As stunned as his loved ones, friends and colleagues were about the suddenness of his death, it was the graceful, dignified and exemplary life of Lee Roy Selmon that they remembered most on Sunday. The first player drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their only member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame died at St. Joseph's Hospital on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 4, 2011) surrounded by family and friends, only two days after suffering a stroke at his Tampa home. Mr. Selmon was 56.

"I called him Mr. Selmon," former Bucs tight end Jimmie Giles said. "It felt like you owed him respect when you talked to him. If you ever met Mr. Lee Roy Selmon, you knew him. You would never forget him. That first impression you got? That was the impression that was going to be with you forever." Some remembered an unwavering teammate from the University of Oklahoma who transformed the expansion Bucs from a league's 0-26 laughingstock into the NFC championship game in three years. Others knew him as a tireless worker who spearheaded the effort to bring football to the University of South Florida. Almost everyone in Tampa Bay considered him the area's greatest ambassador, as evidenced by the Tampa expressway that was named in his honor. But all agreed Mr. Selmon's giant ability on the football field was only eclipsed by the life he led away from it. Read more by By Rick Stroud, Times Staff Writer at: tampabay.com