CLEVELAND (AP) London Fletcher looked down and traced his unlikely path to football stardom.
From more than 1,000 feet above his hometown, Fletcher gazed out one of the Goodyear Blimps gondola windows and memories flashed before him.
Below, he could see his childhood home on Giddings Road, where life was often difficult. Not far away near the southern shore of Lake Erie sits Villa Angela-St. Joseph, the high school where he starred as a linebacker and point guard on two state title basketball teams.
Fletcher, who played 16 seasons in the NFL for St. Louis, Buffalo and Washington, eventually soared over John Carroll University, his beloved alma mater where on this sunny final Friday in September a group of students stood on the schools football field and saluted their famous alum.
They held a sign in JCUs colors that said: Congrats London.
That was amazing, Fletcher said following his sentimental sky ride. The surprise of a lifetime.
Its been an emotional whirlwind lately for Fletcher, who was enshrined last week in the Redskins Ring of Honor. Hell soon become a member of the College Football Hall of Fame inducted along with Goodyears iconic blimp, the first non-player or coach elected.
My fellow Hall of Famer, Fletcher said affectionately in describing the Akron, Ohio-based aircraft, whose connection to college football began in 1955 when it provided aerial TV coverage for the Rose Bowl. Growing up in Northeast Ohio, you see the Goodyear Blimp all the time. You knew if the blimp was around, something big was about to happen. If you saw the blimp at a game, you knew it was a big game.
Goodyear arranged the above-ground trip on its famous 246-foot, 20,000-pound blimp for Fletcher, along with a reunion with the coach who convinced him football was his future.
He was joined on the tour by Mike Moran, who coached him in high school and college. Morans addition for the journey above Cleveland was a surprise until just moments before takeoff.
As the giant blue-gold-and-gray colored blimp descended on one of the runways at Cuyahoga County Airport, Fletcher turned to discover that his friend and mentor would be accompanying him on his sentimental sky ride.
How did you sneak up on me? Fletcher said to Moran, who retired as John Carrolls basketball coach in 2017 after 25 years, but still heads the mens golf program.
Im going to be your pilot, Moran said, joking.
Well, then Im going to call my wife and tell her to up the insurance, Fletcher said, laughing.
The two men boarded for a trip back through their years together. For Fletcher, it was a chance to relive his inspiring story.
All the odds were stacked against me, he said.
