It was a fourth quarter run that went for a 43 yard touchdown and the winning score in Super Bowl XVII that will forever live in Washington Redskins and NFL lore, as the Redskins won the Super Bowl 27-17 over the Miami Dolphins. The gentlemen that bruised and bashed his way to that touchdown was Seneca born and former Centralia Panther, John Riggins.

Riggins of course is a local legend who took his success on the football field and translated it to the NFL where he was drafted in the first round of the 1971 NFL draft by the New York Jets. John went on to a NFL Hall of Fame career playing for both the Jets and Redskins amassing 11,352 rushing yards and 104 total touchdowns. Known as the "Diesel" Riggins ran his way through people in the NFL and became one of the top runningback/fullbacks in football history.

John got his start as a Centralia Panther, competing in high school as a three-sport athlete; earning All-American honors in football, All-State in basketball and winning the 100-yard dash state title twice. But, John was not the only Riggins to put his stamp on Centralia Panther athletics as his brothers Bill and Frank both were great athletes, as well. Like John, Bill and Frank both went on to played sports in college as Bill played college football at the University of Kansas, as did John, while Frank played college baseball.

With the impact the three Riggins boys and their parents Frank and Millie Riggins had on the community of Centralia many patrons of the school wanted to honor the family and thought what better way to honor the Riggins family than name the Centralia Panthers football field "Riggins" field.

The field dedication will take place this Friday night when the Panthers play host to the Troy Trojans in a district football matchup; the dedication will be at 6:00pm before the 7:00pm kickoff. The festivities don't just center around the field dedication as earlier in the day the NFL Hall of Fame and NFL Films will be at Centralia high school to present John Riggins and his family a plaque commemorating Riggins career and the field dedication. That presentation will be at 2:00pm on Friday and all the festivities will be filmed for a documentary on John titled "A Football Life" that will air on the NFL Network.

It's sure a memorable night for the Riggins family on Friday evening with the dedication of the Centralia Panthers football field to the Riggins family.