The New Orleans Saints' win in Super Bowl XLIV wasn't the only feel-good story of the weekend.
Saturday at Salem State's O'Keefe Athletic Center, seven former athletes were honored, six by having their numbers retired and one with the unveiling of a new trophy case in the lobby.
Surrounded by family, friends and teammates, basketball standouts Evelyn Oquendo, Sue Rizzotti Melanson, John Galaris (who also is the school's former ahtletic director), and the late Robert Goodwill, along with hockey greats Michael Gilligan and Dick Lamby, the latter a member of the 1976 Winter Olympic team, were honored in a noontime ceremony.
Also honored was Robert H. Cooley, Class of 1969, who played on the SSC basketball team and died recently of cancer. His former employer, Savings Bank Life Insurance, donated a new trophy case in his memory, which stands in the O'Keefe Center lobby just outside the Twohig Gymnasium.
Salem State has a great athletic tradition including an NCAA Division III women's basketball championship won by the 1986 team on which Oquendo starred. But while it is one of the largest institutions of higher education in the commonwealth and is now on the verge of achieving university status, Salem State continues to retain that small-college feel and close connection with the community in which it is located.
No person exemplifies that link better than Oquendo, who grew up in Salem, led the Witches' girls basketball team in high school, and as she noted Saturday, was able to achieve her dream of a college education by attending school in her hometown in an environment that stressed academics as well as athletic accomplishment. With her proud parents and siblings looking on, Oquendo said she thought winning the national title would be the highlight of her years at Salem State — until that spring day she was handed her diploma. Today she teaches at the city's middle school.
"The college provided us with the foundation with which to go forward," Galaris noted in his remarks, a sentiment echoed by the other speakers.
It wasn't Miami — indeed, the wind chill in the plaza outside the O'Keefe Center had to be in the single digits — but Saturday's event left everyone with the same warm feeling Saints fans had Sunday night.
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