By Bill Koch
Enquirer staff reporter

As a Mexican-American with long hair and imposing size, Anthony Muñoz stood out as soon as he arrived in conservative, buttoned-down Cincinnati in 1980.

But the 6-6, 280-pound offensive tackle from the University of Southern California, the Bengals' No. 1 draft choice that year, said he and his wife, DeDe, never felt out of place here, even though he was involved in a protracted contract holdout before he signed.

GOOD SPORTS

• Making a difference • Cris Collinsworth • Danny Graves • Bob Huggins • Marvin Lewis • Anthony Muñoz • Tim Naehring • Doug Pelfrey • Sean Casey • Willie Anderson

"As different as we were, I felt we were accepted," Muñoz said. "DeDe and I plugged in really well to this community."

Twenty-four years later, the two are still here and still plugged in. They've raised their son and daughter, and Muñoz has become one of the most respected citizens in the community.

Muñoz, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1998, has become one of the area's most visible charitable activists through the Anthony Muñoz Foundation, which he founded in 2002 "to support children of all races and socio-economic backgrounds through the planning and executing of impact programs and the funding of youth-related activities."

The former Bengal not only helps raise money for his many causes - $311,778 in a little more than two years, according to executive director Gregg Darbyshire - he devotes his time to those causes through what he calls "sweat equity."

"I've always been one who believes that hands-on is the way to do it," Muñoz said. "The money is needed to do these things, but when you're hands-on, kids are able to see that you're really going to be a part of this. You can talk about doing something but until they see you actually living it, that's where the impact really takes effect."

Muñoz runs a Hall of Fame Football Academy that consists of three different camps for boys and girls in which he attempts to include kids from the suburbs and the inner city to bring together children from different cultures.

"From someone who comes from a diverse environment in Southern California," said Muñoz, "I grew up that way. That's the best way to do it. Having played athletics for as long as I have, the primary goal was to win games. It didn't matter where you were from. You did it as a unit. I think it works that way in life."

The Muñoz Foundation also sponsors a Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year luncheon, a Youth Leadership Seminar and the AMF Scholarship Fund.

With his former Bengals teammate Cris Collinsworth and Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, he organized the first Cincinnati Prep Classic, a high school football triple-header that was played Sept. 5 at Paul Brown Stadium to raise money for an inner-city women's health center.

"I like the lifestyle here," Muñoz said. "It's a great place to raise a family. It's not a big city, but there's a lot to do. A lot of times people here don't realize how good they have it here until they go somewhere else. We love it here. We like to say we're West Coast born but Midwest bred."