did we mention Kunickis majors in mechanical engineering and plans to go into prosthetics when football is over?
“He perseveres regardless,” said his dad, Albert. “It’s just the way he is.”
All this weighs on his parents, too.
“It’s always like, ‘Keep up the great work,’ ” his dad said. “What does that mean? There’s no opportunity in the end. We honestly thought he was going to be able to play at Northwestern because he’s good enough.”
Said mom Diana, “You see your child working so hard his whole life and not getting the opportunity, it’s hard.”
Kunickis’ parents believe former Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald, who signed their son as a preferred walk-on, saw more in him than the current staff does. Reached this week, Fitzgerald called him a “special young man.”
“He’s one of the most competitive athletes I’ve ever met,” Fitzgerald said. “His mental toughness was on display every day I had the privilege to coach him.”
Kunickis has lobbied for playing time with Wildcats coach David Braun, who calls Kunickis’ play “night and day” better than it was when Braun got to the school in 2023. But running back might be the strongest position on a team averaging a hefty 174 rushing yards per game. Kunickis is in the two-deep on punt return and kickoff coverage.
“Al is like, ‘Coach, I think I’m one of the best football players on this team,’ ” Braun said. “He has a level of confidence that I love.”
Kunickis still might see live action during the regular-season finale at Illinois on Saturday and/or in a bowl game after that.
“I’d be surprised if an opportunity didn’t pop up for him,” Braun said.
After graduating, Kunickis will have another season of eligibility. He’s strongly considering a transfer to a school where he can get dirty as a running back.
“You work your butt off to get to the college level, you just want to play,” he said.
Fitzgerald believes there’s a home for Kunickis as a running back.
“Absolutely,” he said.
Kunickis’ brother, Nathan, a sophomore linebacker at Brown, can’t believe there isn’t.
“He’s tenacious,” Nathan said. “Somebody with that edge looking for an opportunity — and what I’ve seen throughout my whole life of him — I believe he’d bully defenses.”
Braun, who came to Northwestern from FCS powerhouse North Dakota State, can envision Kunickis making an impact at that level — or even in a smaller FBS league such as the MAC — as a downhill runner in power formations.
“He could run the crap out of it,” Braun said.
Kunickis hasn’t a shred of doubt that’s true. This is a football player, not some curiosity. Asked for his preferred terminology to describe his right arm, he doesn’t have any.
“I’m a normal person, you know what I mean?” he said.
Of course; that’s his truth. And though he loves his school, the whole truth includes his disappointment over a Big Ten career that hasn’t been more rewarding on Saturdays.
“I would say it’s definitely a mixture of being both sad and proud,” he said. “Sad that it’s over. It was definitely cool to be here. And also proud that I continued to give it my all, especially when things weren’t going my way.”