On Saturday, MLS commissioner Don Garber was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame after first being voted to the Hall in 2016.
"I'm looking forward to it, it's unexpected," said Garber, during an appearance on D.C. United's NEWS8 broadcast on Wednesday. "It's a great honor, my family will be there ... I'm really moved by the whole thing."
When the Commissioner was voted in two years ago, the new Hall was in process, and he wanted to wait in order to honor the man who lured him from the NFL to MLS in the league's early days: the late Lamar Hunt.
“When I was told that I was going to be inducted, at that point I knew that the Hall was being built and I just thought it would be a really special opportunity for me, and really, Major League Soccer, to have a close MLS connection with the Hall,” Garber told the Associated Press. “And it would give me an opportunity to honor the memory of Lamar and to really make a strong statement on how indebted I am and how MLS is to the Hunt family overall.”
Garber went on to praise Hunt and his impact on soccer -- and all sports -- in this country.
“Probably more important than just his role in bringing me here, Lamar is really one of the true legends in the sports industry," Garber said. "He had such grace and such humility, and such a passion for the sports industry, but really a deep passion for the sport of soccer. As a young man in my early days at MLS, I was in such awe everything that he was — not just what he accomplished, but how he thought about life, and how he thought about the commitment needed to make the game permanent and indelible in this country.”
The weekend celebration also includes the 2018 Hall of Fame Game, an MLS match featuring FC Dallas and Sporting Kansas City, an NASL Legends game to mark that league's 50th anniversary and a concert headlined by Imagine Dragons.
