One last look at a weekend in Canton that I'll remember for a long time

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/

FROM KEITH GROLLER

heard so many speeches this past weekend that I can't exactly remember who said what, but one thing I heard was that "Canton, Ohio, is the place where dreams come true."
Certainly, Andre Reed and his family and friends felt that way.
And as someone who wrote about Andre in the fall of 1981 when I was a part-timer at The Morning Call and he was Dieruff's senior quarterback, I felt that way as well.
For me, this past weekend was one of the highlights of my career, which began 35 years ago, three months after I graduated from Dieruff.
This September I will be a full-time writer for 32 years and have written an estimated 16,000 stories. None were more special to me than the ones I wrote this weekend.
From the reaction I received, people were reading my stories this past weekend more than usual. I got a lot of positive feedback.
I am sure it wasn't that I suddenly became a great writer. No, people knew they were witnessing something that is highly unlikely to happen again around here any time soon. They were experiencing history, not only for Dieruff and Kutztown, but the entire Lehigh Valley.
God bless Andre Williams and Devin Street who are just embarking on the start of their NFL careers.
Who knows? If the Hall of Fame can happen to a kid from Kutztown, why not Williams or Street who played at Boston College and Pitt?
But the odds are long against itl happening to anyone to come out of this area. When you consider the tens of thousands of football players we've had around here, just two from the Lehigh Valley -- Chuck Bednarik and Andre -- have had their busts placed in that wonderful museum just off I-77 in Eastern Ohio. Jim Ringo, who grew up in Phillipsburg would be a third if you consider P'burg to be part of the Lehigh Valley.
Had Dan Koppen, Nate Hobgood-Chittick, Mike Guman or Joe Wolf, all guys I've gotten to know over the years received the same honor I would have been thrilled.
However, since I've known this family for more than 30 years and having written extensively about Andre's uncles Dave and Herb Hemerly going way back to the early 80s, I felt emotionally connected to everything that transpired this weekend.
Here's a Top 12 list of things I will remember. I apologize for the photos and the comments not being in complete sync, but hopefully you can follow along as we recap one of the best weekends I can remember in a long time.
No. 12  Getting to see the smiles on the faces of the family at the Gold Jacket Dinner on Friday night. Here's Andre's brother Tyrone, son Daxton and Ty's girlfiend Karla Durn before dinner.

No. 11 -- Seeing all of the legends of the game's past introduced on Friday night, people I watched in awe as a child like Jim Brown (pictured), Gale Sayers and Mean Joe Greene.
 

No. 10 -- Seeing Andre get his gold jacket for the first time and show it off for his family.


No. 9 -- Getting to experience Saturday morning's Hall of Fame parade in downtown Canton which was the best parade I've ever been to, and thinking how everyone back home should be here.
No. 8 -- Seeing the Dieruff ROTC and band lead the Andre Reed unit down the streets of Canton. The Dieruff fight song, which I first probably heard when I was five, never sounded better.

No. 7 -- Seeing the smile of Joyce Reed-Ebling as she waved to the fans who were shouting "Andre Reed, we love you!" along the parade route.
No. 6 -- Seeing Barb (Weiss) Snyder, a classmate of Andre's, defy security and come out on to the parade. While she was the only one who got to do, I looked at it as symbolic gesture because this weekend everyone who ever cared about Dieruff wanted to give him a hug.

 No. 5 -- Walking down the parade with Andre's step-father John Ebling and realizing how many Buffalo Bills and Andre Reed fans there were in Canton. It was a tie between him and Michael Strahan for most popular.
No. 4 -- It took awhile for him to get to the stage on Saturday, but once he did, Andre knocked it out of the park with one of the best acceptance speeches I've ever heard. And it was capped off by the most memorable pass ever from No. 12 to No. 83.






No. 3 -- Having my son, Chris, with me at Andre's post-induction party and seeing the thrill on his face as he got to rub shoulders with some people he'd normally never get to see up close. Chris is an Allentown fireman who has worked extremely hard to get where he is. Like Andre, he has done all of the right things in life. Even this weekend, he happily became a volunteer cab service with our rental car when some people from our bus were left stranded. Chris took the time to make several back-and-forth stops between the Civic Arena and the Hall of Fame, about a 15-minute ride one way, so people could enjoy themselves without having to wait for a bus that took a long time in coming, if it ever did. I am very proud of him and was very proud to have him with me in Canton. That's him on the left with me and Joyce at the post-induction party in downtown Canton.