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Even though I am immersed in Cal's MBB team in recent years, I had season tickets for many decades for Cal football and the Oakland Raiders. My parents for decades had season tickets to the football NY Giants, and I attended at least 100 games in Yankee Stadium with them, including the famous sudden death championship game against the Colts with Johnny U, Alan Amache, Raymond Berry, etc.
I have been a close friend of Dave (the Ghost) Casper for the past 40 + years. Thanks to the Ghost, I attended his 2002 induction into the Pro Football HOF in Canton and his subsequent induction into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame which has caused his likeness on a plaque to be found at Gate 87 in United Airlines’ SFO terminal. I was invited to see the Ghost to be inducted into the Collegiate HOF in 2012, but I had a professional scheduling conflict that prevented me from attending.
While on the recent trip with Cal’s MBB team to see Duke in Durham and GT in Atlanta, my Cal hosts were kind enough to allow me to visit the Collegiate Football HOF in downtown Atlanta. I had promised the Ghost that I would do so and then look him up. I did as pictured. To be inducted into the Collegiate Football HOF, it is required that you had to be a first team All American. I sent such attached photo from the Collegiate HOF to the Ghost and his lovely wife, Susan, and inquired innocently why a tight end had been wearing the jersey number of 68. Susan immediately reacted, almost like Pavlov’s Dog, that such photo was of the Ghost as a sophomore or junior when he played offensive tackle, that the Collegiate HOF is in error using an outdated photo, and that the Ghost as a TE wore jersey numbered 86 as a senior when he was a first team All American at tight end and the Captain of Notre Dame’s national championship and undefeated (11-0) team that beat Alabama under Bear Bryant in the bowl game. BTW, the Ghost already in his youth as a junior was an honorable All American at offensive tackle. Susan seemingly now is motivated to correct that oversight after seeing from me what was intended to be just an innocuous photo that was being shared amongst friends. As usual, the very laid-back Ghost has been totally silent and probably is focused on consuming chili dogs at Dune Dog with his faithful lab companion, Molly, and fishing, his favorite pastime.
As noted above, the Ghost was a pre-season All American at OT before his senior year. He went to summer camp whereat almost all of ND’s TEs became injured. So, HC Ara Parseghian asked for volunteers to become the new TEs. Much to Ara’s horror his Captain and best offensive lineman volunteered insistently that he was the best man for that job and then proved to be by far the best person in ND’s summer camp for that job and later validated such selection as the best TE in the nation.
BTW, the Ghost has the largest hands I ever have seen which obviously helps him to catch the ball.
I am going to spend 2 weeks once again in South Hutchinson Island, FL with the Ghost next month to keep up our tradition.
The Ghost, a HOF pro player, was continuously applauded for his blocking skills by NFL announcers, many of whom were ignorant of the fact that he was a former blocking OT in high school and his sophomore and junior years at ND.
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