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Friday the 29th of March 2024 02:06:59 PM

August 7, 2007

Stumble It!Thurman Thomas in the Hall

Filed under: Sports — Eric Ptak @ 3:38 pm

Friday, as I was leaving to go home, a buddy of mine stopped in. Jerry’s a cool guy, balding a bit, wire rimmed glasses, and very into sports. He has season tickets for the Bills, and he splits with someone for the Sabres, and is known to take a road trip from time to time to see different games.

Anyways, he grabs me and says, “Hey, I’m thinking about going to the Hall of Fame ceremony tomorrow. You wanna go?”

I reply with an affirmative “call me in the morning” as i ran to catch the bus. When I was on the bus, he called me to let me know the basic details. A friend of his who lives in Cleveland was going to the Hall, and had an extra ticket. Jerry, of course, wanted to go, but he wanted to have someone ride with him. They would have to buy a ticket, but it’s probably be worth the trip. So I decided to go.

We intended to leave relatively early in the morning, and get there about 2:00, so we could tour the Hall of Fame, before the induction ceremonies. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Jerry wanted to try to get a rental car, to save on the cost and save wear and tear on his vehicle. Did you ever try to find a small car on a Saturday morning to rent for a single day? It’s pretty much damn near impossible. He called several rental places, visited a few, and could not find any deals. He only found one car in all of the Buffalo metro area, and for that car we would have had to rent it for 2 days (which included Monday) and there would have been no cost savings. It’d have actually cost us $50 more, and we were trying to save money.

So with all that running around, we didn’t get on the road until 12:30. If we pushed it, we’d make it by 4:00, and possibly get in to see the HoF for an hour. Neither if us had ever been there, so we both were hoping traffic would be good enough for us to get there in time.

For the most part, it was a pleasant ride, especially with the A/C on. I don’t think I would have made it if the A/C wasn’t working. We stopped just over the Pennsylvania line for gas and a bite to eat at McDonald’s, the favorite food of children and travellers everywhere. I thought it was interesting that McDonald’s has Gatorade on tap, and it turned out to be a good call for me, because I was geting dehydrated. We listened to WGR-AM 550 practically the whole way there. GR was having all sorts of preparation for the ceremony: interviews with former players and coaches, and calls from fans. I was amazed that it was south of Cleveland that the station finally cut out.

For the drive, there were only three mishaps. South of Cleveland, there was an SUV that was rear-ended by a semi, and that area of the highwas was treacherous enough without that. It was a mass of overpasses, underpasses, exits and entrances that made Rochester’s “Can of Worms” look like child’s play. the other problem was the road construction in Ohio. Four lane highways should not be squeezed together onto what used to be three lanes and shoulders. Needless to say, that was a quite harrowing four miles of construction. Then, when we finally got into Canton, the exit we wanted to take was closed down due to construction! Luckily, the next exit was still relatively close to the HoF, so it wasn’t that bad.

We drove around and eventually parked in someone’s backyard in true NFL tradition. the driveway was sandwiched between two yellwo houses,which made it easy to remember where we parked. We were able to get into the Hall of Fame at about 4:15, which we thought gave us about 45 minutes to buzz through there.

Upon entering, we went to the second floor, directly to the romm where all the busts were kept. It’s quite a sight, seeing all of them there, staring forward, the best of the best. From Red Grange and Curly Lambeau in the first class to Thurman and the rest of the Class of 2007, They were all there. It was amazing walking through all of them. I could feel the goosebumps and the accompanying hairs on the back of my neck rise as I walked through the hall. the coolest thing was that you could actually touch the busts, and take pictures with them. We each took our pictures with all the Bills who were already in the Hall: Joe D, OJ, Billy Shaw, Jimbo, Marv, and James Lofton. I wanted Jerry to take a picture of me giving Don Shula the finger, but he didn’t want to. I guess that was a bit too irreverent for such a holy place.

After that, we went through the various exhibits. there’s one for the Class of 1983 quarterbacks, another that had one of each Superbowl ring all lined up in a row, another with the game ball Jim Kelly was awarded after the 51-3 drubbing of the Raiders. There was a very long and large chart, showing all the NFL teams and all their annual records. A room was dedicated to all the other leagues that sprouted up over the years: the 4 different AFL, the AAFC, the World League, the USFL, and the rest. Another room had things donated by Hall of Famers, like Billy Shaw’s cracked helmet, different shoes, equipment, and balls. There’s a history of the sport, with the first accounting ledger, an early helmet with a leather noseguard reminiscent of Alice the Goon”, the trophy made of antracite because an offical trophy wasn’t awarded that year, and so on and so forth. It’s impossible to describe everything. We actually stayed until almost 5:30 but only got a cursory overview of the place. You’d have to spend a day there in order to see everything and appreciate it all.

We then went to meet up with Jerry’s friends and go in. That was another amazing sight. There were the Hall of Famers and their entourages, and then there was everyone else. Literally, everyone else. We saw Bruce Smith walk in, and be told to dispose of his bottled water like everyone else. There, it doesn’t matter who you are on the outside: if you don’t have that yellow coat, you’re a nobody. And there were so many people there, too: Emmit Smith, Jeff Fisher, Eddie George, as well as a slew of former Bills: Chris Mohr, Darryl Talley, Steve Tasker, Pete Metzelaars, Bill Polian, and the others that I can’t remember offhand. Everywhere you looked, there was another NFL star there, and there, and there, and there. It was awesome.

Then came the speeches. Charlie Sanders gave a great speech, Bruce Matthews was long-winded, and Roger Wehrli was inspiring. EWveryone made an obligatory reference to God or Jesus, their families, wives, mothers, fathers, coaches, blah, blah, blah. It wasn’t boring though, as some radio personalities thought it would be, because each person had a different thing to say. Besides, it’s the most important thing to happen to these guys, and you can’t take that away from them.

But finally Thurman came up. Most of the crowd came to see him, and it was great. He wasn’t the best speaker of the evening, but he still brought tears to my eyes, remembering back to those years of splendor and how much fun that ride was. It is my sincere wish that the team the Bills are building now bring as many memories.

Finally, the highlight of the evening: and it wan’t sitting at the restaurant afterwards enjoying a beer and a sandwich watching Barry Bonds tie the record, or seeing all the hot chicks at the hole in the wall later in the evening. On the floor, we were able to move around rather freely, and we worked ourselves to the front for Thurman’s speech. Afterwards, I was able to go up to Ralph Wilson and shake his hand.

I said, “Thank you, sir, for everything.”

“You’re welcome” was all he said, and that was enough.

It was, for me, the best part of the weekend.

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