Many football fans in the state remember Dennis Harrah as the Charleston native and Stonewall Jackson High School graduate who went on to become an All-America performer at the University of Miami and a six time Pro Bowl performer with the Rams in the NFL.
But the untold story is how fate intervened and kept Harrah from attending college in West Virginia.
"I had scholarship offers from Marshall, Virginia Tech and Miami," Harrah told us on the Sportsline Tuesday night. "I signed a letter of intent with Marshall. Then two weeks, later everyone was killed in that plane crash. I was a senior in high school and I only weighed 192 pounds."
"I’ve always felt a little bit bad about this," Harrah continued. "I don’t want it to seem like I turned my back on Marshall but the coaches there had said freshman where going to play and start."
"Red Dawson recruited me, but I was not ready for all of that. I had a great love for the state and I followed both WVU and Marshall. I always felt a little bit bad about that and it’s always been a little hard on me."
Harrah quickly got into the weight room while at Miami.
" I just kept lifting and lifting and lifting," Harrah said. "By the time I graduated from the University of Miami, I was 6-5, 255 pounds with no steroids . I could bench press 515 pounds."
Following his selection as an All-American guard as a senior in 1975, Harrah was selected by the Rams with the11th pick in the draft. He played his entire 16 year, 168 game pro career in Los Angeles starting 144 times and playing in six pro bowls and 16 playoff games.
"My dream was not anything close to what I was able to accomplish," Harrah said. "It is so simple, but I never had expectations anywhere close to that. I’ve been very blessed."
"As happens many times in life, sometimes you don’t appreciate what is happening today until it is tomorrow."
Harrah says he can’t give enough credit to the coaches that got him started at Stonewall Jackson.
"It started in Charleston, West Virginia as a kid, Harrah said of his love for the game. "Bill Jarrett, Roger Jefferson and that whole group. All of those guys became legends in the valley. They had such a great influence on me."
Harrah was scheduled to return to West Virginia this weekend to be part of Don Nehlen chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame awards banquet in Charleston, but travel problems will keep him from attending. Harrah says he plans on spending two weeks in the state coming up in July when he will attend a youth clinic at Laidley Field.