Where to start?  Getting a call from Boo Corrigan, West Point Athletic Director, with news of this Hall of Fame selection was quite a surprise – a very, very humbling experience to say the least.  After all, how could a converted halfback, with a unique end-over-end passing technique, be asked to join Walt Oehrlein and others in this respected group?  There is no easy answer to this question and folks may be scratching their heads at this time.  But the answer in my view relates to the determined effort of so many special friends – a TEAM – those friends still with us, and dear friends who have departed.  Let me explain.

As he did with the nomination process for Walt Oehrlein, Ross Wollen started the ball rolling.  This would not have happened without Ross.  From the start, Ross was determined to see this happen.  Joining Ross was Denny Lewis, with help early on by Don Parcells and later by Bill Zadel.  As we now know, Denny spent many hours gathering and summarizing “data” – a tremendous amount of grunt work.  As Denny weakened from his heart disease, Nate Kantor jumped in – soliciting letters of support, drafting content and guiding the effort.  Etta Kantor just let us know that Nate’s commitment never wavered – right to the end.  Wisely, Nate had enlisted the leadership of Clair Gill, our terrific Class President, who mobilized our Class Officer team including Bruce Clarke, expert editor.  And then there is Dan Christman.  Dan, it turns out, did so much with incredible determination.  Dan reached out to Roger Staubach and Pete Dawkins for letters which were great, wrote a wonderful letter himself as only he can do, and contributed many more things too numerous to cite.  Ross, Walt and Bobby Jones wrote great letters and Walt asked Rick Forzano, a Navy coach who recruited Roger, to do the same.  And, importantly, only now are we learning how many of you put in a “good word” in one way or another.  Talk about a TEAM effort – simply fantastic.  To all who contributed to this effort, I extend my heartfelt thanks.  Without the efforts of this extraordinary TEAM, this selection would never have happened.

So what is this HOF designation really all about?  It’s not about individual stuff, it’s about a terrific TEAM which competed against Texas, Michigan, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Penn State, Syracuse, Air Force and #2 ranked Navy, led by the best athlete of that era, Roger Staubach.  How did this team do?  In the three years during which your classmate-players earned an Army “A”, the record was 17-13, .567.  Key wins were over Syracuse, Penn State (2 of 3), Air Force at Soldier’s Field, and Navy to cap the 1964 season.  On their own field, #1 ranked Texas came close to getting nailed.  John Seymour, John Johnson, Ray Paske and I chatted by phone very recently, as Don Parcells, Denny Lewis, Bill Zadel and I used to do so frequently.  We always have felt so blessed to have played with such terrific players in our class, including Tom Abraham, Mike Berdy, Ron Butterfield, Ray Hawkins, Jimmy Hennen, Dave La Rochelle, Mike O’Grady, Chuck Pfeifer, Tony Pyrz, Bill Sherrell, and Greg Steele.  For the 1964 Army-Navy game, terrific players and great friends from 1966 included Pete Braun, John Carber, Vince Casillo, Sam Champi, Curt Cook, Frank Cosentino, Tom Dusel, Curt Lindler, Ed Noble, Dave Ray, Billy Sims, Sonny Stowers, and Ed Unruh.  From 1967, terrific players and great friends included Dave Baggett, Fred Barofsky, Dick Black, Townsend Clarke, Don Dietz, Mark Hamilton, Mike Neuman, Barry Nickerson, Dave Rivers and Tom Schwartz.   As rookies, we learned so much from stars and terrific teammates including Cammy Lewis, Joe Blackgrove, Dick Nowak and Kenny Waldrop, to name just a few.  What a privilege for us all; what an honor for our entire TEAM to have represented West Point on the football field.  This HOF selection provides the opportunity to recognize the contributions of so many great guys on our teams in that era.

So - - - two TEAMs have now been identified – a HOF process team and a terrific football team.  But, equally important, is a third team – all of you, our Class of 1965.  While things that occur on a field are important to some, it’s what happens off the field that really counts in this life.  In all sincerity, I honestly believe that our class – our TEAM – has done more than any other class in terms of caring for our classmates in need and their families.  In an overwhelming number of wonderful notes, which so many of you have sent in these last few days, this theme – the empathy and unselfishness of our entire Class – has come through loud and clear in so many of these notes.  The examples are too numerous to document in full here.  But, just a few that have been referenced in these notes include: Tad Ono traveling from Hawaii to attend so many classmate funerals; Denny Lewis caring for his brother, Tim Vogel, who couldn’t move or speak at the end; Clair, John Howell and Harry Dermody driving up and back from Wash, DC to attend Nate’s funeral; Bobby Jones delivering an incredibly moving eulogy at Jim Hall’s funeral; and so many other examples of the ties that bind us. We all should feel so blessed to be part of a truly spectacular TEAM – our Class of 1965.  We have been so supportive of each other and that is truly a special thing.

In the end, that’s how I think about this HOF selection - - - as a special opportunity to recognize all of us who have had the distinct privilege of being members of a fantastic TEAM.  My heartfelt thanks to you all.