Courage. Integrity. Commitment. Honesty. Respect.
Those are the core values of those enshrined in Canton. But football isn't the only field to find them in.
Through its Award of Character, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in partnership with USA TODAY, honors teachers, nurses, coaches, firefighters, police officers and veterans whose impact strengthens communities and changes lives.
This month's honoree is David Gardner, a coach and school district leader whose days begin before sunrise and often don't end until long after football practice, all in service of students, teachers and the Escambia County community.
Dave Gardner thought he was showing up for another day of football practice at West Florida High School of Advanced Technology, where he serves
as coach, mentor and inspirational leader for teens and adults alike.
Instead, he found himself standing alongside Britney Payton, daughter of Hall of Famer Walter Payton, and Hall of Fame wide receiver Isaac Bruce.
"It's truly an honor," Bruce told Gardner. "You've been a big time mentor to all of these players behind you, just your community in general, and we want to say congratulations."
The recognition celebrated a man colleagues and students describe as tireless in his commitment to others.
Those who know Gardner say his impact cannot be measured by wins and losses.
"In my 52 years, I've met very few people with the level of character Dave Gardner has," one colleague said Cody Strother, the communication coordinator for Escambia County Public Schools.
"He is a servant leader," said Keith Leonard, Escambia County Public Schools Superintendent. "He does more than anybody would ever expect of him and he does it because he wants to not because somebody tells him to"
Another colleague, Jasper Simmons who works with Gardner at the Escambia County Public Schools warehouse, described him as someone whose "Heart is big, big as this world."
And he's got a voice to match.
Gardner is a constant presence in school and on the sidelines, coaching, cajoling and carrying on with students who are decades younger. He's so boistrous that colleagues say there's a noticable silence that typically coincides with the start of football season.
"After the first three or four days, each year, I expect him not to have a voice," Leonard said.
"He loves these kids," Leonard continued. "He imparts that wisdom onto them about how to play football, but more importantly, how to be successful in school and in life."
One player said Gardner's encouragement is constant.
"He's not saying anything to put you down," said David Thompkins, a senior offensive lineman at West Florida High School. "He's always trying to pick us up."
The relationships often go well beyond football.
Gardner has a group chat with his players that can cover a wide range of topics - far afield from school and football - at any time of day.
"He'll text us at like 4:00 a.m.," said Bobby White, another senior offensive lineman at West Florida High School. "That kind of shows me how much of a selfless person he is."
"We often have deep conversations just about our lives," Thompkins said. "Conversations that I mean you don't see anywhere else on the field but like that you really need like to have with someone that you can trust."
Starting the day before most people wake up
Gardner's commitment begins long before football practice.
"I start at 4:00 a.m.," he said. "Usually up and out of bed in the truck by 4:15, 4:30."
His full-time job is serving as Director of Warehouse Operations for Escambia County Schools.
"We deliver all the food to the schools, all the instructional material, all the custodial material, anything a school or classroom is going to need," Gardner said.
The district warehouse Gardner oversees is probably the largest in that part of the state, said Jo McArthur, executive director of the Escambia County Public Schools Foundation.
At the warehouse, Gardner practices what he preaches to his players, particularly when it comes to leading from the front.
"He's often on the floor with them driving the forklift or packing orders," McArthur said.
Gardner will show up at 3 a.m. to start the day and do deliveries himself if needed, Simmons said, something that's practically unheard of among people in Gardner's position.
"His natural instinct is to serve other people," said Woods, one of the senior offensive linemen.
Helping teachers help students
Several years ago, Gardner helped launch an effort called "Tools for Teachers" that is designed to support teachers who regularly spend their own money on classroom supplies.
One colleague described the need.
"We're a very economically disadvantaged county here in Escambia County and we have kids, their mamas and daddies don't take them school back to school shopping for supplies," McArthur said.
Teachers often absorb those costs themselves, at an average personal cost of about $900 a year, she said.
Gardner said his relationships with educators helped reveal the scope of the problem.
"You start seeing the need," he said.
Working with district colleagues, Gardner helped develop a teacher resource program stocked with items educators repeatedly said they needed. It took more than a year to develop the program, McArthur said, but the overwhelmingly positive response from the teachers showed the impact of the work.
The sacrifice and commitment is typical of Gardner's family, she said.
"They give so much of themselves, sometimes I wonder how they survive," McArthur asked.
A messsage that carries across generations
Bruce, whose 16-year career included more than 1,000 receptions that totaled more than 15,000 yards, said he saw in Gardner a role model reminiscent of his own father, Jesse Bruce.
"Watching (my dad) growing up, going to work every day, his integrity, his ability to show up every day...A lot of that I saw him do, I added it to my preparation as far as football was concerned," Bruce said.
Gardner said his father - and losing him - taught him a big life lesson about putting people first.
"My dad had this heart," Gardner said. "Anytime somebody needed help, it didn't matter if we had, we were going to make sure that somebody else did."
Gardner said being available for others remains one of the most important things adults can do.
"If I still had my dad, I'd reach out to him all the time," Gardner said. "Just being available, I think that's the biggest thing we could ever do for a child is just be available."
Character in action
Thompkins, one of Gardner's senior offensive linemen, shared a story that illustrated why Gardner's influence reaches beyond the football field.
The team was eating together at a local restaurant when Gardner noticed a family with a child in a wheelchair.
"He paid for their whole family to eat with us and come and sit with us and like he led a conversation and just made the kid feel comfortable," Thompkins recalled. "That just showed how good his character was to me."
What the honor means
Others around Gardner believe the Hall of Fame recognition is fitting.
"When you think about a Hall of Fame, you think about the best who ever did it," one colleague said. "If we're talking about a Hall of Fame for people of high character, well, in my opinion, Dave's the best to ever do it."
For Gardner, however, the award is less about recognition and more about possibility.
"It shows how much more we can do for each other and our communities than just show up on a Friday or Saturday or Sunday," he said.
He hopes the attention generated by the award inspires others to act.
"It's not that somebody's going to see what I did, but it's somebody's going to see what we can do."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: This coach starts work at 4 a.m. and still shows up for his players
