Keith Ricca is the best quarterback the Catholic University has ever had. He’s thrown for 875 yards and 10 touchdowns in just the last two weeks and has now smashed every major career passing record for the school.

All the Catholic U. records used to belong to his oldest brother, Kevin Ricca, who started at QB for the Cardinals from 1994 to 1997.

Catholic hosts Bridgewater this weekend. It’s the home team’s last regular season game. A win puts Catholic at 9–1 and into the NCAA Division III playoffs. A loss likely means the season’s over.

But Ricca, a 6-foot-5, 216-pound senior, will have more than the team’s future riding on his back. Because when Catholic’s 2008 season ends, so does a family tradition: Guys named Ricca have been playing for and starring on local high school and college teams for three generations and 60 years.

There are no more Riccas ready to suit up.

“I’m the last guy,” says Ricca. “There’s nobody behind me. Saturdays have always meant football day for my family. I know I’m not ready for it to end. I don’t think any of us are.”

“There’s nobody in the Ricca pipeline,” adds Keith’s dad, John Ricca, an all-American during his playing days at Georgetown Prep in the 1960s and early 1970s and now an assistant coach at Catholic. “No more tailgates. I don’t know what everybody’s going to do next week, or next year. But it looks like this is it.”

The Ricca dynasty started in 1948 at Georgetown University, where “Big” Jim Ricca starred as a lineman.

He took a year off from football while finishing up his foreign service degree, but he got back in the game when the Redskins offered him a job in 1951.... Continued