Buoniconti, who graduated from Cathedral High School, was inducted into the national football hall of fame in 2001.
Former Miami Dolphins great Nick Buoniconti holds his bronze bust after enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 4, 2001.In September, the Pro Football Hall of Fame launched a Hometown Hall of Famers program as a way of honoring the roots of its enshrinees.
The program began on Sept. 8 with the presentation of a plaque honoring Howie Long, a Charlestown native who starred at defensive end for the Oakland Raiders and went on to include former New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath in his hometown of Beaver Falls, Pa.
It will be Springfield’s own Nick Buoniconti’s turn on Tuesday, when he will be cited with the dedication of a plaque hosted by his alma mater, Cathedral High School, at an invitation-only event at Cathedral’s temporary home in Wilbraham.
Buoniconti, who grew up on Margaret Street in Springfield’s South End neighborhood, played football for famed high-school coach Billy Wise as a member of Cathedral’s Class of 1958. He went on to become co-captain at Notre Dame, then to the NFL where he played as an all-pro middle linebacker for the Boston Patriots and on two Miami Dolphins Super Bowl championship teams.
The 1971-1972 Dolphins went 17-0. They still rank as the only Super Bowl winner to have an undefeated season.
The NFL Hall of Fame enshrined Buoniconti in 2001. He is also a member of Cathedral’s Hall of Fame, elected in 1991, and the Italian-American Athletic Hall of Fame.
John Sadak, who played alongside Buoniconti in Cathedral’s line, will serve as master of ceremonies for next week’s event. The plaque will be presented by another teammate, Bill Kingston, quarterback of a Cathedral team which won the AA Conference’s first championship in 1955. Buoniconti started on that team as a sophomore.
Kingston estimates that “at least a half-dozen” of Buoniconti’s teammates will be at the ceremony.
Bob Griese, quarterback and teammate of Buoniconti from Miami’s championship teams, was honored with his own Hometown Hall of Famer award on Thursday at Mater Dei High School of Evansville, Ind.
“Our Hometown Hall of Famers program has been warmly embraced by communities and hall of famers alike,” said George Veras, chief executive officer of Pro Football Hall of Fame Enterprises. “We congratulate Nick and Cathedral High School on bringing a piece of the NFL Hall of Fame to the Springfield area.”
The program is co-sponsored by Allstate Insurance Co.
Buoniconti, 71, now lives in Miami and devotes his time to the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. He joined Dr. Barth A. Green to launch the research project after his son, Marc Buoniconti, incurred a paralyzing injury in 1985 while playing football at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C.
Marc Buoniconti, then 19 years old, suffered a dislocation of the C-3, 4 vertebrae, and a severe spinal cord injury that would leave him paralyzed from the shoulders down. The damage is irreversible and irreparable.
Marc fought back, and eventually transferred to the University of Miami where he became a dean’s list student in the Class of 1993. Now 46 years old, he serves as president of the Miami Project and as ambassador for the Buoniconti Fund, which has raised more than $200 million for research toward finding a cure for paralysis.
Cathedral has relocated to Wilbraham’s former Memorial School because its building on Surrey Road in Springfield was heavily damaged by the June 1 tornado. Memorial formerly served as an elementary school, and the Hometown Hall of Famers event is by invitation only because of the limited size of its auditorium. Most of the seating will be reserved for Cathedral’s student body and faculty.
Garry Brown can be reached at geeman1918@yahoo.com