April 1st is well known as April Fool's Day. This is the day of which pranks and tricks are played on unwary people in order to give them a scare. Well, there was no prank being played at Greendale High School for the real Don Beebe was in the house to speak to a captive audience on "Building Character Through Sports."

The Greendale Panther Athletic Booster Club (GPABC) along with support from The Touchdown Club, teamed up to organize an event of which former Green Bay Packer and NFL legend Don Beebe would come to Henry Ross Auditorium and tell his story on how he got to where he is today. There was high school football, of which he really didn't care for at the time... Then there was college, of which he left after his first year... Then there was a construction job with his brother-in-law for a while. Feeling unfulfilled and carrying this passion to all of a sudden play professional football, he re-enrolled into a junior college to get the credits he needed in order to be able to re-enroll into the same college he did out of high school. Because of the NCAA rules, he was now classified a 5th-year senior and had actually won the starting job. Just before the start of that season, he was told that he wouldn't be able to play at that college anymore because of some NCAA technical issues. Through a strange turn of events at the hands of God, he found himself at a small NAIA college called Chadron College, located in Nebraska where he was able to play his final season. The question now was, is this going to be good enough to be noticed?

The next challenge was trying to get one of the 300 invites to the nation NFL combine held in Indianapolis, Indiana. This would be no easy feat. Then came this one particular day when he was walking from his class to his dorm, when something told him to cut through the Chadron University field house instead of walking around it like he always did. As soon as he got inside, he noticed a lot of his fellow teammates running for a bunch of overweight guys holding stop watches. When he asked his coach what was going on, his coach said that these are NFL scouts. Knowing that this maybe his chance, he asked if he could run for the scouts too. The coach said why not, but when he looked down at Don's feet, he noticed that he was only wearing flip-flops. His coach told him that you might as well forget it because these guys aren't going to stick around waiting for you to get your shoes. Don looked up to the heavens and said that he will run barefoot. He lined up and at the crack of a gun, he took off flying like an eagle and when it was all said and done, he turned in a forty time that no one else there even came close too. A scout from the Cowboys said, "Son, my watch has never stopped this fast before in my life. What's your story?"

Days later, a letter came to his mailbox. It was an invitation to the NFL combine. It was at this combine where he, and Deion Sanders broke the old forty-yard dash record. Not only did Don shock the scouts there, he also broke another record for a different drill. Needless to say, he was now noticed. This was the birth of his NFL career.

That following draft, Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy called Don up and said that he was going to be their first pick. The rest is history. He had an outstanding NFL career that included several Conference Championships and several trips to the Super Bowl. In 1996, he finally got his Super Bowl ring after several attempts, only this time, he was playing for the Green Bay Packers. He has sensed retired and now lives in Illinois with his wife and four kids. He does speaking engagements, coaches high school football, he is a Youth Minister at his church, and he is the founder of "The House of Speed", which is a special speed training program designed for young athletes.

There were many more details from his talk that were left out here, but in the end, the moral of his story was about a passion and a dream, and that nothing can stop you if you truly put your heart and soul into your dream. There will always be road blocks, but you have to jump over those road blocks to achieve your goal. It's through this process, that your true character is developed, and it's this character, that will follow you around the rest of your life.

R.A. Mattrisch