MAPLE PARK – Kaneland alumnus Don Beebe, one of three NFL players to appear in six Super Bowls, delivered an all-school assembly address at his alma mater Thursday afternoon.

It was the final item on Kaneland's agenda before a three-day weekend, so some of the program inevitably intersected with teenage angst, even though a golden football was involved.

As the guest of honor reminded the student body of its potential to emerge from a small, partially rural community to achieve something in any field, several audience members rapidly internalized the message. Sophomore Matthew Olson, a would-be Beebe? Hey, why not?

"It's pretty cool that a guy from Kaneland accomplished all that," Olson said. "We all look up to him. I mean, every year, you go watch the Super Bowl. You've got all those parties. And then he was actually in it. He was from Kaneland. He was one of us."

A postseason call-up for the boys basketball team, Olson and his teammates pattern Beebe's early athletic stages more than they know.

The 5-foot-11 speedster, who celebrated his 51st birthday in December, described himself as "a basketball junkie" before former Knights football coach Joe Thorgesen expressed confidence in Sugar Grove's most fleet-footed son. Beebe also competed in track and field as a Knight, and before leaving campus told the current team to "Enjoy the halls" that also saw the 1983 graduate's shoeprints during winter workouts.

"Seriously, I did not like football. I didn't like contact. I just didn't like putting the helmet on and sweating," Beebe said. "I liked putting the helmet on in the backyard. It was always fun. The guys, when we were growing up in Sugar Grove, we would play all the time. But for some reason, organized football. …"

On Thursday, Beebe and a cast of family, friends and former coaches hailed his nine-year NFL career as a wide receiver and its legacy. Beebe accepted a commemorative golden anniversary football he received as part of the NFL's salute to its 50th Super Bowl last month, memorabilia that now will be displayed at Kaneland.

The man who appeared in Super Bowls four times as a Buffalo Bill and twice as a Green Bay Packer knew the gesture was coming. A trick play during Thorgesen's introductory speech, however, brought Beebe to joyful tears.

Saluting Beebe's humility and endearing recognition of his roots and alma mater, Thorgesen presented Beebe with a duplicate of the No. 22 football jersey he wore during his prep career, complete with the schools' bygone hints of orange. Thorgesen then told the crowd no Knights football player would ever wear the number again.

Beebe called the jersey retirement "the greatest reward" of his football career at any level. At the end of his remarks, he presented his own jersey to Kaneland, the one he wore for the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII.

"I thought I was going to surprise them with my jersey, and here they surprised me with the jersey and the retirement of the number," Beebe said.

Beebe donned No. 22 as a nod to his older sisters, Beth and Diane, who took a shine to it during their developmental sports days. The siblings kept the tradition at Kaneland along with Beebe's younger brothers, Dan and Dave.

Another athlete at Beebe's first collegiate stop, Western Illinois, already had No. 22, so he took No. 5, which he also wore at Chadron State in Nebraska. Beebe wore No. 82 in 116 games with the Bills, Packers and Carolina Panthers for an elementary reason: The Bills selected him 82nd overall in the third round of the 1989 NFL Draft.

Longtime Kaneland English teacher Kurt Green sported a green, home Beebe Packers jersey Thursday, which included a minutes-old autograph on the numbers. Green arrived at Kaneland a few years after Beebe graduated but has been a lifelong Packers fan.

Green's relatives in Union Grove, Wisconsin own a dairy farm in which "there's a TV in every room, in every barn," Green said.

Current Knights football coach Tom Fedderly, an assistant to Thorgesen before taking the program's reins in 2007, grew up northwest of Union Grove, in Wisconsin Dells. Another Packer backer, Fedderly proudly transported the Super Bowl XXXII jersey to the Kaneland athletic office after the assembly. Fedderly also fondly recalls Super Bowl XXXI, played after the 1996 season. The only Super Bowl in which Beebe was on the winning side saw Packers Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre hand Beebe the game ball after the final snap.

"That was a great one. That was awesome," Fedderly said. "I've got that hat at home."

While Beebe saluted the Packers fans in attendance while playfully razzing those who root for the Bears, he stressed that grit and perseverance translate regardless of athletic interest and acumen. Beebe credited his parents, Don Sr. and Barb, who both were in attendance, for instilling his work ethic.

Beebe also reiterated an undying appreciation for his high school coaches – Thorgesen, Bob Pederson (basketball) and Ralph Drendel (track).

"It's inspiring how he was presenting, saying that he's just one of us," said sophomore Blake Feiza, also a basketball call-up. "That really got to me. Because I could do something with my life, then. That really shows it. Because, you know, all the teachers say that you can do whatever you can put your mind to. But he actually did, which is pretty cool."

Beebe's wife, Diana, and three of the couple's four children proudly looked on from a front row seat, flanked by dozens of people who could corroborate their husband and father's glory days.

He may not have spouted decades-old scores and statistics as readily as Beebe, but Pederson noted how "Donnie" the shooting guard led the Little Seven Conference in scoring as a senior. Beebe was the Knights' sixth man during his junior season of 1981-82, when the program advanced to the state tournament.

"What a blessing," Pederson said, "to have five seniors and then your first guy off the bench is Don Beebe. … You always knew that you had Beebe sitting there, ready to play. It was kind of a luxury, because he was a fine, fine basketball player. But he's just a great guy."

Super Bowl XXXII marked Beebe's final NFL appearance. He remains an assistant for the Aurora Christian football team, which he guided to IHSA Class 3A state championships in 2011 and 2012, but stepped away from the head coaching role to spend more time with family.

Beebe wanted to have more time to watch his son, Chad – another wide receiver who wears No. 82 – play for Northern Illinois.

Beebe's parents still live in Sugar Grove, where the family relocated in 1969. For the past 13 years, Don Beebe Sr. has driven a school bus for Kaneland District 302.

"A lot of people come up to me. 'Are you Don Beebe's dad?' Yeah, I am," Beebe Sr. said. "People I've never even seen. The name is still out there."

The late 2012 release of a Beebe biography, "Six Rings from Nowhere," which still carries film and TV development potential, Beebe said, ensures the story isn't fading away.

Some might respectfully suggest a footnote to the title, though.

Thanking Beebe again before dismissing students, principal Jill Maras reminded Beebe he didn't come from nowhere, but from a tight-knit Kaneland community that won't soon forget one thing.

Beebe always will be one of them.