He won All Pro honors eight times, was an integral part of the Chiefs 1970 Super Bowl IV championship team, was named to the NFL’s 100th anniversary team and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Many of the accolades came because of the way he played his position.
He took a cerebral approach – he learned several things from the way Muhammad Ali set up opponents by working angles and space and balance he told me Saturday – but he also had a physical prowess that he punctuated with his famed bear-hug tackles.
He adopted that technique after a head-fiist tackle as a rookie sent him to the hospital and forced him to change his tactics. His bear hug tackles stopped runners in their tracks and soon he was known as the Honey Bear.
Now it’s the name of his giving back campaign: the Honey Bear Project.
And it’s the reason, as soon as he stepped onto the CSU campus Friday, Marauders athletics director Tara Owens promptly embraced him
“As soon as I saw him I have him a big hug,” she said.
A hug for the hugger. She didn’t do it because of what he had done on the pro football field or later in the business world, as well.
She did it because of what he means to Central State.
A year ago his Honey Bear Project set its sights on installing modern artificial turf football fields at three dozen historically black colleges (HBCUs) across the country. He partnered with FieldTurf, a major maker and installer of artificial fields, and then he began raising the $50 million it will take to complete the project.
At the end of the first quarter of CSU’s Homecoming game with Allen University Saturday at McPherson Stadium, Lanier stepped onto the field with several CSU notables and handed Owens the ceremonial oversized check that acknowledged the gift.
But the day didn’t need any props. The new field, with the big gold and maroon Marauder at its center, glistened behind them. The playing surface was surrounded by a state of the art running track and a big new video scoreboard towered over the south end zone.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic canceled last season, this was CSU’s first home game in 23 months. And it was a doozy.
Even with nine starters (seven on defense) out with injury, CSU battled Allen back and forth down the field before falling, 46-34. Along with the 80 points, the two teams combined for a whopping 1,075 yards of offense and 53 first downs.
Yet, that may not have been the most unexpected thing Saturday.
A hard rain hit during the halftime festivities, but the field didn’t transform the way it did in past assaults by Mother Nature.
The past two seasons saw games inundated by rain – before and during – that turned the 72-year-old stadium’s potholed grass surface into a swamp. Players lost shoes and socks and any semblance of traction in the ooze. The games became known as the Mud Bowls.
“The teams got so muddy you couldn’t tell them apart,” Owens said.
Saturday everting was fine except for that final tally on the video scoreboard. The loss dropped CSU to 1-4 this season, but even so there’s a sense of good days ahead around he school, much of it thanks to the new field and the bigger, locally-funded project that has invested $2.5 in the program. And there’s more to come.
When the pandemic hit, CSU thought of shelving the ambitious project. It had raised some money, but not enough.
Lanier, who was voted the NFL Man of the Year in 1972 for his good deeds, entered like a guardian angel.
“Perfect timing,” Owens called it.
CSU and Virginia Union are the first schools to have their fields completed and three more HBCUs are “in the process,” Lanier said.
Owens said Lanier “gets it” when it comes to HBCU needs and the generations of underfunding they’ve faced. A big part of the reason for him is that he went to one when he came out of Clover, Virginia.
He was a walk-on at Morgan State in Baltimore and ended up as a two-time Small College All American and had a business degree he put to good use after his career.
He believes African American students should have the same opportunities as everyone else and that athletics plays a part in it. It helps many students get an education that may not have otherwise.
A new field helps a school like CSU when it comes to recruiting and making money with other events and games and camps. And there’s also a sense of pride when you look out on a field that’s now the equal of any in NCAA Division II football.
Although Lanier had never been to CSU before, he had relatives who went here.
And when he met with Marauder coaches and a few players, he had some things to share with them.
“The players would only know of me if they asked their parents,” he said.
But he said he could tell them, just like they were doing, he got his opportunity at an HBCU. Not just the football part of it, but it afforded him an education that he has used later on.
Up in a press box after halftime, his white dress shirt was still soaked, but being around him was like catching a ray of sunshine.
He’s 76, but he still looks fit and is a joy to talk to.
“I got an MRI three years ago and they told me I’ve got the brain of a 60-year-old,” he smiled. “God blessed me in my life and now it’s my responsibility to share those blessings. And I think I’m still able to inspire others.”
That’s what he did at CSU this weekend – especially with Owens.
That’s why she gave the hugger a big hug.
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