Former NFL players coming to York
Seven scheduled to compete in celebrity golf tournament in June at Heritage Hills
By COLIN CHMIELEWSKI The York Dispatch
The National Football League is coming to town this summer.
No, York isn't the new training camp home for one of the NFL's 32 teams.
But fans of the Dolphins, Steelers and Raiders are in for a treat.
Guests for the second annual M.J. Anderson Loving Care, Inc., Celebrity Golf Tournament will include seven former NFL players. The event takes place on June 29 at Heritage Hills Golf Resort and will help the Anderson organization raise money to build a an assisted-living home for low-income senior citizens.
Marian Anderson, the York native who established the non-profit organization in 2004, said she sought help from her relatives when she was coming up with fund-raising ideas.
"I talked with my nephew and shared my vision with him," Anderson, 48, said. "He told me that golf tournaments are usually pretty suc-
cessful. He also said he'd ask his friends to come."
It also helped that Anderson's nephew was former Pro Bowl offensive lineman Lincoln Kennedy and his "friends" happened to be former NFL players. Kennedy, who spent part of his childhood in York, played 11 years in the NFL (eight of those with the Oakland Raiders). He was one of three NFL celebrities that took part in the inaugural event last year, and Anderson said that he has spent the last year spreading the word to the NFL fraternity.
"This is all possible through Lincoln's networking," Anderson said.
This year, Kennedy has recruited former teammates Zack Crockett (who still plays for the Raiders) and Steve Wisniewski (a possible Hall of Famer who also played at Penn State) to attend the event. Former Miami Dolphins Troy Drayton and Woody Bennett (who participated last year) will also attend. Bennett is a York High graduate.
And for all the Pittsburgh fans in the area, former receiver Louis Lipps and Eastern High graduate Jon Witman round out the celebrity field.
Only Bennett, Drayton and Lipps will play golf during the event.
Former Harrisburg Negro League baseball player Wilbur "Willie" Fordham is also being honored, and will be signing copies of his book at the banquet.
Anderson said that she would eventually like to have 36 celebrities to pair with 36 teams of golfers. But for now, she is pleased with the growth the event has seen in just one year. Last year, there were 40 golfers and 130 attendees. This June, Anderson plans to have 128 golfers and up to 350 attendees at Heritage Hills.
For people interested in attending and rubbing elbows with the former gridiron stars, there are three options. To just attend the banquet and autograph session, tickets are $35. If miniature golf is your thing, $50 will get you a round, the banquet and the autograph session. Finally, if you want to test your game against Bennett, Lipps and Drayton, $100 includes golf, a cart, the banquet and the autograph session.
While Anderson is excited with the growing list of celebrities, most important to her is the senior citizens that get to attend the banquet and meet the players. She has been going around to various senior living centers in the York area and plans to honor 10 people (one from each home) at the event.
"I am trying to promote diversity in all the different senior homes, so I want to get one representative from each place to come out and join us," Anderson said.
The diversity topic hits close to home for Anderson, a former foster child who had to put both her parents in assisted-living homes in York. She said that when her mother was in the Autumn House in the late 1990s, she was the only African-American in the home. It's from that experience that Anderson drew her inspiration to create her non-profit organization with the hopes of building a home where senior citizens of all races and economic backgrounds could afford to be cared for.
"I've always had a passion for seniors and enjoyed helping them," she said. "I just didn't see any diversity when I was helping them, and that needs to change."
If Anderson's golf tournament keeps expanding at this pace, she will eventually have that opportunity, with a residence for 45 to 50 seniors in York. Until then, she will keep being thankful for her nephew's willingness to help and the chance to help people around York.
"Seeing all the smiles on the senior citizens' faces when they come out and meet the celebrities makes it worth it to me," Anderson said.
-- Reach Colin Chmielewski at
[email protected] or 505-5406. For more information on the M.J. Anderson Loving Care, Inc., Celebrity Golf Tournament, visit
www.mjanderson.org or call 792-4799.