Steelers

Getting To Know Steeler Rashard Mendenhall

(KDKA) Like any Steeler fan, I'm always interested in seeing who the team picks each year in the draft. This year's first-round pick, as you no doubt know, was Rashard Mendenhall, a highly-regarded running back from the University of Illinois.

Okay, fine.

But then I started learning more about Mendenhall. That he grew up in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, same as me-- at least until i was eight years old.

He went to John Middleton Elementary School for a time-- same as me.

He showed early signs of being an elite athlete, same as... okay, i won't even try to kid you on that one.

But recently Rashard and I got together back in the old neighborhood to compare notes on growing up there, and finding very different paths here.

Skokie is one of the older, inner suburbs of Chicago. It's about a dozen miles north of the towers of Downtown Chicago, and just a couple of miles from the shores of Lake Michigan. I remember it as a great place for a kid to grow up: Good schools, safe streets, nice homes. But what I remember most about Skoke is… hot dogs.

Now if you've ever had a real Chicago hot dog (or Polish sausage), you understand. In no other city in America are encased meats as highly regarded and expertly prepared and served as they are in Chicago. All-beef weiners on steamed poppy seed buns with mustard (never ketchup), relish, onion, and pickle. Chicago dogs are right there among my fondest childhood memories, particulary from a couple of classic places on Dempster Street, Poochie's and Herm's.

So when I got together with Rashard Mendenhall back in Skokie, I asked him what his favorite hot dog place is. And he tells me he doesn't really have one. Not that into hot dogs, he says.

I am momentarily stunned, but then I begin to realize this is a running back -- and a Skokie kid-- who truly cuts against the grain.

He tells me he wasn't a Bears fan as a kid; he preferred the Raiders. Didn't root for either the Cubs or the White Sox -- didn't really follow baseball.

Grasping now, I ask, "Bulls fan? You had to be... Michael Jordan, Pippen... "

He sighs, and cautiously explains he was a Knicks fan. I suggest we end the conversation right then and there, kidding only a little. I can't believe the kid was immune to the excitement generated by Michael Jordan and the Bulls' six championship seasons.

"I think that was my thing," Mendenhall says. "Because everyone else loved him so much, I had to kinda play the devil's advocate."

Clearly, Rashard Mendenhall's way is his own way. It started as a little kid, at Skokie's Lee Wright Park.

"There's a field back there", he says, "and I don't know how many yards I had on that field, but if they kept stats on that field, I'd have a lot of yards from that field alone, a lot of touchdowns. I was always real good with the ball. It even got to the point where at recess it would be unfair... I had to be quarterback because they wouldn't let me have the ball. My running style when I was young was like Barry Sanders. Just stop and go, cut, nobody could touch me."

Joe Galambos began coaching Mendenhall as a grade-schooler and says he could recognize his special talent right away.

Galambos and Mendenhall have been close ever since, and Mendenhall even moved in with the Galambos family as a teenager.

Galambos continues to advise Mendenhall to this day, and says he's can't wait to see him in a Steeler uniform.

Says Galambos, "I think something that Pittsburgh fans are really, really going to appreciate is that Rashard is just a tremendous human being and a tremendous athlete. They'll really enjoy his talent and his catching ability, his athleticism and his speed. It couldn't have been a better spot for him in the NFL."

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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