Notah Begay Delivers Stirring Speech at 2022 Hall of Fame Ceremony

Editor’s Note: Following is the speech delivered by Notah Begay III July 1 on behalf of the induction class at the 2022 National High School Hall of Fame induction ceremony in San Antonio, Texas.

This whole process has been really fun for me over the last six or seven months – just sort of re-introducing myself to some of the accomplishments that I had and learning more about the athletes, the coaches, the referees, the administrators that are part of this induction class. It just sort of opens your eyes to all the different things and how much has to go on in this industry, in this space, to make the world of high school sports move forward.

Just listening to (conference attendees) talk about their respective tasks and what they’re here to accomplish, to learn, to connect, to communicate, just tells me how much each and every one of you care deeply about what you’re doing and how much it matters to you.

I know that in many senses, the athletes – the Olympians with Gold Medals and Super Bowl rings, national championships and Hall of Fame inductions – get a lot of the recognition and the headlines in the papers, but we stand on your shoulders; we stand on your efforts; on the work you put in on a day-to-day basis.

I was walking through the lobby, and I overheard somebody talking about schedules for the fall and games and tournament brackets, and I’m like, ‘man, we’re already getting into that? You can enjoy the summer a little bit.’

But, as you know, the work never stops, and it’s for a good reason. The athletes are the ones who get a chance to go out there and run on the field or hit a golf ball or step on the court, but there’d be no court or course or field to step on without you. And we wouldn’t have anybody to play against if it wasn’t for you scheduling those games and for the officials who show up and make sure that fair play is the foremost thing that we’re looking at in terms of enriching and endearing our kids with the right principles of sports.

I think that a lot of times that gets lost in sports as we progress through the different levels and the different eras of our respective accomplishments. The group of athletes gets smaller as you get to each level. You have a lot of your buddies in middle school, and we lose some of them in high school, we lose some of them in college, and then it’s just the last few standing that are able to achieve and have the opportunity to play at those highest levels.

But what I really appreciate – and still to this day appreciate, especially having seen sports go in a variety of different directions over the last five or six years – is just the purity of the high school game; how an athlete can show up with very little experience as a freshman, but with an interest and a love for whatever it is that particular activity may be, and be able to be coached, be able to be developed, be able to be guided – not just on the field, but also in the classroom.

I just think that’s a wonderful gift that each and every one of us as athletes has experienced in our lives. We all had a chance to go receive education at some wonderful universities – myself, at Stanford – and I wouldn’t have been able to do that without, of course, my soccer coach who tutored me, but also anyone and everyone who put their time and effort into my life. My parents, my two sisters, my wife are sitting at that table and have been paramount supporters of me throughout our lives.

As an athlete, you have to be so selfish and focused in order to do your sport, and as I got away from my athletics and I segued into television, I had to grow up. I had to learn. I had to not be so selfish and be a parent and be a husband and a friend. And those are all things that I knew how to do because I had great guides and mentors in high school.

My high school friends are still my best friends in the world, and they still treat me the same way. I left professional golf and got into television, and I was doing a number for a show that we have on NBC Sports and the Golf Channel where you’re in a nice suit and a tie and you’re at a desk talking about golf. I did the show and went home back to Albuquerque and was sitting around at dinner one night with some of my high school friends and they were like, ‘wow, you look fatter on TV.’ These are my high school buddies, and I was getting defensive and I said, ‘well, you know the camera adds 10 pounds,’ and they go ‘well, how many were on you?’ So, when you want to keep it real, you always go back to your high school friends because that’s where everything is pure, and in a lot of cases, for good or bad, high school is forever.

But, every single one of you out there is doing something that matters. And it could be life or death for some kids, and it could be the difference between getting an education and not getting an education, so don’t ever think for one second that you’re not making a contribution to a young person’s life. Because every single one of us athletes who went on – and you heard it in Walter Payton’s Hall of Fame video – he was recognizing coaches who had an influence on him when he was at the high school level. IT MAKES AN IMPACT. I’m standing up here on the shoulders of hard-working, caring, dedicated people like yourselves, and on behalf of myself and this induction class and all the athletes who came before me and those who will come after, I just want to say, ‘thank you.’