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| Wellington Mara Laid to Rest | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 30 2005, 07:12 PM (38 Views) | |
| KCGirl | Oct 30 2005, 07:12 PM Post #1 |
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Shaper of Young Minds (aaahhhhhh!)
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October 28, 2005 NEW YORK – He would have been embarrassed by it all, his son John said. The police escort, the crowds, the bagpipes playing, and especially all the attention he received. Attention was something the unpretentious Wellington Mara never sought in his life. But Mara had touched too many lives in his 89 years to be given an unadorned farewell. So today Mara, who passed away Tuesday from cancer, was remembered with love and praise at a one hour, 45-minute funeral Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where every one of the 2,200 seats was filled. Hundreds of fans stood on the sidewalk across the street from the famed church to honor Mara, who was with the Giants for every one of their 81 seasons. He began as a ballboy when his father, Tim, purchased the team in 1925 and at his death was the team’s President and co-Chief Executive Officer. “As painful as it is to say goodbye to someone you love so much, to someone who has been such an important part of your life, I could not help but think when I sat down to try and prepare this how fortunate I am and all my brothers and sisters are to have Wellington Mara as our father,” John Mara said in his eulogy. “He was the finest man they we have ever known or hope to know and he was our dad. “Many years ago his good friend Tim Rooney said something to me that I have reflected on many times since. ‘You realize, don’t you, that your father is the best example of how we should all live our lives. You will never find anyone better to emulate.’ Over the years as I have watched my father live his life, I have come to realize how true those words were and what a role model he really was.” Wellington Mara’s 11 children and 40 grandchildren were not the only people who knew that. Generations of Giants players, coaches and employees, as well as scores of people in the NFL and beyond, revered Mara for his virtue, fairness, wisdom and compassion. Frank Gifford, a fellow member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Mara’s closest friend, was another eulogist. “I know we are all still suffering from the loss of this great man,” Gifford said. “But I know, too, that we can celebrate one of the incredible lives, and know, too, where he is. He is at the right hand of his longtime head coach in the heavens with his Lord and God.” His Eminence Edward Cardinal Egan, who had known Mara for more than 20 years, spoke of his friend in a moving homily. “As one friend of Well put it to me at the wake on Thursday evening, ‘No one has said a negative word about him, Cardinal,’” Egan said. “I will tell you why. There was nothing negative to say. He was the best and that is all there is to it.” Egan called Mara “an icon of goodness” and noted that the deeply religious Mara attended Mass every morning. “Faith played a huge role in making Wellington Mara the kind, decent, caring human being that he was,” Egan said. The funeral was attended by dozens of NFL luminaries and former Giants – or, as Mara called, them, old Giants. That group included Lawrence Taylor, Y.A Tittle, Andy Robustelli, Phil Simms, Harry Carson, George Martin, Jessie Armstead, Phil McConkey, Mark Bavaro, Doug Van Horn, Dick Lynch, Jim Burt, Dave Brown, Bill Ard, Brad Benson, Bart Oates, Karl Nelson, Ottis Anderson, Dave Jennings, Matt Bahr, Sean Landeta, Brad Daluiso and Howard Cross. Four head coaches of other NFL teams were in attendance: Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, John Fox and Romeo Crennel – all former Giants assistants. That they would leave their teams two days before a game was an extraordinary testament to Mara. Also present was Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis, who was once a Giants aide to Parcells. Many NFL owners were there, including Jeff Lurie of Philadelpha, Woody Johnson of the Jets, Robert Kraft of New England, Pat Bowlen of Denver and Jerry Richardson of Carolina. So was NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, former New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, Monday Night Football analyst John Madden, Baseball Hall of Fame Ralph Kiner, New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman and NFL Players Association President Gene Upshaw. The Giants’ entire team and coaching staff attended the funeral. They were part of a seven-bus caravan that departed Giants Stadium at 8 a.m. Tiki Barber led the Giants into St. Patrick’s. General manager Ernie Accorsi and coach Tom Coughlin and his wife, Judy, shared a pew. At 10 o’clock, Mara’s casket was brought into the cathedral accompanied by a bagpiper playing “Amazing Grace.” The family followed the casket down the cathedral’s long center aisle. Mara’s wife of 51 years, Ann, held hands with her two oldest sons, John and Chris. The alter was decorated with four bouquets of red roses, two on either side. Mara’s oldest daughter, Susan McDonnell, and Chris Mara delivered readings. After Egan’s homily, daughters Maureen Brown and Meghan Brennan read the Prayer of the Faithful. Shortly afterward, Gifford spoke about his friend of 53 years. “I had three stages of knowing Wellington Mara,” Gifford said. “He was my boss for many years, then he became a father figure, then as we both got a little bit older, he became my dearest friend, someone I could always count on, somebody when I was troubled that I could go to. He was that way and meant that for so many of you who are here today. “One of the most memorable times came when I went into the Hall of Fame and I asked him to be my presenter. He was eloquent, as he always was, and I was so honored that he was there. As we looked into the faces of all these people, Wellington turned to me and introduced ‘A man that any father would be proud of to have as a son.’ I will never forget that. And a few years later I had the opportunity to stand in the same place and say to the same audience, ‘This is a man who any son would be proud to call a father.’” Then it was John Mara’s turn to remember his father in an address that was remarkable both for its content and the poise with which it was delivered. John Mara spoke of Wellington’s bedrock faith, love of family, loyalty and his lifelong commitment to the Giants. “Next to his faith and his family, the thing my father loved most was his team, the team that he spent 80 years of his life around,” John Mara said. “His father wanted him to go to law school after his graduation from Fordham in 1937. ‘Just give me one year with the team,’ he pleaded. My grandfather agreed and that number turned into 68. He never went to law school, he went to spend the rest of his life, with the exception of four years that he served in the Navy during World War II, around the team and the sport he loved so much. “One of the visions I will always have of him is sitting on the equipment trunk prior to Super Bowl XXXV, alone in his thoughts, a scene I had witnessed so many times over the years. No pregame parties or festivities for him. He was where he wanted to be, with his players and coaches, but off to the background so as not to interfere. During our road games, he always sat in the press box. Never one for a fancy suite or entertaining people during a game, his focus was on the game. He always maintained his composure and often tried with mixed results to calm his family down, more so his daughters than his sons. I remember one game years ago when a particular player was having a tough day and some of us became a little exasperated with him. At one point I yelled out, ‘What is he doing out there?’ My father put his hand on my shoulder rather firmly and said, ‘What he’s doing is the best that he can.’ “My father had a special relationship with Giants fans. It amazed me that he answered nearly every letter a fan wrote to him no matter how derogatory they got. ‘They are our customers,’ he would say. ‘They’re just demonstrating how much they care about the team and they deserve a response.’ Mara often interjected humor into his eulogy, which will long be remembered by anyone who heard it. “He attended nearly every practice from mini-camp right through the end of the season,” Mara said of his father. “It didn’t matter if we were 10-2 or 2-10, he was there wearing that old floppy hat, carrying that ridiculous stool, and usually wearing a shirt or a jacket that was almost as old as he was. Each year our equipment manager would give him the new apparel for the season and it would always wind up in the same place, stuck in the back of his closet, and out would come the same old and battered outfits. When we changed our logo several years ago back to the traditional lower case, ‘ny’ he actually started wearing some of the shirts that he had worn the last time we had used that logo more than 25 years before. ‘I knew they would come back,’ he said.” Earlier, Mara had spoken of his father’s unshakeable Catholic faith. “My father’s faith was his strength,” Mara said. “It never wavered no matter what happened in his life, no matter how sick he was. He and my mother went to Mass every day and made sure that we went on every Sunday and Holy Day. Long after we were married with children of our own, he would still call to remind us about an upcoming Holy Day of Obligation. Each year at Christmas time, the confession schedule of our parish was hung on the refrigerator door with a little handwritten note: “No confession, no Santa” he wrote. “As sick as he was, he still received communion every day in the hospital, his rosary beads never left his hands. His family was his pride and joy. He was married to my mother for more than 51 years and they had as wonderful a marriage as I have ever seen. I can’t even remember them raising their voices to one another. They met, of course, in church when a woman fainted and they both ran to assist her. My father later claimed that the whole thing was staged by my mother’s Aunt Lil in order to get his attention. Well, after 51 years of marriage, 11 children, 40 grandchildren soon to be 42, I would say that she got his attention. When my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary about a year-and-a-half-ago right here in St. Patrick’s, my mother asked him if they could renew their vows. He was very reluctant at first. ‘The original ones haven’t expired yet, have they?’ he said. Of course, he went along with it, but when Cardinal Egan asked him during the ceremony, ‘Will you accept children lovingly from God?’ the look on his face seemed to say, ‘Your Eminence, I think that ship sailed a long time ago.’” Many in the gathering choked back tears as Mara concluded his remarks. “He may be gone from this world and we certainly grieve over that,” Mara said. “But we also rejoice over our good fortune in having had him with us for so long, for the extraordinary life he led and for his spirit, which will live on in his children and grandchildren for generations to come. When my father’s brother died 40 years ago, Arthur Daley, the well-known sportswriter of The New York Times, wrote a column lamenting the loss of his good friend Jack Mara. My father had that column on his desk for all these years and the last line from that column is a quote from Hamlet: “Now cracks a noble heart. Goodnight sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” Cardinal Egan perhaps best summed up Mara. “Wellington Mara,” he said, “was a Giant in every best sense of that word.” NOTES • Following the funeral, the Giants bussed back to Giants Stadium, where they ate lunch, then had their normal Friday meetings and practice, which ended at approximately 5 p.m. The Giants host NFC East rival Washington on Sunday. Both teams are 4-2. Everybody practiced with the exception of cornerback Will Peterson (back) and linebacker Carlos Emmons, who has a slightly torn pectoral muscle. Emmons’ availability for the game will be determined shortly before kickoff. Wide receiver Plaxico Burress returned to practice after missing the previous two days with a sore shoulder. He is still listed as questionable for the game. • Early this morning, Tom and Judy Coughlin visited the Mara family at the funeral home where Wellington Mara had been waked. He then left the Mara family to go to St. Patrick’s. “I thought it was a beautiful ceremony for a great human being,” Coughlin said. “I thought the fact that there were so many people there was a tribute to the way that he led his life. I thought that John Mara’s expressions in tribute to his father were sensational There was laughter, there were tears, there was reality. He captured all kinds of moments which anyone who knew Mr. Mara could relate to. That made it even more personal. John made everyone in the church personally involved in the life of his father by virtue of the words he chose to describe him. It was the most personal, emotional part of the funeral Mass. “I know this is a hard day for the family. But you have to celebrate the life, which is what we’re all trying to do.” |
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3:19 AM Jul 11