Kalani’s homecoming game Saturday has been canceled. Anuenue couldn’t scrape up enough players and forfeited again. But the Falcons still planned to hold a pep rally on campus Friday morning … a very special one.
This is the 50th anniversary of Roy Gerela’s graduation. He was a football and baseball player from the class of 1965.
But anyone who followed the NFL in the 1970s remembers him as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ All-Pro kicker when they won three Super Bowls.
This is his first time back to Kalani for an official reunion. It also happens to be during the season when the NFL is celebrating a significant 50 — the 50th Super Bowl.
As part of the festivities, the Super Bowl High School Honor Roll will present golden footballs to the prep alma maters of every player and head coach who has appeared on a Super Bowl roster.
Gerela was born in Alberta, Canada, the youngest of 10 children. "We were pretty poor, lived in almost a shack," he said.
His father died when Roy was 15, and a family decision was made that he would live with his sister and her husband, Edith and Bill Orr.
After a few months in Tacoma, Wash., Bill Orr’s company transferred him to Hawaii, and that’s how Roy Gerela ended up at Kalani. He adjusted quickly and thrived. Retired University of Hawaii women’s basketball coach Vince Goo was a classmate and friend.
"You know how it is, ‘Who’s this new guy?’ Then he gets on the football field, the baseball field. OK, he’s all right," Goo said. "A humble person, but a heckuva competitor. He didn’t have to talk about it, he just did it."
One of Gerela’s post-NFL jobs was coaching at his college, New Mexico State. He recently retired as a high school teacher and coach in Gadsden, N.M. He stays busy as an ambassador with the NFL’s Heads Up Football Program.
"We teach (coaches) proper tackling technique and about issues like hydration and concussion," Gerela said.
It seems a strange role for a retired kicker, but then you remember he played defensive back in college, and also was a powerful running back at Kalani.
"We’re excited about having Roy on campus," said principal Mitchell Otani, a 1972 Kalani graduate. "When I was a kid I’d watch him play at Honolulu Stadium. When he made it to the NFL, it was, ‘Yeah! Gotta root for the Steelers, he’s a Kalani grad.’ Then a couple years later we lucked out again and Lenn Sakata made it to the majors."
When Sakata got a World Series ring as a Baltimore Orioles infielder in 1983, Kalani became the first Hawaii high school to produce an MLB champion and also a Super Bowl winner. It remains the only one.
Now, 50 years after graduation, Roy Gerela is back at school for a day.
"I’m just looking forward to seeing everybody and enjoying renewing friendships," he said. "You go through life and when you hit this point, the reflections are of how important a role all your friends and acquaintances played in contributing to your success. You constantly learn from everybody."
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
