On his way to becoming an NFL legend, former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Franco Harris used to carry the ball for the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Which used to have the WVU Mountaineers on its regular schedule.
Which — it doesn’t really need to be said, if you were there — also meant great woe unto anyone in a Blue and Gold jersey who had the audacity to try to tackle him, once he got going.
The Hall of Famer regularly bowled over Mountaineers during his three years as a Penn State starter from 1969-71.
Three brawling wins over the school from Morgantown that left deep bruises the next morning: 20-0, 42-8, 35-7, respectively, with Harris making more than one visit to the end zone in each outing.
Friday, he’ll have some friendlier interactions with another group of Mountaineers whose team is Monongalia County Schools.
He’s scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. at South Middle with cooks in the district whose goal is to bowl over students in the cafeteria for the start of school next week.
Brian Kiehl, the district’s director of child nutrition services, holds the session every year at this time.
The recipe is one part pep talk and four parts how-to, Kiehl said.
“With all the federal guidelines on nutrition in schools, there’s a lot to it,” Kiehl said.
Since 1990, Harris has had a lot to do with nutrition himself.
That was the year he and Lydell Mitchell, his college teammate, founded their Super Bakery enterprise in Pittsburgh.
No sports bar here: Harris majored in hospitality management at Penn State and was long-thinking of coming up with a nutritional offering that children would actually enjoy.
It came in the form of the nutrient-packed donuts that are a signature item of his bakery, which counts convenience stores, institutional places and school districts, including Mon County’s, among its clients.
That’s how he met Kiehl a couple of years ago.
Besides the shop talk, the discussion turned to all things gridiron in Pennsylvania.
Harris grew up in the Keystone State and Kiehl did, too.
Kiehl’s hometown, in fact, has an interesting NFL dynamic swirling on every kickoff.
The nutrition director hails from Erie, where one stakes one’s Sunday afternoon allegiances early in autumn.
“In Erie, you either root for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Buffalo Bills or the Cleveland Browns,” he said, “since they’re all about equal distance away. My house was a Steelers house. Don’t get me started on the Browns.”
Kiehl wasn’t just impressed with the nutrition notes on the packages of the Super Bakery offerings his office handles.
He was bowled over by the NFL proprietor’s work ethic and humble demeanor, too.
The old running back told Kiehl about Super Bakery’s early days, when he and Mitchell would huddle up for a third-and-long work shift.
Harris back then made deliveries and placed the product himself, which made for some funny moments.
People dropping in to a 7-11 for their morning coffee would glance over at the burly, yet smiling guy, who … well … looked familiar.
Kiehl broke into Pittsburghese — not bad for a guy from Erie — as he recounted the Super-sightings.
“Hey, are yinz seein’ this? That’s Franco Harris, an’at.”
“C’mon, man. That ain’t Franco. He ain’t gonna be staahkin’ no shelves.”
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