Joe Klecko, pride of Chester and Temple, named to Pro Football Hall of Fame

PHOENIX — A man who never played organized football until his senior year of high school in Delaware County will be enshrined this summer in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After the official announcement made Thursday night as part of the NFL’s annual Honors ceremony, Joe Klecko will become the first former Temple Owls player to go into this Hall of Fame.

Klecko himself got the official news last week when Joe Namath showed up at his door with a TV crew.

“It was real cool,” Klecko said. “It was awesome.”

The Chester native and St. James High graduate made his name as a star of the New York Jets famed New York Sack Exchange. Klecko played 12 seasons in the NFL, 11 for the Jets, and made the Pro Bowl four times, twice at defensive end, twice at defensive tackle. He had 78 sacks in his career.

» READ MORE: Klecko has the best tales going back to Temple and Chester.

Even after starring at Temple, playing for College Football Hall of Fame coach Wayne Hardin, Klecko said he didn’t see future NFL stardom for himself.

“Oh God, no,” Klecko said last week of being drafted in the sixth round by the Jets. “I was so afraid that I wouldn’t get drafted.”

The other 2023 Hall of Famers: Joe Thomas, Darrelle Revis, DeMarcus Ware, Ken Riley, Chuck Howley, Ronde Barber, Don Coryell, Zach Thomas. The Klecko selection by a Hall of Fame senior committee sounds like it will be a popular one with players of Klecko’s era.

Howie Long, the Villanova graduate who made it into the Hall of Fame in 2000, said Klecko was a role model for him as a pro.

“He was a boxing champion in college,” Long said this week. “And I followed him up with that in college. We played in Pro Bowls together. You’re talking about a guy that had over 20 sacks at defensive end and made the pro bowl at defensive tackle, dragging a bad leg around for the last four or five years. He [still] ended up going to the Pro Bowl.”

Klecko has to be the first member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who ever got into the ring with Joe Frazier, sparring with the former heavyweight champion of the world while Klecko was a champion college boxer at Temple.

Ahead of this announcement, Klecko told tales of how his path to the sport was littered with obstacles. Some he had imposed on himself, choosing work over football for most of his time at the now-closed St. James, deciding to join as a senior, ending up making all-state. He was recruited to Temple out of the Aston Knights of the Seaboard Football League, recommended by an equipment manager who saw him play for the Aston team.

Although Klecko is the first former Owls player, the Hall of Fame actually will be inducting a Temple University graduate for the second straight year, after former NFL director of officials Art McNally was enshrined last year. McNally died on Jan. 1 at age 97.

This year’s enshrinement ceremony will take place on Aug. 5 in Canton, Ohio.

Gustav Elvin and Vaughn Johnson contributed reporting to this story.