Post by TheShadow on Apr 22, 2006 16:45:12 GMT -5
www.contracostatimes.com
By Bonita Brewer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
John Madden is absolutely ecstatic by the prospect of being immortalized in a bronze bust at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
The only hard part is sitting still for the artist.
On Friday, the boisterous former Raiders coach-turned-broadcasting legend did sit still, a least awhile, at the Madden family's Pleasanton studio so sculptor Blair Buswell could measure and photograph his face and head.
Madden handled it, well, like a pro.
"It's a keeper," Madden, a Pleasanton resident, said of being inducted into the Hall of Fame at age 70 -- 28 years after stepping down as the Raiders coach. And he said it's important to do it right.
"We only get one shot at this -- the speech, the bust, the presenting experience. It lasts forever," he said,
But he squirmed a bit when Buswell -- who has done more than 50 of the more than 225 busts in the Hall of Fame -- said that in their next session Madden will have to sit and pose for perhaps an entire day so Buswell can get the nuances of his facial expressions.
"I can't imagine any one of those guys in the Hall of Fame sitting for a day," Madden joked.
Buswell, who spent about an hour on Friday measuring Madden's head with calipers and taking his photo, promised he won't have to sit stoically like one might for a painting and that he'll be able to talk away about his favorite subject -- football.
Those who know Madden well, including his son, Joe, and his agent, Sandy Montag, said they've never seen Madden so thrilled about anything as being elected into the Hall of Fame.
"I've never seen him this excited; he's like a kid," Joe Madden said.
"There isn't a day that goes by (since Madden's election to the Hall of Fame in February) that in some way, shape or form he doesn't talk about it," Montag said from his New York office.
Madden said he wanted his bust to be done by Buswell after talking with former 49ers quarterback Steve Young, a former college teammate of Buswell's at Brigham Young University. Buswell did Young's bust last year, when Young was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He has also done the likenesses of Bill Walsh, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and Al Davis.
The renowned sculptor said every inductee for whom he's done a bust has a unique characteristic he tries to capture. There was Don Shula's chin, John Elway's teeth and Larry Csonka's crooked nose. For Madden, he said, it's his "distinctive" eyes, and Madden himself says lots of people comment on his big and bushy, brown eyebrows.
Buswell said Madden's current features will help create the likeness, but the idea is to make the bust resemble Madden as he looked in the 1970s when he coached the Raiders. Whether that will include the sideburns and the long wavy hair Madden wore for awhile remains to be seen.
"I know your ears grow," Madden told Buswell as he was being measured Friday. "Are you going to give me big ears?"
Madden said Davis, the Raiders managing general partner, will introduce him at his induction on Aug. 5. Davis was introduced by Madden when he was inducted in 1992.
Madden is one of six to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.