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DeBartolo, fellow inductees relish Canton celebration
DeBartolo, fellow inductees
relish Canton celebration
By Tom Williams
CANTON
Mahoning Valley football fans had plenty to savor during Saturday’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony.
Eddie DeBartolo Jr. became Mahoning County’s first inductee, delivering a nearly 30-minute speech on why family matters in football.
Warren Harding’s Korey Stringer was saluted by Orlando Pace, his teammate at Ohio State.
And Steelers fans who so often have reasons to visit Canton in August had another memorable night as linebacker Kevin Greene said playing for the Steelers “was the pinnacle of his football life.”
Former Steelers cornerback Donnie Shell presented former teammate Tony Dungy. The first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl cited his one season in San Francisco.
“Eddie DeBartolo was instilling the same principles in his team that I had seen with the Steelers,” Dungy said, “doing everything in a first-class and family way.”
DEBARTOLO
Before the ceremony began, host Chris Berman asked, “Is anyone left in Youngstown?”
DeBartolo felt karma in the air.
“It’s not lost on me that I was elected to the Hall of Fame at Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco and that I stand here tonight about 40 miles from where I was born and raised in Youngstown,” DeBartolo said.
The 23-season owner of the Niners said he wished his parents — Edward J. and Marie DeBartolo — were alive to see this honor.
“I like to imagine they are somewhere with [49ers coach] Bill Walsh listening to [49ers linebacker] Freddie Solomon tell one of his stories,” the Cardinal Mooney High School graduate said. “Truly, I have lived the American dream.
“The best decision my father made was marrying my mother Marie, who like [his wife] Candy, was the glue of our family. She doesn’t get enough credit for my Dad’s success.”
His father died about six weeks before the 49ers won their fifth Super Bowl in January 1995.
“When we got our fifth ring, we took it to my Dad’s final resting place, and it’s with him to this day.”
PACE
Pace, who was a dominate offensive tackle for the St. Louis Rams’ Greatest Show on Turf,” grew up in Sandusky and played for Ohio State. He paid tribute to Warren Harding’s Korey Stringer.
“He was my football role model,” Pace said of his Ohio State teammate. “One of my biggest influences in college and one of the main reasons I went to Ohio State was because of the late Korey Stringer.”
Stringer, a first-round draft pick by the Minnesota Vikings in 1995, died of heat stroke in the August 2001 training camp.
“He meant so much to me.
“As a freshman I wanted to play the game the way Korey played the game. I know he’s not here, but I know he’s smiling down on us today and I’d love to share this honor with you, Big K.”
GREENE
Greene played for the Rams Steelers, Panthers and 49ers. He won a Super Bowl ring coaching the Packers (along with Austintown native Mike Trgovac). After the 2010 season, the Packers defeated the Steelers in Super Bowl 45.
Greene said he found himself “in the right place at the right time in the football universe. I find myself playing in Blitzburgh.
“I would never quite experience anything like being a Pittsburgh Steeler.”
Greene cited the fortune of playing for the Steelers coaches Bill Cowher, Dick LeBeau, Dom Capers and Marvin Lewis.
Who can’t shine with that much coaching talent around them,” Greene speculated.