Cardinals Saving Pat Tillman’s Locker Through Renovation
Renovations are being taking place at the training facility of the Arizona Cardinals, but there’s one thing that is going to remain unchanged, at least for the time being.
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That one thing is the locker of Pat Tillman. The former Cardinal and now American legend dressed in the locker when he was with the organization from 1998-2001 and it has still remained in the Cardinals locker room years later.
Here’s a really cool story from Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com on how Tillman’s locker was saved.
"Renovating the facility, and specifically the locker room, caught (Jim) Omohundro’s attention.“I thought, ‘Someone is going to want that locker.’ ” Omohundro said. “Whether it was us, or the Hall of Fame or the (Tillman) Foundation. Someone. I kept it in the back of my mind.”Fortunately, Omohundro didn’t let it go too far to the back. When work quickly began post-Super Bowl to move on the locker room change, Omohundro happened to notice a blog post on azcardinals.com that pictured the lockers coming down. Away from the facility at the time, Omohundro rushed back to make the save. Coming around the corner he feared he was too late, but one final turn to the area showed that Tillman’s former stall was one of only a few left – and a worker headed to the corner with an electric saw, ready to take them down."
Omohundro’s reaction to what he saw was pretty awesome.
"“I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we carefully cut this one out and set it aside?’ ” Omohundro said. “I explained it was Pat Tillman’s locker.”It was saved. The equipment staff later slid back in a Tillman nameplate – replete with the “old” Cardinals logo of Tillman’s era – and it waits for the next step."
The Tillman locker won’t remain in it’s currently location forever. It will eventually go on public display, probably soon after the renovations are done to the facility.
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Ever since Tillman’s passing, the Cardinals have done a fantastic job in making sure he’s still a big part of the organization. Even though he only played with the Cardinals for four seasons, he’s in the Ring of Honor and has a statue outside University of Phoenix Stadium.
Now his old locker can now be included in the Tillman legacy. It was a job well done by Omohundro in making sure that remains the case.