×

Dorsett visit stirs memory

Tony Dorsett had never been in Altoona, only through it a couple of times, prior to his guest appearance Thursday night with the Curve.

“Is Penn State near here?” he asked.

In fact, yes, he was told, which led Dorsett to a story about his high school recruitment in which he ultimately picked Pitt over the Nittany Lions.

The All-American out of Hopewell High School initially wanted to land in Happy Valley.

As Dorsett was preparing to decide early in 1973, John Cappelletti was entering his senior season that would culminate with the Heisman Trophy.

Once discussing Dorsett in the early 1980s, Joe Paterno said, “We thought we had the perfect situation for Dorsett. He could back up Cappy for a year,” and then be a three-year starter.

Paterno credited Pitt’s pursuit, but also felt, “We fell asleep.”

Dorsett, who threw out the first pitch at Peoples Natural Gas Field and signed autographs for the long line behind the left-field bleachers, remembers it a little differently.

“When I came out of high school, I was an All-American running back and all-state defensive back,” he recalled. “When I met with Joe, he said, ‘You play defensive back your first year, and then we’ll move you to running back.’ But my thought process was – I was pretty confident, maybe a little cocky – if I play defensive back, I want to be a good DB, and they won’t want to move me. That was what discouraged me the most.”

Until then, Penn State was in position to land the elusive tailback who would lead Pitt to the 1976 national title, winning the Heisman Trophy in the process.

“One of my last high school football games was against Beaver Falls, and I had a monster game,” Dorsett said. “The next day in the Beaver County Times, it said, ‘Penn State, next stop.’ I wanted to go there. I was very familiar with the Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell tandem, and I looked at it as somewhat like a Running Back U.”

Pitt, however, doggedly stayed in the recruiting process – “Jackie (Sherrill) and Johnny (Majors) almost moved in with me,” he said – and Dorsett went on to a decorated career with the Panthers that served as a springboard to his NFL greatness.

“I was very family oriented and a little introverted,” he said. “I could have gone a lot of places, but more than anything, I wanted my family – my mom and dad – to be able to afford to watch me play, and obviously driving from Aliquippa to Pittsburgh was (easier).

“A lot of people didn’t understand my decision-making process because Pitt had gone 1-10 a few years before I went there, but I wanted to help change the atmosphere and make it a winning program. Seeing a national championship come to fruition brought a lot of satisfaction and lifetime memories.”

The eighth-leading rusher in NFL history with 12,739 yards, Dorsett helped Dallas win Super Bowl XII and has been inducted into both the Pro Football and College Football Hall of Fames.

His mother, Myrtle, is 95 years old, and he gets back to the Pittsburgh area from Dallas to see her “four-five times a year. Mom’s not doing good, but she’s in the fight.”

Dorsett, 61, is “in the fight,” too.

Though pleasant and approachable – in addition to the autograph seekers, he spent some time with the Northern Cambria Little League team that was introduced before Thursday’s game – Dorsett struggles with Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which affects people who have endured multiple concussions.

“I’ve got good days and bad days,” he said. “I try to eat well and take vitamins and herbs and try to combat it. But it is what it is. I signed up for it. I just wish at times back then we had known what we were subjecting ourselves to with some of the concussions – with trying to get back in the game and going back in the game. But I was a football player, and I have no regrets.”

He has an 11-year-old daughter, though, and he became emotional when trying to continue the subject.

“When someday she decides to get married,” he said, “I just hope that I can be of the right mind to know what I’m doing.”

Anyone who ever watched Tony Dorsett, among the greatest of the greats, no doubt hopes the same thing for him.

Rudel can be reached at 946-7527 or nrudel@altoonamirror.com.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today