In a few months, longtime football and basketball fans of the University of Maryland will get to see something that many thought might never come to fruition. On October 4th, arguably the greatest basketball player and football player will be enshrined into the Terps Athletic Hall of Fame. It took 32 years for it all to shake down, but somehow, someway, the powers that be, like 'M' Club Director Kevin Glover, found a way to make it happen.

The Len Bias story is as well known as any in sports history. Charlie Wysocki? Well, bits and pieces have surfaced in recent years but it's been mostly one that most are finally getting a chance to learn. Some may differ, but in the eyes of many, Wysocki was and maybe still is, the greatest player to ever tote the football for the Terps.

Wysocki's name litters the Maryland football record books. He's the second all-time leading rusher in school history with 3,317-yards. He's the first Terp to ever rush for 3,000-yards. He's the only player to ever rack up three 200-yard games and leads the Terps with 17 100-yard performances. He ranks fourth in career touchdowns with 26 and is tied for the most touchdowns in one game, with four against Virginia in 1981. To cap things off, he was a two-time All-America selection.

All of his accolades pale in comparison to the triumph he made surviving his childhood life in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Ironically, Charlie was born to the DeGraffenreid family on 'D-Day'. No, he didn't have to dodge the bullets of war-time bombing or stray enemy bullets. He did after to survive a family with 12-siblings and an unlawful father. His dad, Wade, lived life on the edge as a bootlegger of wine and the majority of his brothers and sisters fell into the life of crime. Prostitution, drugs, burglary, assault were the choices of several of his brothers and sisters. He even had to endure the drowning death of his 12-year-old brother. Charlie chose the football field to unleash his frustrations.

His family ties were always on the breaking point, if not for the apartment fire that left his birth family on the move, Charlie might not have been able to achieve his success on the football field at Maryland.

Not long after wandering the streets of northern Pennsylvania, Charlie was invited to spend the rest of his youth with the Wysockis, a white family whom Charlie had befriended while at Myers High School. The Wysockis were 'color blind', so-to-speak, in an era when the tension between the black and white community were heightened.

After Charlie was given the blessing from his birth mother, Margaret, to the adoption, citing that it would be a better life for her son, the newest Wysocki's football career began to prosper even more.

When the Terps came calling, Wysocki gladly accepted the offer to help keep the Terps as a national football power. The late 1970's and the early 1980's, the Terps were in the midst of gaining a reputation as 'Quarterback U'. But, with Wysocki in the backfield, Jerry Claiborne had no problems handing him the football. In fact, Wysocki once toted the pigskin 50 times in one game, a feat that in today's game will likely never be equaled.

In his four seasons pounding the football, the grind took it's toll on Wysocki and not long after his graduation and his brief free agency career with the Dallas Cowboys, Wysocki's life turned black. The countless head-on-head collisions resulted in him developing bipolar disorder. He simply vanished from his football life.

After several suicide attempts, poverty stricken and not taking his prescribed medication, Wysocki's life became a waiting game for death. Remarkably, his friend and Terp teammate, Dave Pacella, found Wysocki and for the past several years has brought Charlie back to life. He's been able to get assistance from other teammates and formed a management team called Take Care of Charlie (TCC) to get his quality of life up to standards.

Wysocki has written books and become a sought after public speaker to all kinds of groups like police cadets and even prisoners with life sentences. He's been back to campus many times and is now back in the limelight of Maryland Athletics.

"A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from Kevin [Glover] and Dave Pacella and my other teammate Dr. Mark Sobel was on the line," said Wysocki. "Kevin said that it was long overdue but it was time to put Charlie Wysocki in the Hall of Fame. I was stunned, excited and humbled all at the same time. I really didn't even know there was a Hall of Fame at Maryland until a friend of mine said something a few years ago."

Wysocki did wonder why he was never honored for the things he did to help the Maryland football team. But, he never held any grudges or anything like that.

"I'm a Christian man so I didn't ever have any bad things to say about Maryland. They gave me a chance and I'm grateful for that. As far as I'm concerned, they don't owe me anything. It's me who owes them," he said. "I am honored that they are doing this for me. But, I'm looking it as an opportunity for me to use this to help others. I mean, they are saying that I'm the best and that's the message that I can tell others. That everybody has skills and that I can help them change their life to make some good in the world."

It took 32 years for Maryland to right a wrong for Wysocki. It's also taken 28 years for the Bias tragedy to run its course.

"No, I'm grateful that me and Len are getting in on the same day," said Wysocki. "I mean, he is the greatest basketball player to every play here. I don't know if I'm the best football player but I guess I was good enough to be in with Len. When I was playing I never even knew there was such a thing. So, no, I never strived to be in this Hall of Fame. But, I'm happy that its happening."

Now that the information on the long term effects of concussions are making the headlines, Wysocki is confident that his childhood problems coupled with the hundreds of vicious hits he took from guys like Lawrence Taylor while in college, played a major role in his health condition. "I want to use all of this to keep the kids in the game," he said. "I know that the mothers out there don't want their kids playing football because they're scared of what can happen. I hope that I can help to make the game safer. I'm teaming up with another former teammate Samuel Medile, who is helping to fund a program called 'Brain Sentry' to help educate coaches and players on the proper techniques. I'm hoping to become a spokesperson for the group."

Wysocki's passion has always been football. Several years ago, he helped coach a semi-professional football team called the NETA Minors in Scranton but it has since become defunct.

"This year I'm planning on being on the staff of the Myers High School football team. We're working out the details."

The life of Charlie Wysocki has been part devastating, success, tragedy and now triumphant. On October 4th, his life will have come full circle. Once one of the most feared backs by opposing defenses in the Atlantic Coast Conference to becoming one of the few legends of Maryland Football. In a few short months, Wysocki will be back on center stage, a place where he belongs.