Rivera, Holmes To Go Into High School Hall of Fame
David Flores, Staff Writer
Publication: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Section: Sports
Date: May 5, 2007
Edition: METRO
Page: 10C
Nearly 24 years after his football career was cut tragically short by an auto accident that left him a paraplegic, Gabe Rivera remains a big fan of the game he began playing in sandlot games with his two older brothers. Rivera never has met Kansas City Chiefs running back Priest Holmes, but he’ll finally get his chance tonight when the two San Antonians are inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in Waco.
“He’s a great player,” Rivera said Friday. “I’m looking forward to meeting him and all the others.” Rivera, who played at Jefferson, and Holmes, a Marshall graduate, are among eight inductees who will be honored at Baylor’s Ferrell Center. Holmes couldn’t be reached for comment.
Rivera was an All-City tight end and linebacker at Jefferson before earning All-America honors as a defensive lineman at Texas Tech, where he was nicknamed “Señor Sack” because of his ability to get to quarterbacks. Rivera was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ No. 1 draft pick in 1983 and was expected to help anchor the team’s defense for years. But all that changed Oct. 20, 1983, when he was nearly killed in the accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.
Holmes, who was known as Anthony Holmes when he helped lead the Marshall Rams to the Class 5A Division II state final in 1991, was 10 then. Holmes played at Texas and is still on the Kansas City Chiefs’ roster, although he has been sidelined by a neck injury since midway through the 2005 season.
