Funny memories, good food, funds raised at Taste of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

CANTON − Nearly 400 guests flocked to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday evening for the 15th annual Taste of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to benefit the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank. This is the foodbank’s largest annual fundraising event.

The evening began with guests mingling during a cocktail hour featuring food, drinks and music in a tent at the Hall. Guests made their way through the food booths and bid on silent auction items, including baskets of wine; golf packages; basketball, baseball and football-themed baskets; tea-filled baskets; date-night baskets; and gift cards, among other prize packages.

A seated dinner followed in the Nash Family Event & Conference Center during the Q&A with Hall of Famers Isaac Bruce, Steve Largent and Randall McDaniel.

Following the Q&A session, a strolling dessert hour was held in the tent where the silent auction wrapped up and guests enjoyed talking to the Hall of Famers.

Food purveyors included AVI Foodsystems, The Bistro fo Oakwood, Canton Brewing Co., Chocolates by Erin, Dunkin’, Esber Beverage, Gervasi Vineyard, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Pepsi, The Quarry Golf Club, Robert J. Events & Catering and SMOOSH Cookies.

Q&A with Hall of Famers Isaac Bruce, Steve Largent and Randall McDaniel

Following welcomes and thank-yous from Ben McKee of WQMX and Dan Flowers, president and CEO of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, dinner was served and the Q&A with the Hall of Famers began.

“Could you share a time in your life where you were like, ‘Wow! I can’t believe that I’m here right now’?” Flowers asked.

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“I’ve had many moments like that. My children are pretty young, 12 and 7, and it had to be a child’s birthday party that I didn’t want to be at. But there was football going on, and I actually heard myself saying that, ‘I can’t believe I’m here right now,’ ” said Isaac Bruce, who played for the then-St. Louis Rams and San Francisco 49ers and was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2020.

His response brought a roar of laughter from the crowd.

Steve Largent, who was a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks and was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1995, took a more sentimental approach to his answer to the same question.

He mentioned two moments: marrying his wife 47 years ago and being chosen “as the first Seahawk to play in a Pro Bowl game in 1978.”

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“I can’t believe it. It was when I got to the Hall,” said Randall McDaniel, who played as a guard for the Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was enshrined in 2009.

He then recalled writing a paper in seventh grade on his “hero” Gale Sayers. McDaniel then said that at his enshrinement, someone tapped his shoulder and asked if the seat next to him was taken. It was Sayers.

Flowers then asked the retired players if they had any pre-game rituals.

McDaniel was quick to share his Reese’s and coffee pot ritual. “I was eating Reese’s and drinking coffee till the moment we walked out on the field and they announced us. … I did that 14 years,” said McDaniel.

Flowers asked the trio about important sayings or mottos that have stuck with them.

Largent shared a poem from the book “Don’t Waste Your Sorrows” by Paul Billheimer, that he and his wife read after their fourth child, Kramer, was born with spina bifida.

McDaniel also shared something personal. “Go out. Work hard. Be humble. Remember who you are when you’re out there,” McDaniel recalled his mother telling him as a child.

To wrap up the Q&A portion, Flowers asked about the transition after retiring from football.

Bruce shared how the lessons he learned in football prepared him for life, noting how much preparation there was for each game.

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McDaniel told the story of how he was student teaching before he went into football and went back to teaching elementary school after he retired from playing.

Largent’s path took him to politics, serving four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1994 to 2002.

Auction brings in big money for Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank

While the event is a football fan's dream, it serves as a big fundraiser to help fight hunger in our community. Auctioneer Bob Hale got the crowd livened up when he started asking for bids during the live auction.

Live auction items included a two-person ride in the Goodyear Blimp, a Hall of Fame City Food Tour for 10, a trip for two to San Juan and dinner for two with a Hall of Famer.

Following the bidding portion for the live auction items was an auction to fund meals, with bids coming from the audience for amounts between $10,000 and $50.

With the help of guests and an anonymous donation, the live auction raised $56,500.

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Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank helps the community

“The Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank is the source of emergency food for over 600 soup kitchens, pantries and hot meal programs to eight counties in Northeast Ohio. …” said Flowers in a presentation.

Stark County’s food insecurity rate is 14.2% of the total population, equalling 52,980 people, estimates Feeding America. The child food insecurity rate is even higher at 19.4%, 15,600 children.

Supply-chain issues and inflation has hurt the foodbank, as they’ve had to source more food because of fewer donations. Thanks to inflation, the community is suffering and needing help from the pantry more than ever.

The recipients are grateful the foodbank is there to help.

“The foodbank means we’re able to have food on the table,” one woman shared in the presentation.

Another shared, “It means the difference between if you get your medicine or if you get to eat.”

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Taste of the Hall of Fame helps fund Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank