|
RECOMMENDED LINKS
Vivid Seats
Ticket Liquidator
NFL Tickets
 |
||
|
|
KC Fans Say Farewell to Derrick at Arrowhead
Feb. 14, 2000
Fans wearing Kansas City Chiefs jackets and dabbing at moist eyes filed silently past the body of the former Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas today.
The nine-time Pro Bowl linebacker lay in a casket in the east end zone of Arrowhead Stadium, the scene of many of the most memorable plays in his career. Giant screens on the east and west sides of the stadium displayed highlights of his career.
Several hundred people were waiting outside the stadium gate when the public viewing of the 33-year-old star began at 9:30 a.m. Within 30 minutes, mourners had slowed to a steady trickle.
Chiefs' officials and staff, from owner Lamar Hunt to office secretaries, were on the field facing east at noon as a B-2 stealth bomber flew low over the stadium. Several current and former Chiefs players and Coach Gunther Cunningham were also on the field as the Air Force paid its respects to the son of Air Force Capt. Robert Thomas, who was killed in Vietnam when Derrick Thomas was 5 years old.
And the Chiefs announced they would not discuss signings of players this week in memory of Thomas.
Thomas, one of the city's most popular athletes ever, died Tuesday in Miami of complications from a traffic accident at Kansas City on Jan. 23. The accident left him paralyzed from the chest down but he was beginning rehabilitation and his death came unexpectedly from a pulmonary embolism.
On Tuesday the body will be taken to Kemper Arena for a memorial service starting at 11 a.m. It will later be returned to Thomas' native Miami for another service and burial.
Teammates, NFL officials and other celebrities will speak at Tuesday's service.
After the public viewing lasting until 6 p.m., there will be a private viewing starting an hour later for family members, teammates and the Chiefs' staff.
The accident that left Thomas paralyzed killed his close friend, Michael Tellis. Thomas was driving his Chevrolet Suburban when it skidded on an icy highway and flipped over several times.
Neither Thomas nor Tellis were wearing seat belts and they were thrown from the vehicle. A third man who had his seat belt on had only minor injuries.
The crash happened the same day as a chain-reaction accident elsewhere in the Kansas City area that killed 10 people.
Thomas and his friends were bound for Kansas City International Airport on their way to St. Louis for the NFC championship game between the St. Louis Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The football star's disabling injury and subsequent death stunned the Kansas City area, bringing an outpouring of emotion from both football fans and the general public.
So far more than $25,000 has been raised in Thomas' memory for his Third and Long Foundation, which promotes literacy and reading among young people.
On Sunday, about 75 people affiliated with the foundation gathered at a branch of the Kansas City Public Library to pay tribute to Thomas and what he had done for them.
They included youngsters 9-13 still active in the program, and many former participants who have gone on to college.
"Nobody graduates from Third and Long," said the program's coordinator, Donna Woolard. "It just remains part of you."
"One of my first years in the program he took us to an Italian restaurant, and there he was showing us how to hold the fork and the right way to twist spaghetti," recalled Nayala Cheirs.
She entered the program in its first year, when she was 8, and is now studying sports medicine at Park University.
She and other participants talked about the special experiences they had to thank Thomas for, from playing golf to riding in luxury cars to tasting lobster to riding on a jet-powered ski.
What Thomas started as a club activity only during the football season turned into a year-round program, with participants meeting at the library on Saturdays. Thomas would bring other NFL stars by to meet the young people, and once an astronaut was the guest speaker.
"We're not here because Derrick Thomas died," said the Rev. Saundra McFadden-Weaver. "We're here because he lived. No child will go illiterate if everybody in here goes out and does what Derrick Thomas wants them to do."
"But don't sit in this room today if five years from now you don't come back and give to somebody else."
"The least we can do is teach others how to read," said Alvin Brooks, a member of the City Council of Kansas City. "This ought to be a movement, like a snowball. It would be a dishonor to Third and Long if everybody in here doesn't carry on."
from kc star
|
|
|
|
||