Just like he always dreamed he would.

Mr. Munchak was one of seven men inducted Saturday into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, etching his name between Marion Motley and Anthony Munoz on the alphabetical list of the greatest football players ever to lace their cleats.

Only 27 offensive linemen are honored in these hallowed halls.

"To think you're included in that group now, with those guys .. It's just really special," Mr. Munchak said. "You start to think, 'How can this be happening to me? I mean, I don't think there's any way I deserve to be part of this.'

"That's why I don't think this will ever sink in."

And to think, this almost didn't happen. To think, one decision made the other way could have prevented Mr. Munchak from his date with immortality.

Look no further than 1978, Mr. Munchak's first season at Penn State.

"In my freshman year, I thought there was no way this was going to work out," he recalls with a laugh.

Why should he have? Coach Joe Paterno spent the better part of a season looking for some place -- any place -- to play the tall, growing player he recruited out of Scranton Central High School, where he played fullback and defensive line.

Paterno tried tight end. "Hesaw me run two routes," Mr. Munchak recalled, "and that was enough."

Then he tried defensive end. Nope, Joe Pa decided he was too slow.

"I was thinking, 'I'm in real trouble,'" Mr. Munchak laughed.

And that was frustrating. Because he says he really wanted to play defense at Penn State.

But wouldn't you know it? This happened to be the time a man who wanted future all-pro quarterbacks Jim Kelly and Jeff Hostetler as linebackers decided not to let a recruit play defense.

Mr. Munchak was moved to offensive guard.

"As soon as he put his hand on the ground," then-offensive coordinator Dick Anderson said, "you knew he was a natural."

Call it luck. No, call it destiny.

And then there was Houston.

There were Pro Bowl appearances. There were playoff runs. There was playing home games in a place known affectionately as "The House of Pain."

Boy, can a dozen knee surgeries make that a fitting name.

As the years piled on, so did the injuries and so did the constant, throbbing pain in those knees.

That pain threatened to cut Mr. Munchak's career short. But he tolerated the pain. He pressed on, even when it started keeping him from sleeping at night.

"My knee made me think about (retiring early)," he said. "I got pretty depressed about it. It was just wear and tear, and dealing with it took a lot mentally. It was just about tolerating it."

And he did, wringing every last ounce of a 12-year-career in the trenches out of them. Until they could take no more.

Call it luck. No, call it destiny.

Call it what you will. It got Mike Munchak to Canton.

It got him the chance to do what so very many only wish they could -- a national audience to thank everyone who helped him along the way. Judging by his induction speech, that's any combination of thousands of people from Houston, Nashville and his beloved hometown.

He couldn't have done it without them. But they wouldn't have been there without him, without his grit, his tenacity, his classic blocking style that stymied so many great defenders for so many wonderful years.

No one there deserved the adoration of so many fans more than Mr. Munchak. And as is typical of the proud city he calls home, they showed up en masse to cheer the local hero on. Because they know, he has done so very much to earn that title.

Call it luck. No, call it destiny.

Call it a great day for a hero.

A great day for Scranton.

A great day for football.