Friends, family and admirers honor Pat Tillman's sacrifice at a public ceremony in his hometown.
By Associated Press
Published May 4, 2004
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Before Pat Tillman was hailed as a hero for leaving the NFL to fight and die in the mountains of Afghanistan, he was a local high school football star with a bright life ahead of him.
Friends, family and others gathered Monday to mourn Tillman in his hometown, to remember a man so moved by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that he walked away from a multimillion-dollar contract with the Cardinals to join the U.S. Army.
"While many of us will be blessed to live a longer life, few of us will ever live a better one," said Sen. John McCain. R-Ariz., a prisoner of war in Vietnam for 51/2 years. "He was a most honorable man."
Tillman, 27, died April 22 in a firefight near the Pakistan border as he was leading his team to help comrades caught in an ambush. The Army gave few details of how Tillman was killed but said he was fatally shot while fighting "without regard for his personal safety."
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Hall of Famer Gene Upshaw, executive director of the players' union, attended the public memorial at a municipal rose garden. Police said 2,000 people gathered before the ceremony.
"The underlying thing was his courage and selflessness on the athletic field, in his community and now as a soldier," Tagliabue said before the service.
Tillman was eulogized by politicians, celebrities, former coaches and relatives. Tillman's brother, Kevin, who served in the same battalion, was at the ceremony.
California's first lady, Maria Shriver, read a letter from her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was visiting soldiers in Germany.
"I was told he admired me but it's the reverse," the letter read. "Pat's journey, that's the American dream and he sacrificed that. That to me is a real hero."
Shriver said Tillman epitomized the message her uncle, John F. Kennedy, delivered in his presidential inauguration 43 years ago.
"My uncle once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' You, Pat, have lived those words," she said.
Last week, the military posthumously promoted Tillman, a member of the Army's elite Ranger unit since 2002, from specialist to corporal. He also was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star.
