NEW YORK -- One by one, the 12 living members of the 2007 College Football Hall of Fame induction class and two wives who represented deceased inductees told their story.

They explained what being recognized for college football's highest individual honor meant to them or their husband. They described the life journey that brought them to this hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan, sitting beneath diamond-studded chandeliers, and expressed their gratitude for the time given to explain how it happened.

Joe Paterno, the headliner of this year's class and the last to speak, listened to them all.

He smiled when one of the fellow inductees happened to make a joke. Former Ohio State quarterback Rex Kern referred to Paterno as, "JoePa, the old man," and the old man laughed.

Paterno, by far, was the most widely recognized and mentioned person in a room full of former college stars.

His ride to the Hall of Fame is well-known. The legendary coach grew up in nearby Brooklyn, attended Brown University and played quarterback there before arriving in State College as an assistant and staying there the rest of his life. In brief, that's his tale.

But the careers of those who sat on a makeshift stage inside the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel yesterday afternoon certainly didn't unfold in identical fashion. The path of Paterno is unique, like everyone's.

Chris Zorich, who at 38 is one of the youngest inductees in the hall, played defensive tackle at Notre Dame from 1987-90. But before he was recruited by the Fighting Irish, Zorich had not even heard of probably the most well-known college football program in the country despite growing up just 90 miles away in Chicago. South Bend, Ind., might as well been on the moon when compared with the gang-infested neighborhood Zorich grew up in.

"We never saw folks taking briefcases to work," he said.

When then-Irish assistant Marty Schottenheimer offered Zorich an opportunity to play at Notre Dame, Zorich said he would love to but didn't want to force his mom to fly to France to watch him play.

"You guys have the hunchback and the church, right?" Zorich asked Schottenheimer at the time.

Like Paterno, Doug Flutie was all but going to an Ivy school, Harvard. He never would have had the chance to throw a certain Hail Mary pass against Miami had Boston College not fired its football coach and left Jack Bicknell, the new one, scrambling for players late in the recruiting process.

Harvard and New Hampshire were the only other Division I schools that recruited Flutie out of high school until Bicknell started looking for "just good athletes," Flutie said. Flutie's entire senior class was comprised of players that would have played at Ivy schools if BC didn't get desperate.

Ahmad Rashad was a first-team All-American at Oregon in 1971, but part of his story is what he experiences now -- the fact that many people don't even know he played football, even his own kids, the youngest who is now 21.

When Rashad, probably most known by those in their early 20s as a voice of the NBA on NBC, meets current NBA players, they don't have a clue Rashad was the only player in Pac-10 history to lead the conference in scoring at two different positions (running back and wide receiver).

"They'll come up to me and say, 'My mom said you were a great player,' " Rashad said. "Now, I don't have to walk around telling people how good I was."

Rashad is now in the Hall of Fame, with his own story. Like Paterno and everyone else in the room.

"There are people from all different walks of life," Rashad said. "You see that in every single level [of football]. You get a chance to play with people from all different walks of life your entire career so to go into the Hall of Fame with a diverse group like this is kind of normal.

"Because that's what a football team is all about. It's a bunch of people that all come together for one purpose."

Corey McLaughlin is a senior majoring in journalism and anthropology and is a Collegian football writer. His e-mail address is cpm167@psu.edu.