Montana Takes Liking to Joining New Team

CANTON, Ohio — Most players approach their induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with awe, anticipation and elation. It is the culmination of everything they worked for since the day they first held a football.

Not Joe Montana.

For the man considered one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, it was a day to be approached with dread and regret.

Until he actually got here.

“I saw it as the end point,” Montana said at his induction ceremony Saturday on the steps of the hall. “I’m only 44, but I felt like I was being put into a coffin and they were throwing dirt on it while I was trying to get out.”

But by the time Montana joined Howie Long, Ronnie Lott, Dave Wilcox and Dan Rooney for the ceremony, he had changed his mind.

Actually, it took 107 men to change his mind. This year’s ceremony was part of the greatest reunion in sports history. To celebrate the millennium, the NFL invited all 131 living members of the Hall to come to Canton to join this year’s five inductees. And 103 showed up.

They included the oldest member, 88-year-old Sid Gillman, long-time coach of the San Diego Chargers. The group also included two members inducted in 1965--quarterback Otto Graham of the Cleveland Browns and running back Steve Van Buren of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The pro football Hall of Fame enshrined its first inductees in 1963.

Finally, rubbing shoulders over the last few days with people Montana pretended to be when he was a kid in western Pennsylvania, he got the message.

“I realized the true meaning of what this is all about,” Montana said. “This is not an ending point, but the beginning of the rest of my life.

“All your life, you change teams, from Pop Warner to high school to college to the professional level. This is my new team and what a team it is.”

And what a day it was. Lured by the largest gathering of players ever assembled, a record 8,000 fans turned out.

Along with Long and his presenter, assistant coach Earl Leggett, the fans saw:

JOE MONTANA

Montana, who spent his final two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs after 14 years as a San Francisco 49er, was presented by Edward DeBartolo, who owned the 49ers during Montana’s glory years.

“Simply stated,” DeBartolo said, “he is the best quarterback to ever play the game.”

Long, who spent many years chasing Montana around the backfield, put it another way.

“Joe was the kind of guy,” Long said, “who, if he was dead, you could still put him on a horse, take him outside the gates and the other side would retreat.”

RONNIE LOTT

A defensive back so tough he agreed to have part of a finger amputated in order to continue his career, Lott played for the 49ers, the Los Angeles Raiders and the New York Jets in a 14-year pro career after playing his collegiate ball at USC.

“John Robinson taught me how to compete,” Lott said of his college coach, who was on hand for Saturday’s ceremony.

Lott was presented by his father, Roy, who told his son, “Our world is made up of some amazing people, and you are one of them.”

The younger Lott returned the tribute, concluding his induction speech by saying, “I stand here a little taller because of the biggest giant of all--my father. Dad, you are our rock.”

DAVE WILCOX

A linebacker, Wilcox played for 11 seasons with the 49ers, concluding in 1974, long before the team became an NFL powerhouse.

“I played before Joe [Montana] and money,” he said.

Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus called Wilcox “the best linebacker I’ve ever seen.”

Mike Giddings, Wilcox’s assistant coach in San Francisco, was his presenter.

“He changed the position,” Giddings said. “He had triceps that went from his ear lobe to his wrist.”

According to Giddings, Dallas Cowboy Coach Tom Landry, when asked how to stop the 49ers in Wilcox’s era, said, “The first thing is to get away from their outside linebacker.”

DAN ROONEY

Following the Maras of New York, the Rooneys of Pittsburgh become the second father-son team in the Hall. Dan, the Pittsburgh Steeler owner, followed his late father, Art, who founded the team.

Said his presenter, Hall of Fame defensive lineman Joe Greene, “If things go as planned, Dan is in the background. If they don’t go as planned, Dan is in the forefront.”

Wilcox had to wait 26 years after his playing career ended to be inducted. Rooney had to wait until he was 68 years old. Montana and Lott, on the other hand, made it in their first year of eligibility.

But nobody was complaining Saturday. Ultimately, not even Joe.