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 ALBANY, N.Y. (April
30, 2009) -- It’s hard to imagine a
state supreme court justice quitting school. It’s also hard to believe
that a Hall of Fame athlete was the last player chosen for pickup games
when he was a boy.
But both are part of the personal history of
Alan Page, who shared his life experiences and advice with students at
Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School on April 30.
A member of the National Football League and
College Football halls of fame, Justice Page has been a member of the
Minnesota Supreme Court, the state’s highest court, since 1993.
“Whatever success I’ve had has been due in
part to seeking excellence, trying to be as good as I can be,” he told
the students. “It took me a long time to learn that. It wasn’t there
when I was your age, but I learned it over time.”
You can read more about Justice Page’s visit
to Myers in
the
May 1 Times Union.
A native of Canton, Ohio, Justice Page was
an All-American defensive tackle at Notre Dame and helped lead the
Fighting Irish to a national championship in 1966. The Minnesota Vikings
drafted him in the first round in 1967 and he was among the NFL’s most
dominant defensive linemen throughout most of his career.
He was named the NFL Most Valuable Player in
1971 and Defensive Player of the Year in 1971 and 1973. He helped the
Vikings to four Super Bowls and was selected to nine straight Pro Bowls
in his 12 seasons in Minnesota. He finished his career playing four
seasons for the Chicago Bears. He recorded 173 sacks during his career
and returned to his hometown as a member of the NFL Hall of Fame in
1988.
That same year, he and his wife, Diane Sims
Page, founded the Page Education Foundation to provide financial and
mentoring assistance to minority college students in exchange for those
students’ commitment to further volunteer service in the community.
The foundation has awarded grants to nearly
3,000 students who have given nearly 200,000 volunteer hours to younger
children. This year the foundation anticipates that its 650 Page
Scholars will reach 15,000 children.
After earning a political science degree
from Notre Dame, Justice Page enrolled in law school early in his NFL
career. He told the students he realized immediately he was in over his
head and dropped out. Eight years later, he tried again, and this time
succeeded in earning his law degree from the University of Minnesota Law
School, studying full-time while playing football full-time.
He also related stories from his childhood,
when he sometimes was the last kid chosen for pickup games -- especially
basketball -- until he found he had a special talent for football.
He urged the Myers students to stay focused
on education – not just on the specific information they are asked to
learn each day, but also on the process of “learning to learn.”
“Keep in mind that there
is a direct connection between what you do today and what you do in the
future,” he said. “One of the things that you are doing now by working
in the classroom is putting yourselves in position to be able to choose
what you want to do in the future, whatever that might be.”
The City
School District of Albany serves approximately 8,300 students in 18
elementary, middle and high schools. In addition to neighborhood
schools, the district includes several magnet schools and programs, as
well as other innovative academic opportunities for students. The
district is more than halfway through its comprehensive facilities
project to newly build and/or renovate nearly all of its elementary and
middle schools. The ultimate goal of the facilities project is to
provide schools with the resources necessary to help students succeed in
the 21st century.
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