Long overdue indeed. One of the best football players ever and even a better man off the field.
Extraordinary balance. That's one quality Milt Tenopir remembers vividly about Will Shields.
"You couldn't knock the guy off his feet," Tenopir told me Saturday morning of the ex-Nebraska offensive guard.
Tenopir also is a tough hombre, as many Husker football fans know. The 75-year-old has been fighting leukemia for more than a year and has a round of chemotherapy coming up next week.
Even so, Milt and his wife, Terri, drove to Canton, Ohio, for Saturday's Pro Football Hall of Fame Ceremony. Shields and fellow former Husker Mick Tingelhoff, who lettered at NU from 1959-61, will be among the inductees.
The ceremony is set for 6 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN.
Tenopir said at least two of Shields' former Husker teammates are in Canton -- T.J. Slansky and Jim Scott.
Shields and Tenopir have a relationship that dates to the Shields' high school days in Lawton, Oklahoma. Tenopir played a lead role in recruiting Shields, and Shields became the second Husker offensive lineman to play as a true freshman (in 1989).
In 1992, as a senior, Shields became the fifth Husker to win the Outland Trophy. When all was said and done, he helped NU win national team rushing titles in 1989, 1991 and 1992.
"Will was a very, very, very steady football player," Tenopir said. "He didn't have highs and lows and was quietly competitive."
I'll have more from Milt in a Sunday column.
