A TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

Vince Papale's true Hollywood story can be stretched every which way, and trust us, Disney takes plenty of liberties in the soon-to-be-released flick ``Invincible.''

How the then-30-year-old local bartender, unemployed substitute teacher and season-ticket holder busted through an open tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles to make it on the special teams squad in 1976 is a ``Rocky''-esque tale worth telling.

And telling right.

For starters, it's not like the 6-foot-2, 185-pounder was a complete nobody walking blindly into Dick Vermeil's casting call, as is basically depicted in the flick.

Captain of the St. Joseph's University track team -- the school had no football program -- Papale came in with two seasons as a receiver with the World Football League's Philadelphia Bell. When the league folded in '75, team GM Jim Murray arranged for Papale's look-see with the Eagles.

Before that, Papale was the second-leading receiver for the Aston Kings in something called the semipro Seaboard League.

You can look it up. It's on the back of Papale's 1977 Topps NFL rookie card, if Disney needed the correct info.

That said, the real fantasy Tinseltown will create for the average star-struck moviegoer is this: If this ``inspired by a real story'' shows how a 30-something can make it to the top level of professional football through a crack in the side door back then, maybe it could happen today.

You'll have to ask Jiminy Cricket about that.

``Any NFL coach today has to be so careful who he brings into camp because it could upset the scouting department,'' Papale admitted the other day. ``But if anything, holding one of these open tryouts would be a great PR move for some team, away to pull one guy out and give him a run. What do they have to lose?''

Unfortunately, a lot of face. What somewhat respectable NFL coach hoping to gain an ESPN studio job when he's eventually fired would ever want to look that desperate? Today's Internet bloggers alone would cannibalize him.

Vermeil had enough skeptics when he announced this funky tryout idea at his first Eagles news conference in the spring of 1976. He seemed like a naive, beach-tanned coach who just left UCLA after riding the wave of an upset over No. 1 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

Vermeil's inspiration, though, came from his eternal-optimist mentor George Allen, whom he served an assistant for with the Rams five years earlier.

Papale's inspiration at the tryout at the now-demolished JFK Stadium (not at Veterans Stadium, as the movie shows) came from his father, Frank, known as ``Kingie.''

``I heard his voice in the stands saying, `Vincy, you can do it,' and that just calmed me down,'' Papale said before becoming the fastest in Vermeil's 40-yard dash at 4.5 seconds. ``I just kept visualizing that I was in a `rough-touch' bar league game and guys were trying to take my head off.''

Walk into one of today's NFL structured training camps without some college pedigree and announce you're in for a tryout and they'll surely take your head off, too.

Maybe the closest thing to a modern-day Papale story was Jeff Thomason, the tight end who'd been out of the NFL for two years and managing a construction site when, of all teams, the Eagles asked him to join their 2005 Super Bowl roster because of an injury to Chad Lewis.

The current Eagles have another training-camp receiver drawing overachiever Papale-like comparisons. Hank Baskett, undrafted out of New Mexico, has worked his way into a starting role during the exhibition season has the city's rabid fans buzzing.

Then there's the story of Kurt Warner. The supermarket shelf-stocker got an invite to the St. Louis Rams' camp seven years ago based on his Arena Football League abilities. He landed as a third-stringer, jumped to starter after injuries and then his team - coached by Vermeil -- to the SuperBowl XXXIV title.

How's that for a full-circle Hollywood script?

``I've got to know a lot of Arena League players, because they're the actual players in the (`Invincible') movie,'' Papale said, referring to the extras hired to make the scenes authentic looking. ``I tell them, if they ever get an NFL tryout, every day is a matter of survival, and you've got to make the coaches notice you and make them remember your name.

``During my tryout, I sprinted from one drill to the other, running 30 yards more downfield every time I caught a ball. The defensive backs thought I was showing them up. But that's what caught Vermeil's eye.

``When you're a long shot, you take advantage at every opportunity. I made Dick Vermeil know who Vince Papale was.''

And that's the truth.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1) Vince Papale's improbable 1976 season in the NFL is the subject of the movie ``Invincible.''

Courtesy of Disney

(2) REGGIE BUSH

(3) CLINTON PORTIS

(4) KOREN ROBINSON

Box: (1) FANTASY BASEBALL

- Bryan Fowler

(2) SUNDAY PUNCH

(3) The Pop Quiz