Daily Bulletin Section C1,C4
Friday, June 26, 1998 

Anthony Munoz, just a month away from entering pro football's Hall of Fame, will be honored today by the city he called home during his youth. 

And Ontario plans to give him the full treatment as it recognizes the Chaffey High School graduate, who became one of football's best offensive linemen, with a day filled with accolades. 

"This is quite an honor," said Munoz, who played 13 years with the Cincinnati Bengals and made the all-pro team 11 times. 

"This whole experience is very surprising to me," Munoz added. "I'm thrilled with all that has happened to me over my career. This just makes everything come full circle." 

Munoz, who starred at USC after leaving Chaffey, will first be acknowledged by his high school. His prep football jersey, No. 77, will be retired during a special assembly on campus. 

Later, the city will pay tribute when it renames Colony Park as Anthony Munoz Hall of Fame Park in recognition of his work with children. 

Finally, he will be the special guest at a banquet held by the city at the convention center. 

"It all can be very embarrassing when you sit there and people say nice things about you," Munoz said. "You just have to smile, but it gets to you." 

All this for a player who never left the area's view even though most of his professional career was spent playing for a team 2,000 miles away. 

"There is no question Anthony is certainly a local product," said Ontario City Councilman Gary Ovitt, who also coached Munoz in high school. 

"Naming the park after him, I think, is a great indication of what Anthony means to our community. After all, who goes to a park? Kids, for the most part, and many of those are kids at risk. So naming it after Anthony sends a tremendous message to those kids." 

Munoz said it's the kids who make him proud to be honored by the City. 

"The main reason I get involved in things like this is to benefit the children." He said. "It is nice to use the gifts that I've been given by God to help children. Maybe some of them can live out their dreams in this park just like I did." It was in that very park that Munoz met his wife, DeDe, while playing softball at age 15. 

"DeDe and I laughed about that," Munoz said. "It is amazing how things work out. I never would have dreamed that when I met her they would rename the park after me. That's really something." 

Munoz was never hard to spot, towering about other kids even when he was just 6 years old. Yet family and friends insist his stature shouldn't be measured in physical terms. 

"I remember Anthony as being very personable," said Clyde Francisco, athletics director when Munoz attended Chaffey High School. "When he was in school, he was the BMOC -- Big Man on Campus -- and in more ways than just his physical size. But that kind of title was put on him by his classmates; it was never anything he assumed for himself. You never got the feeling he had any idea he was better than anyone else." 

In recent years the recognition by his peers and the press has typically involved his play on the field. 

But it's the efforts Munoz has made away from the game, using his celebrity to help others, that many feel deserve recognition. Those close to him believe the true Munoz legacy reaches back to the community, and to the family unit. 

"A lot of people know Anthony, but they don’t really know him as a person. All the stuff he's done -- is great. He's a very religious person and he's a good person. He's done so much back in Cincinnati," said Mike Alonso, who teachers and coaches baseball coach at Upland High School and is a close friend of Munoz. "I think it speaks well for Ontario. 

"Sure, people look and say 'Here's a guy with God-given ability.' But you know, not all the guys with God-given ability ever make it. A lot fall short. I think it says a lot about the community that Anthony came from a place that gave him a set of values, that helped make him the kind of person that he is today." 

According to Francisco, understanding the nature of Munoz requires getting past the celebrity that comes with being a pro football player. 

"It would be easy to picture Anthony as this dominating presence on the football field. But there is so much more to him than that," he said. 

"He is a gentle, involved, contributing person. You don't become a NFL Man of the Year without doing a great deal of good both on and away from the field. (And) he was Man of the year for the Bengals for five or six years running." 

Locally, the celebrations began last January when the announcement came from San Diego that the 1976 Chaffey High School grad was selected to the Hall. Since then, discussions have centered on memories of Munoz and what his induction would mean to the City. 

The talk, and the pride that goes with such an honor accorded a native son, has ranged far beyond the athletic fields and locker rooms. 

"It's not just the coaches that feel great about this. Madelyn Thalken is a Home Ec 

teacher at Chaffey, and she's just as excited as the rest of us," said Jim Semon, Munoz's varsity baseball coach. 

"The impact is tremendous. Anthony has gained respect wherever he's gone. It comes down to the simple fact that he's such a nice person." 

"He's the kind of person you'd want to represent Ontario," Alonso said. "You'll never have to worry about what he's going to do next because it's never going to be anything you'll be ashamed to hear." 

And that is why Munoz is the favored son of a proud city.