Centralight

You were part of the 1964 Cleveland Browns team that won the National Football League championship. One of your teammates was the legendary Jim Brown, who founded the Amer-I-Can program. What is your relationship with Jim, and what are your memories of the NFL championship? Jim has a great deal of impact on my life. He's very, very positive. He's a bright guy, and he's a very sensitive and intelligent human being. Jim, like me, doesn't really like talking too much about football. Like me, he says we want to be relevant. Relevant is what you can do to help other people. What you've done as a football player really is not relevant in the everyday aspect of our development. When we won the championship, it was an unexplainable feeling because you get that euphoric aspect. You feel like you're walking on air. You're the best in the world. You just feel so excited about it. Through your position in the Amer-I-Can program, you travel the country speaking to and working with at-risk young people. What is the message you try to deliver to them? The main message is about raising self-esteem. They don't need to feel inadequate about the kinds of mistakes they make or the problems they have. They have to understand that everybody makes mistakes. We want them to understand what we want them to do and want them to be. I tell a lot of young people, 'I want for you what you want for you.' You want to be a criminal, that's all right with me. Don't you want to have a decent life? Most people want to have a decent life. They don't know how to get to it. In 1958, Walter Beach takes a photo on the field with Kelvin Price, Oarie Lemanski Jr. and Jerry O'Neil. This young lady said to me that we want everything for our kids, so our kids are spoiled. We try to give them everything we can because we didn't have everything. I said, but you have to give them values. That's what you have to give them. Not cars or money or cell phones – give them the values that you live by. That's what they're looking for. How gratifying is it for you to be in a position to help young people change their lives? It's very rewarding. For me to be in New York, and to walk down Fulton Street and all of a sudden someone yells out, 'Mr. Beach! Remember me? I was in your program.' We didn't turn her out to be a scientist or to cure cancer, but she got a job at Macy's and she goes to work every day and she loves it. She was on the road to being a criminal, so it's very rewarding, very fulfilling. Walter Beach, center, joins the CMU Chippewas on the sidelines and cheers on his team. He received recognition – and a framed jersey – during halftime. You have always been very public in your stance on societal issues. Would you like to see more public figures use their platforms to take stances on political or societal issues? I would like to see that, but I don't decide that. People have to do what they can do. If that isn't what they have a predisposition to do, then I haven't walked in their shoes. A lot of guys say, 'What about the big stars? They don't do anything.' I say, that's their choice. But I want to make myself relevant. If they don't want to be relevant, then that's on them. • centralight spring '12 5

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