Polen was a four-year starter at defensive back on the football under head coach Ron Randleman, and also played baseball and ran track.
[3] The Oakland Raiders selected Polen in the fourteenth round of the 1973 NFL draft,[4] but cut him prior to the start of the season.
In 1978 successfully sued the Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, for botching the post-surgery physical therapy on his knee and ending his playing career.
Randleman departed after the season to become head coach at Sam Houston State University, then in the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference.
Offensive coordinator Mike Mayerske took over as interim head coach;[9] Dennis Franchione was hired as a permanent replacement in 1985.