Anthony Munoz returns home to Chaffey High School

For a guy who doesn’t live in Ontario anymore, Anthony Munoz is certainly connected to his alma mater.

I was at Chaffey High School on Wednesday as Munoz, the Pro Football Hall Of Famer at offensive tackle who is a product of Chaffey and USC, was honored as a “Hometown Hall of Famer” by the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Allstate.

In talking to one of the public relations representatives who has been at many of these presentations to Hall of Famers across the country, the show Chaffey put on to honor Munoz was more than many of them.

There were singers, cheerleaders, dancers as well as his high school baseball coach, Jim Semon. It was punctuated with the marching band.

Munoz thanked many people during his speech, many former coaches, but also former teachers who weren’t coaches. He apologized if he forgot anyone.

He lives in Cincinnati, the city where he played his entire 13-year NFL career. But his mom still lives in Ontario and he has other family in the area. It felt like a strong connection between man and school, even if he graduated 36 years ago.

I enjoyed it. Hopefully, the current Chaffey students did too, and judging by what I saw on twitter, they did. I was not in the area when he was in high school or in college, but I remember Munoz well in the NFL. He was an impressive player. None of the current Chaffey students saw him play, but hopefully they got a sense of who he is (as I did) and also of how he played.

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