Attending a networking event in the Hall of Fame suite at last week’s 76ers pre-game to honor our Wilt Chamberlain fund scholars got me thinking.

There’s that song called Hall of Fame that’s also got me singing about it, too. According to Script/will.i.am, champions aren’t the only ones that can be in the hall of fame, even students can be.

Typically in the 76ers and Flyers hall of fame suite, you’ll find basketball and hockey greats lining the walls.

Dad’s over in the corner with Alex duking it out for the basketball. Meanwhile I’m one of three judges who are involved in a small way in the awarding of the Wilt fund scholarships so I was meeting with our hall of fame students.

And here I have that Hall of Fame song running in my head again.

Standing in the hall of fame
And the world's gonna know your name
'Cause you burn with the brightest flame
And the world's gonna know your name
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

It's much better when they sing it than what's happening in my head right now.

It's super fun to have this annual meet and greet with the alums and the current scholars about the schools their attending, their majors, and their hopes and dreams for the future.

I talked to a Stanford graduate (she proudly wore her sweatshirt), and she said how valuable the mentorship program was that we offered our scholars before the pandemic.

She reminded me of my own mentee who couldn’t make it back for the event. I often felt like she should have mentored me.

If truth be told, I’m a bit lazy. And in college? I was out for a good time. There was no Dean’s List for me, maybe if there was an F-U-N List.

But my mentee started as a nursing major, and by the end of the first semester, she said, “Why a nurse when I can be a doctor?” So she switched majors–her idea of fun.

The way I did college, it was easy to change majors.

But, in the medical world, nursing and pre-med tracts don’t mix. So missing one semester’s a big deal. She loaded on the classes, attended summer school, and got back on track.

She was also involved with so many clubs I couldn’t keep track of them all.

Plus, she worked.

I was most concerned she’d experience burnout. So I checked in with her periodically, waiting for the day she would say it was too much.

Of course, that day never came.

Boy, did she teach me a thing or two about “burning with the brightest flame” and the true meaning of college?

All this talk about the hall of fame and how any of us could be in it has got me wondering: who are your top five picks? Make that six. Dad was the sixth man when he played on the winning championship team with Wilt.

Family doesn’t count. They count for everything, I know, but in this case, it can be famous people you don’t know or even friends, just no nepotism.

Who inspires you and makes you feel you can do anything, even when you’re feeling nothing but?

That makes me wonder, who are mine? Good thing I asked you first. How could I narrow all of you down to only six?

Even Wilt couldn’t pick six. Just joshin. That was from Wilt’s 100-point game playing for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks (169-147) on March 2, 1962–only one of the reasons he’s standing in the hall of fame.