When former Temple star Joe Klecko is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday afternoon in Canton, Ohio, he will become the first Owls football player to earn the prestigious honor.
Before a 12-season NFL career in which he collected 78 sacks, two first-team All-Pro awards and four Pro Bowl nods, Klecko played for the late College Football Hall of Fame coach Wayne Hardin at Temple from 1973 to 1976, leading the Owls in tackles in his last three seasons with the program while garnering honorable mention All-America honors in 1974 and 1975.
Once he was selected in the sixth round of the 1977 NFL Draft, the Chester native was on his way to becoming part of the New York Jets’ fabled “New York Sack Exchange,” along with Mark Gastineau, Abdul Salaam and Marty Lyons.
Klecko was enshrined in Temple’s Hall of Fame in 1987, but his wait for the Pro Football Hall of Fame was a long one, as he became eligible the following season in 1988.
Back in March, the 69-year-old Klecko talked to OwlScoop.com on The Scoop a little more than a month after being elected to the Hall of Fame. Among other things, Klecko reflected upon played at Temple for Hardin.
“He said the right things at the right time,” Klecko said, recounting a story from his freshman season. “I remember getting off the field when I was a freshman, and I didn’t play in the first game, really. I got in for a couple plays.”
That sparse appearance didn’t sit well with Klecko.
“I was mad,” Klecko continued, “because I thought I should have been playing. And he said, ‘How did you like your first time in big-time college football?’ And I said something that was derogatory.”
Hardin paused the conversation there and reapproached his frustrated freshman later.
“He came up to me,” Klecko recalled, “and said, ‘Joe, there’s no use to you being mad at anybody here. Your (time) is going to come when we’re playing those other teams.’ And he does, ‘And don’t worry, you’re going to have your chances.’
“If he would have said nothing to me and let me stew about it, I don’t know how good that would have went with me at the time. He had the insight to come to me and explain to me how life is going to be for me here in the future, and it worked out that way.”