In the decades the Pro Football Hall of Fame has been enshrining the best to play the game, several groups were conspicuously absent.
Not anymore.
With its new “Awards of Excellence” the Hall of Fame will be recognizing the contributions off the field and behind the scenes that help the National Football League put on its show.
“It takes a lot of people to make Sunday happen,” said former Atlanta Falcons trainer Jerry Rhea.
Rhea, who began his career at Ector High School and Odessa High School, will be part of the inaugural class recognized during Enshrinement Week in August in Canton, Ohio.
Joining Rhea in the first class is former Odessa High trainer, the late George Anderson, who was with the Bronchos for one season before moving to the American Football League in 1960 as the first trainer for the Oakland Raiders, a job he would hold for the next 34 years.
Rhea stayed a little longer in West Texas.
Growing up in Ennis, he went to Texas A&M as part of the Corps and served in the Army after graduation.
It was during his senior year in college that Rhea found his way to Odessa on a job interview and was hired to be the first trainer for Permian, which was opening in 1959.
He was still on active duty at the time, however, and the position was given to someone else.
Rhea instead was hired for Ector High, where he stayed for five years before spending three years at Odessa High.
“Odessa was a great place to work,” Rhea said. “My first year at Odessa High we won the district championship and the coach, Bradley Mills, was the Coach of the Year for the district.”
The Permian Basin proved to be the launching pad for Rhea’s next stop was at the top of the food chain with the Los Angeles Rams.
He stayed on the West Coast for two years before moving to the South in 1969 when he was hired to be the trainer for the Atlanta Falcons.
Norm Van Brocklin was the head coach and linebacker Tommy Nobis as the star on defense for the team.
Rhea worked in his position through 1994 and then moved into the front office as an Assistant to the President until 2001.
“I have great memories of my time with the Falcons,” Rhea said. “Everywhere you work, you make great memories.
“We had a good team with a new stadium, a state-of-the-art facility. There was something new every day.”
Rhea’s impact on the trainer profession was felt throughout the league, along with the Permian Basin as he hired one of his former student trainers, Fred Schwake, as his assistant in Atlanta.
Since 1998, the Jerry “Hawk” Rhea Award has been presented by the PFATS (Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society) to the Outsanding NFL Team Physician of the Year.
Earlier this year the Falcons remembered Rhea by naming their athletic trainer room in his honor.
Now, the Hall of Fame is calling.
“I think as happy as I am, I’m more than happy that they finally realized that we make Sunday’s happen, also,” Rhea said. “Trainers, equipment mangers, public relations and assistant coaches; I don’t know how they picked those categories.
“It’s the ticket takers and the popcorn makers, everyone working together. It’s like at the end of the movie when you watch all the credits scroll by of all the people it took to make that movie.
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