When I was in 6th grade at Cedar Crest Middle School my class went on a field trip to Hershey, PA to see the Go For It! Roadshow. This was around 1997 or 1998. The Go For It! Roadshow was an interactive educational health event for kids and was operated by the HealthSouth Corporation. It was meant to promote healthy living and exercise. The show ran from 1995 to 2003. In 2003, a major accounting scandal unfolded at the HealthSouth Corporation and the show was canceled.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I found out we were going. All I knew was that I didn’t have to sit in the class room for a good portion of the day. When the show started, I quickly discovered that professional athletes were involved in it. During the show, Bo Jackson walked by where I was sitting and handed me a t-shirt signed by all the athletes involved with this particular show.
Recently I rediscovered this shirt hanging in my closet. It’s been in there for the last ten years. I recognize three signatures – Bo Jackson, Matt Bahr, and Jennifer Chandler. Bahr was a kicker for Penn State, played professional soccer, and went on to play with numerous NFL teams such as the Steelers, 49ers, Browns, Giants, Eagles, and Patriots. Chandler received a gold medal in the 1976 Olympics for diving. As for Jackson, well if you don’t know who Bo Jackson is stop reading this and go open a box of ’87 Topps in hopes of pulling an autograph 🙂
Here are a couple of photos. Does anyone have an idea whose signature that is next to Bo Jackson? I’ve never known.
Bo Jackson / ???
Matt Bahr / Jennifer Chandler
**Update**
The mystery signature is of former NY Giants linebacker Steve DeOssie.
Filed under: Finds | Tagged: autographed, bahr, bo, chandler, event, field, for, go, healthsouth, hershey, it, jackson, jennifer, lebanon, matt, pa, school, signed, t-shirt, trip |
Sports Card Info 
I believe that would be Mitch Williams No. 99 for the Phillies from ’91-’93
That is from Steve DeOssie. He use to be a regular on the Roadshow along with Matt, Bo & Jennifer. I worked on the show for a number of years. It’s kind of cool to see that some of the memorabilia is still around.
Giants By The Numbers: 99 Is For …
DeOssie was a linebacker and long-snapper for our New York Giants from 1989-93 after spending the first five seasons of his career with the Dallas Cowboys. He was not a great player, but he was a solid contributor during those years. His best season was 1990, when he made 53 tackles.
DeOssie’s son, Zak, is now the Giants’ long-snapper. Memo to Zak: Hurry up and have sons, dude! Long-snapping seems to be an adventure for the Giants when a DeOssie isn’t doing it.
Thank you very much. That name sounds very familiar.
[…] month I blogged about the Go For It! Roadshow that was put together by the HealthSouth Corporation. During the show, I was given an autographed […]
The signature next to Bo appears to be HWr. Would it be Hershal Walker in ’99? He was there then. If you’d consider parting with the shirt, my daughter Elliot Patterson Williams worked with them from 1998 until the show closed. She died last year of ovarian cancer and I’m trying to gather anything I can find from her past hue get two children, ages 7 and 5. Contact me at Bevpatter@knology.net