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A Team Game: Ex-players reach out
Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
Billy Shaw (center), an NFL Hall of Famer, drove more than four hours to visit with Pete Pihos, another Hall of Famer, and Pihos’ daughter, Melissa.
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Published: December 12, 2008
A special visitor came calling on Pete Pihos yesterday at Grace Healthcare on First Street in Winston-Salem.
Pihos, 85, is an NFL Hall of Famer with advanced Alzheimer's disease. He spends much of his day stacking books, looking through a plate-glass window at an American flag, visiting with other patients and wheeling himself through a hallway, saying to no one in particular, "Go, team, go."
Fellow Hall of Famer Billy Shaw knew that Pihos wouldn't be able to communicate with him. Yet, the connection Shaw feels with pioneers of the game such as Pihos is so strong that it was worth waking up at 4:30 a.m. and driving 4½ hours from his home in Toccoa, Ga., through the rain and fog to see him.
"A lot of us older guys are really close," said Shaw, who will turn 70 Monday.
Shaw's visit is part of an effort by the NFL Hall of Fame to link healthy, active hall members with members who are in health-care facilities or have fallen on hard times. The hall tries to pair players who live fairly close to one another.
Last week, an official with the hall called Shaw and asked if he would drive to Winston-Salem and visit with Pihos, who has lived at Grace Healthcare since 2005.
Shaw got in touch with Pihos' former wife, Donna Pihos-Howell, who oversees his care, and arranged the visit.
"I'm here to visit with her and to see him and let everyone know that we care, and we're there if help is needed," Shaw said.
Yesterday, he and Pihos-Howell visited while Pihos napped in his wheelchair. She admired a huge ring that Shaw was given when he was inducted into the hall in 1999.
"This is the best Christmas present ever to have Billy here representing the hall and to come to visit with Pete," she said. "It makes me want to cry."
Shaw played with the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League from 1961 to 1969. Though he played offense and defense at Georgia Tech, he switched to offense as a professional player and quickly distinguished himself as a guard, earning first-team All-AFL honors five times. He was the first player inducted into the hall who spent his entire career in the AFL.
Prompted by Tom Bauer, the executive director of Grace Healthcare, Shaw told stories from his glory days.
"You played with Jack Kemp?" Bauer asked him.
"No. Jack Kemp played with me," Shaw responded without missing a beat.
Shaw and Pihos played in different eras. Pihos played for the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL from 1947 to 1955. Shaw said that as a boy, he wasn't familiar with Pihos' game.
However before driving up to Winston-Salem, he did a little reading on Pihos and was impressed that Pihos was an All-Pro as tight end and defensive end in the early 1950s.
Pihos lives in a small but tidy room decorated with a few footballs. Until a few months ago, he enjoyed watching football on TV, but Pihos-Howell said that the games don't seem to mean anything to him now.
He remains a powerfully built man. With his broad shoulders, thick neck and barrel chest, it's not much of a stretch to imagine Pihos as a youth, snagging passes, dodging tacklers and dashing to the end zone.
Beneath that rugged exterior is a gentle man, Pihos-Howell said. Sometimes, out of the blue, he will speak aloud the name of their daughter, Melissa.
That Shaw took the time to learn more about the man beneath the shoulder pads means a lot to Pihos-Howell.
"It's just overwhelming," she said.
■ Lisa O'Donnell can be reached at 727-7420 or at lodonnell@wsjournal.com.
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