At Camden ceremony, Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier finds you can go home again
CAMDEN - When officials unveiled a sign honoring football great Mike Rozier, almost everyone in the crowd let out a cheer.
But one woman wept.
It was 93-year-old Beatrice Rozier, who later explained the tribute recognized more than her famous son’s accomplishments.
"When they honored him, they honored me,” she said after a ceremony that drew a crowd to the family’s former neighborhood in East Camden. “They honored (Mike Rozier's) dad, who just passed two years ago.”
What's improved on 27th Street corridor?
The April 9 event marked completion of a $10 million city- and state-funded reconstruction of the 27th Street corridor, previously considered among the worst roads in Camden.
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Among other improvements, workers rebuilt the heavily traveled street between Marlton Pike and Federal Street.
They widened the half-mile stretch to include a parking lane for residents, who previously pulled their cars onto the sidewalk.
The project also upgraded curbs and sidewalks, improved signs and striping, and paving for alleys.
And the street received a ceremonial name, Mike Rozier Way.
“My family grew up on this street; me and my five brothers were always out playing some kind of game,” recalled Mike Rozier, 63, who was a track and football star at the East Camden school then known as Woodrow Wilson High School.
“And no matter where I was for work or college, Camden was always home,” said Rozier, who won the 1983 Heisman Trophy as a running back for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Rozier also played in the National Football League for the Atlanta Falcons and the Houston Oilers.
Teammates and coaches from Rozier’s high school days were among those who gathered for a ribbon-cutting near the Marlton Pike intersection.
The former star and a brother, Guy Rozier of Pennsauken, comforted their mother as she reacted to the sign's message.
Beatrice Rozier, now a Willingboro resident, noted her family had lived on 27th Street for about 30 years.
“I walked it many times,” she said, noting motherhood led her to regularly check on the children at play.
“We had holes in the street," she acknowledged. "But I didn’t see the holes, 'cause I was taking care of these kids."
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: In East Camden, 27th Street corridor is rebuilt, repaved, improved
