He and Jackie’s teammates tell stories, mostly football stories, because this is all about football and recognizing achievement, gay or straight.

Marshall has been knocking the dust off the legacy of his brother, making it shine just as their mother Violet Walker made her children shine.

Jamie Rotella, an All-American linebacker who played with Walker at Tennessee, recalled Walker was such a feared hitter that legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant designed a post-and-chop blocking scheme for Walker in 1971. Post-and-chop is common with two blockers, but Bryant used three blockers on some plays against Walker. It was diabolical, but necessary. One blocker would hit Walker head on to stand him up, two more would come — one from the left, one from the right — and neutralize him.

“We had designed a defense for Alabama for Jackie to run free and use his speed and then they came up with this illegal chop-blocking scheme and ran right at him,” Rotella said. “It was the first time I saw Jackie hurt. I knew he had a concussion, but he didn’t come out of the game. He was giving away 100 pounds to each blocker. He had a good game by anybody else’s standards, but not a Jackie game.

“He is the toughest man I ever knew.”

Herzbrun recalled Jackie’s intimidating presence.

“You could see the look of the offensive guys when Jackie was out there, they didn’t want to face him one-on-one,” he said. “Jackie had timing on his tackles. His power would come straight up through his legs into his hips and he would unlock those hips at just the right moment and just explode into a ball carrier.”

Walker was a hitter, but he also had some flamboyance on the field. Tim Priest still remembers Walker’s catcher’s mitt hands engulfing the laces of the leather football and gliding down the field with the ball outstretched from his body, practically daring an opposing player to swipe it away. But they never could because Walker was as fast as running backs and wide receivers in his day.

Regardless of whether the College Football Hall of Fame calls his name, Walker’s friends, family and teammates carry no bitterness on his behalf because he carried none himself.

Smith recalled that rather than have his family worry over him when Walker learned he was HIV positive, he started traveling. He went to France and Ghana in the late 1990s, wanting to spare his family the anguish of seeing a majestic body start to fail. He did not want them rushing to Atlanta every weekend.

“There are four or five people in your life you feel blessed you met and Jackie is one of them for me,” Smith said. “To him, his life wasn’t about being an All-American or being gay. It was about being human. Jackie was a good human.”