The reason the stories about the lottery only go until 1972 was because the draft law only ran until June of 1973. My student deferment ran out in June of 1972, and of course Uncle Sam sent me his love note to report for my draft physical the week my deferment ran out. It just so happened that was the same week of finals of my last quarter at UCLA. It was not any trick to find a sympathetic professor to write me a letter to the draft board backing up my request to postpone my physical until July. As it turned out the draft board actually gave me a postponement until August.
That gave me a couple months to find a way to flunk the physical and get deferred for one year. I had played football my first two years of college while attending UCSB. During those two years I had worsened a knee ligament injury I had first suffered in high school. After I stopped playing I knew that my injury was one that got people out of the draft if it was not rehabilitated. So I did virtually nothing to rehab the knee after I quit playing football and tranfered to UCLA.
During the summer of 1972, my dad paid for me to see three orthopedic specialists sympathetic to my cause. By the time I went to the physical I was armed with expert opionion that I was a physical cripple. I did not just stop there. I also took a bunch of uppers when I went to the physical so that I would show up with high blood pressure. To make sure I received a pass, I also tried to fight at least three of the examiners, just to make sure they got the message.
The orthopedic specialist at the physical messed around with my loose knee, and decided I needed another year to heal up before I was ready for military service. I was reclassified 1-Y for one year. Across the street from the draft board, I had hidden a six pack of beer. I ran across the street, and sat on the sidewalk drinking the beer with another friend who had failed. We sat there saluting all the new recruits getting on the bus and heading for boot camp.
The next day I began a rigorous rehab program on my knee. In Septemeber I moved to Dallas for a job, and joined the Dallas YMCA volleyball team. In June of 1973 I played in my first volleyball national championship, the same week that the draft ran out!!!!!!!!!