Dave Fleming is going into the western Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame for the second time, but his former teammates would like to see him in a hall north of the border for the first time. Once would be enough for them.

Fleming, who was a quick, durable and punishing running back for some of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' greatest teams, will be inducted into the Pennsylvania shrine at a ceremonial dinner in Pittsburgh on April 23 in recognition of his productive years (1965-74) in Ticat colours. Two years ago, he went into the hall's semi-pro wing for his work coaching the Pittsburgh Colts to the national semi-pro championship game in the late 1970s, and for the single season he played with the Pittsburgh Valley Ironmen, a year before he came to Canada.

Angelo Mosca and Don Sutherin, whose hall of fame careers overlapped the decade Fleming spent in the Hamilton backfield, both feel he should be in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, for his two-way skills and because he represented what that era's best team in the east stood for.

"As soon as he got up here I thought, 'This is a tough kid,'" Sutherin says. "He could block, run and catch the ball. And he played both ways.

"For an American to play that long up here at running back? You don't hear of that very often. And with the records he held in Hamilton, that's hall of fame material right there."

Nicknamed "The Fly" by his Hamilton teammates and "Scooter" back home, Fleming took a swing pass from Joe Zuger against the Argos on Labour Day 1971, and ran it 108 yards into the end zone for the longest pass-run reception in team history. For six of his 10 years here, Fleming lined up in the backfield with Willie Bethea, and even back then there was still only one ball. Without a "featured running back," both players' overall stats may have suffered but the team benefitted. Fleming played in two Grey Cup games (1967 and 1972) and won them both.

"We (1967) had the greatest team ever," Fleming says. "Ever."

Fleming averaged a strong 4.6 yards per carry in the CFL, still ranks sixth on the Cats' all-time career rushing chart and when he retired, his 3,398 yards stood third behind only Gerry McDougall's 4,270 and Bethea's 3,919. He scored the only touchdown in the 1972 Grey Cup, the last won by a Hamilton team at home, and still ranks fourth in career rushing attempts and rushing touchdowns. In the '72 game, he spent a lot of time at slotback, blocking for Dave Buchanan.

Raised in Pittsburgh, Fleming went directly from his high school backfield to semi-pro at age 18, "because my grades weren't good."

During an Ironmen game, the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers were scouting both Fleming and the quarterback, "but the quarterback wouldn't give me the ball because he was being scouted too. Then he got hurt, the backup came into the game and he liked me. So he gave me the ball, and the Steelers signed me to a contract."

Ralph Sazio, the Tiger-Cats' legendary and firm-handed coach and general manager, tried to lure Fleming north that year but he stayed on Pittsburgh's taxi squad for the season, then was picked up on waivers by the New York Jets for the following season. He had already played two pre-season games and was rooming with Joe Namath when Sazio called a second time.

"He said that he'd pay me $2,000 more than whatever I was making, and he'd make me a starter immediately," said Fleming, who was earning about $6,500 a season with the Jets. "So I said I'd be up there right away."

Fleming, like his teammates, feels his major contribution to a dynastic era should have garnered him more lasting recognition in Canada.

"How many American running backs do you know who spent 10 years in the Canadian game?" he asks rhetorically. "I'm not even on the Wall of Fame."

His wife Susan was stricken with multiple sclerosis 30 years ago, and he has been caring for her since then.

"I carry her everywhere," he says.

After his CFL career, Fleming returned to Pittsburgh and began competitive weightlifting, setting numerous records, including the bench press (360 pounds) for the 55-to-65 age group.

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And he never regretted leaving NFL taxi squads to become a starter in another country.

"Ralph Sazio used to say I was one of his favourites," Fleming says, laughing. "And this was after he'd just yelled at me for two hours. He was the craziest coach, and the best coach, I ever played for.

"When I watched the Ticats give up that long pass play this year when they would have gone to the Grey Cup I thought, 'If he ever saw that, Ralph Sazio would jump right out of his grave.'"