Every kid has a childhood hero. For Ray Didinger, that hero wasn't a poster on his bedroom wall—it was Tommy McDonald, the undersized dynamo who helped the Philadelphia Eagles win their last NFL championship in 1960.

 

At Eagles training camp in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a ten-year-old Ray asked Tommy for an autograph. What he got was so much more: Tommy made Ray his "little brother," inviting him to carry his helmet to practice every summer. Those two weeks each year became the foundation of an unlikely friendship between a working-class kid from Southwest Philadelphia and the most electrifying receiver in pro football.

 

Ray grew up to become an Emmy-winning sportswriter while Tommy's post-career years brought a painful wait. Despite Hall of Fame-caliber statistics, he watched class after class inducted without him. When Ray was appointed to the Hall's Board of Selectors, he faced a choice: maintain professional distance or fight for the man who had shown such kindness to a boy with an autograph book.

 

Ray chose to fight. His campaign culminated in 1998, when Tommy finally received the call—and delivered an acceptance speech for the ages, dancing to the Bee Gees and tossing his 35-pound bronze bust into the air. But backstage, before Tommy took that stage, Ray finally revealed a secret he'd kept for decades: he was that little kid from training camp.

BOYS TO FAME explores hero worship, intergenerational fandom, the brutal cost of the game, and what happens when a childhood dream comes true for both the boy and the man he idolized.