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Hall of Famer again
Photo
Hall of Fame receiver Paul Warfield, right, gestures during a news conference with Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren when the team announced plans for its Ring of Honor. Warfield will receive a Pro Football Hall of Fame honor today in Warren.
By Joe Scalzo
In the early 1950s, a sixth-grade gym teacher at Warren’s First Street Elementary School named Clemons Seimdelia did something that Paul Warfield still remembers 60 years later.
He believed in him.
“He saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” said Warfield, speaking by phone Monday morning. “At that point, I had played neighborhood pickup games in baseball and football but I had never played organized football. I was a little bit afraid of that. I did not have that aggressiveness.
“He pushed me into that arena and I found that I could compete with other youngsters and compete at a winning level.”
Playing on the school’s flag football team, Warfield went undefeated in his first season, a precursor to his role on the Miami Dolphins’ undefeated 1972 team. Eleven years after that perfect season, the silky-smooth wide receiver was rewarded for his near-perfect career when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
This afternoon, at a ceremony at Warren Harding High School’s gymnasium, Warfield’s friend Danny Smith will present him with a plaque recognizing his achievements as part of the “Hometown Hall of Famers” program, sponsored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Allstate Insurance. Warfield will be the third Ohioan honored over the past week, following Canton’s Alan Page (Friday) and Cleveland Heights’ Tom Mack (Monday).
“This is a very special day for me,” said Warfield, who graduated from Harding in 1960 before going on to play for Ohio State (1960-64), the Cleveland Browns (1964-69, 1976-77) and the Dolphins (1970-74). “I can certainly salute my high school and the many coaches, teachers and individuals associated with Warren Harding High School as being instrumental in helping me develop not only as a student but as a student-athlete.
“I am so excited and delighted to be back in the area. This is a great, great area and so much was given to me as a youngster by the people in this area. I’m proud to share the acclaim afforded to me by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.”
As a rookie in 1964, Warfield earned Pro Bowl honors while helping the Cleveland Browns to their last NFL championship. He was an eight-time Pro Bowler who won Super Bowls with the Dolphins in 1972 and 1973. After retiring, he worked as a sportscaster, scout and executive. From 2004-10 he served as the senior adviser to the Cleveland Browns’ general manager.
Now retired, he lives in Rancho Mirage, Calif., but still keeps tabs on his hometown NFL team.
“It’s a young football club but I’d say that’s an indicator that there’s optimism about the future,” he said of the Browns. “Hopefully with the new administration coming in and with what [new owner] Mr. [Jimmy] Haslam is bringing to the table, they can start at the top to shape this organization toward the winning ways that are so much a part of the history and tradition of the Cleveland Browns.”