NFL great Herm Edwards gives Monterey High gold Super Bowl footballs, $10K.

A special all-school rally to coincide with Sunday's Super Bowl came loaded, appropriately enough, with plenty of golden moments.

Monterey High's student body filled the stone bleachers to see the school become a member of the National Football League’s Super Bowl Honor Roll and receive two golden footballs, keeping with the gold theme of the 50th Super Bowl Feb. 7 in Santa Clara.

Attentive football fans have noticed the 50 yard markers at each NFL game have been painted gold all season.

The special event was designed to commemorate Herm Edwards' participation in Super Bowls past as an all-pro Philadelphia Eagle, and also saluted MHS Toreadores Charlie Harraway and Nate Wright, who appeared in Super Bowls with the Cleveland Browns and Redskins, respectively.

A look at some of those golden moments:

• Former MHS head football coach and teacher (and later Monterey mayor) Dan Albert Sr. proudly told the students he graduated in 1949—which drew screams of enthusiasm—adding he played for a championship high school football team. "Our school has been represented at the Super Bowl five times," he said later. "Not many high schools can say that."

• Wright, who amassed 44 interceptions for three NFL teams and played in Super Bowls VII, IX and XI, described the successful professionals in front of the students as more than athletes: "They were good students, good leaders, good citizens and good team players."

• Wright continued to say each of them—Albert included—believed his team to be MHS's best ever. Edwards replied, "Not even close." Wright said "those other teams couldn't carry our jock strap." No one laughed louder at that than MHS senior and promising multi-sport athlete Carter Aldrete, though he hung up his pads this year to focus on baseball.

• A final golden note from Wright: He recalled bussing to Monterey just a week removed from picking cotton in Georgia, arriving to find a startling range of students: "I noticed we had Filipinos, Japanese, Italians, Chinese, just about every diversity of race, even in the '60s. We learned together and played together."

• Mystifying feats from the various careers were recounted, including Edwards' intercepting 18 balls in a single MHS season, to the point that "if the offensive players saw the ball going toward Herm, they'd grab their helmets," his head coach Albert recalled. "We didn't pass much, so Herm figured he had a better chance of catching the ball on defense." The story of his swatting away a field goal from in front of the goal posts as an MPC Lobo also circulated.

• When it came to Edwards' key note, he steered things away from football and toward what he called "life skills." "It's never too early to start developing priorities," he said. "We are all a collection of choices."

• His two points of emphasis: 1) "Who do you allow in your huddle of life? That starts now, not with graduation. You choose your friends, don't let them choose you." 2) "Outstanding character, consistency and humility are important, but the most important thing: Integrity. What does that mean? Do your words and your life match up? What you do in the dark eventually comes to light."

• He added this: "A goal without a plan is a wish. What is your plan when you leave here? It starts now. Don't wait."

• A final thought closed his speech: "Don't be a follower. Be a leader. When you follow you get the same view every day. Your life isn't a dress rehearsal."

• Then a sweet twist came in: In addition to presenting the golden footballs to the school, he donated $10,000 from the Herm Edwards Youth foundation for the MHS program. His two young daughters helped their dad present an oversized check to MHS alumni and head coach.

• Current Toreadors scrambled to snap selfies with Edwards before the coaches were herded to the Jean Harmon Gymnasium for more photos.

• The footballs will live in the Main Office's trophy case.

• One note not addressed: Each of those Toreadores who made the Super Bowl lost. This year, Seaside High grad Ron Rivera, head coach of the 17-1 Super Bowl favorite Carolina Panthers, has a chance to redeem the area's big game mojo.