CANTON, Ohio — Just about 40 miles from where he grew up, Randy Gradishar is about to gain another Ohio home.
This one, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has taken him nearly 40 years to join, and this weekend, that wait will finally end. On Friday night, Gradishar and the rest of the Class of 2024 will receive their gold jackets, and they'll be officially enshrined on Saturday.
The festivities began on Thursday, as the class was honored before the Hall of Fame's preseason kickoff game at Tom Benson Stadium, and Gradishar joined scores of Hall of Famers in downtown Canton for a group photo with his new teammates.
"It's been great just talking to the guys, us new guys going in along with the former people that have gone in," Gradishar said at a press conference on Friday. "Through [Hall of Fame CEO] Jim Porter and through the staff and even through the players, you get that feeling that you're in this special club now.
"This is very unique, very special, and you've earned it. These are the ways that you have earned it, to come into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It's certainly more on the elite side, ... and I think Jim even said today that my number is 373 out of a jillion people who could have been coming in here, so that number for me means a lot. It's certainly very special."
That his football career has taken him so far and brought him to this pinnacle so close to his hometown of Warren, Ohio was not lost on Gradishar. He recalled his high-school days of playing football, improving incrementally on a struggling team and being noticed by legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes. And then he matriculated further, becoming a first-round draft pick by the Broncos in 1974. From there, he — along with the rest of the famed Orange Crush defense — helped lead a new era of Broncos football, as the franchise earned its first playoff appearance and made its first Super Bowl run in 1977.
"Having a team of 11 guys playing together [and] following through with what they are supposed to be doing in their play certainly made us that," Gradishar said. "And that was just a real special year for Colorado and the Denver Broncos, because the Denver Broncos, if you know your history from 1960 to 1977, the Broncos maybe … lost more games than they won. … The Orange Crush guys, we take a lot of credit for leading the way for John Elway and Peyton Manning going to Super Bowls and winning some Super Bowls."
Another Orange Crush star, Tom Jackson, will join Gradishar in the festivities as his presenter. During their playing days, the two Ohio natives and Broncos linebackers grew to become close friends, and Gradishar said he's eagerly anticipating Jackson's speech.
"Tommy was just a great guy, a great teammate and now certainly has been a great friend," Gradishar said. "… He was one of our leaders on our Orange Crush defense, and he was always talking, yapping, yelling and screaming, chewing out guys, that kind of thing. And that's the leadership that he provided of encouraging guys to do the right thing. So choosing him to introduce me, I've been looking forward to it, and I know he's going to do a great job."
As Gradishar goes through the weekend's events, he's also started to receive a warm welcome from other Hall of Famers, including those he played against. That includes former Buccaneers and Colts head coach Tony Dungy, who watched Gradishar play in college and then again in the NFL after Dungy entered the league in 1977 with the Steelers.
"Randy was a little bit ahead of me in the Big Ten at Ohio State, so I watched him when I was a young player there and when I got to Pittsburgh, he was with the Broncos," Dungy said. "And I guess the most telling thing — Jack Lambert used to play on the scout team when he played the Broncos, and he would be Randy Gradishar. He would say, 'If you don't block this guy, he's going to make every tackle.' And we've got to get somebody blocking him, because we had that much respect for him."
That kind of respect has meant a good deal to Gradishar, who's endured a significant wait to enter the Hall of Fame. Now, the wait is just down to a matter of hours, and the club that Gradishar joins knows he has earned his spot.
"Well, there's a lot of great players and it does take some time," Dungy said, "but it's well deserved, and I can speak from experience — once you get in, that's all that counts."
