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foundation's Hall of Fame ceremonies Friday night at Hinsdale Golf Club. The inductees then took part in Hinsdale Central's homecoming parade and were recognized at halftime of the varsity football game Saturday.

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"I've had four things really monstrous, real highlights of my life, and then here comes this one," Goddard said. "I worked on that (induction) speech that column (in the Doings Oct. 8) so carefully to try and get it right. To see the faces of loved ones, all of the people who I have written about, was very emotional for me. (My wife, Carol, and I) were exhausted after the game, but it was a very pleasant tired."

 

Goddard, Mary-Dell Matchett Chilton, Jim Flynn and Jim Steinmeyer were the latest inductees for the foundation, which was founded in 1993 to provide support to the high school through alumni, parents, community members and business leaders. The Hall of Fame was established to recognize distinguished alumni or friends of the high school and had its first inductees in 1997.

 

Goddard graduated from Palatine High School after first attending Riverside-Brookfield, but his writing has touched thousands of Hinsdale Central athletes and supporters. Now living in River Forest, Goddard had been a Hinsdale resident, moving in the late 1970s.

 

"A lot of nice things were said that made me feel real good," Goddard said. "In all of the years of writing for The Doings, you never know who is reading this stuff. Then it turns out they all seem to know who I am."

 

He's written about plenty of them. Former Doings sports editor Jeff Davis, who worked with Goddard for nearly 18 years, estimates that Goddard has written more than 2,000 Time Out columns.

 

Ken Braid and Herb Briick, subjects of Goddard's first column, were among those on hand for Friday's ceremonies.

 

"That's just a fantastic honor for him to recognize what he's meant to the community, students and parents," Davis said. "You think about all of the people he's written about and touched. He's heard from a lot of people in the past that still have his articles cut out or say, 'You wrote about me,' and Joe maybe can't remember but it's really cool for him. That in itself is a great tribute when they cut out an article and hold that forever.

 

"I believe I've been told on more than one occasion that his columns have made people cry."

 

Goddard did all of the writing for The Doings sports section, including Time Out, when he first started in 1969 while also working on the copy desk for the Chicago Sun-Times. He cut back to his column after becoming a Sun-Times baseball beat writer late in the 1973 season, and he covered the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox full-time until 2000. Goddard left the Sun-Times in 2006 after taking an employee buyout package.

 

In Goddard's early Doings days, there were no girls high school sports, but also no computers and e-mail. Because of his Sun-Times job, Goddard did the Doings coverage and columns through phone calls.

 

"Sometimes I'd run the stories over to the printer (off York Road) because I was late. They got to know me," Goddard said. "I had to work hard for two full days, really hard. One guy said, 'How did you do those two jobs at one time?' I said, 'I was young and I had the energy.' "

 

Former foundation president Sally Parsons said she seeks out Goddard's column when her Doings arrives. She officially nominated Goddard for the Hall of the Fame but had no problem getting others to contribute letters of support.

 

"People talked about (nominating Goddard) in years past. I thought it was high time," Parsons said. "I think Joe Goddard's angle is sports, the athletic event, but it's the people angle he's always looking for. He writes from his heart and what he feels. You feel like you know the people he writes about, even if you don't."

 

Goddard had twice been a runner-up nominee for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This time, another Hall called with a letter. The foundation's announcement from administrative assistant Jeanne Anderko that Goddard was going to be inducted arrived in April.

 

"I almost dropped the paper. I was shaking so much," Goddard said. "I got all emotional because I didn't go to the school, but they said one person said I 'shed the light on our school.' "

 

Each inductee was given 18 minutes at the ceremony to speak or be spoken about. Goddard was introduced by Parsons and G.R. Thomas, a member of the storied 1954 Hinsdale team that allowed just six points in conference play. Goddard took the final 12 minutes to deliver a speech from his heart.

 

"I brought a sheet that I referred to with one or two words on it," Goddard said.

 

Goddard began his career in 1961 with the Indianapolis Times. Besides baseball, his famous sports interviews have included Joe Louis, Jack Nicklaus and Harry Stuhldreher, the last living player of Notre Dame football's famed Four Horsemen from the 1920s.

 

Time Out columns also have involved famous people. One of his more famous columns was about watching singer Meat Loaf pitching in a softball game with several Broadway people in Central Park.

 

About six months later, Davis met Meat Loaf at a book singing and showed him the column. An appreciative Meat Loaf asked to borrow Davis' cell phone to give Goddard thanks.

 

"Joe wasn't there to respond, but (Meat Loaf) left a message to say, 'I appreciate the article you did for me, but I never gave up a grand slam to the Phantom of the Opera,' " Thomas said.

 

"I opened up (my induction speech) saying Joe was a fantastic writer who could have done it in big business rather than sports. He thought it was easier to write about Ron Santo than Monsanto."

 

Other memorable moments in Goddard's life? He was chosen by his classmates at Palatine as a commencement speaker. "Here I am, a C student, giving commencement," Goddard said. In college, he was named fraternity president at DePauwUniversity (Greencastle, Ind.) and spent summers working in Vero Beach, Fla., then the spring training site for the Brooklyn Dodgers. This honor touches him immensely.

 

"(Being inducted) was a marvelous experience. The Hinsdale Central Foundation knocks itself out. They're so organized," Goddard said.

 

"Somebody asked me if I'd rather be in the (baseball) Hall of Fame or had the life I had. I'd take the life I had. I made a lot of friends. I saw the United States, stayed in all of the best hotels. That was a dream job, but when it was time to get out, it was time to get out. There's something to be said about retirement. It's fun."