Irvin, Modano among inductees
TEXAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME

WACO (AP) - Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin looked at Mike Modano and told the highest-scoring American-born player in NHL history that he still looked like he was 25 years old.

"I don't feel it," Modano responded with a smile after two of the most recognizable champions in Dallas professional sports history embraced. "We're getting older."

Irvin, a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Dallas Cowboys, and Modano, who was on the 1999 Stanley Cup-winning Dallas Stars, were among eight people inducted Tuesday night into the TexasSportsHall of Fame.

Irvin attended the ceremony, a requirement for induction, despite flu-like symptoms that kept the charismatic and usually outspoken former Cowboy from doing his three-hour radio show earlier in the day.

"I'm certainly not my usual self," said Irvin, managing to smile between coughs. "I wouldn't have missed it no matter how poorly I feel. I was going to make it. I'm blessed to be here."

Women's soccer standout Mia Hamm was also part of the Texashall's 2007 class, along with former Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes; former Baylor and Cleveland Browns offensive lineman Jim Ray Smith; former Texas A&M and Houston Oilers defensive tackle Ray Childress; former North Texas State and Dallas Texans running back Abner Haynes; and Granbury High coach Leta Andrews, the winningest girls basketball coach in the nation.

Irvin had never been into the TexasHall of Fame before Tuesday, not even for the past inductions of teammates Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. Once inside, Irvin stopped and stared at the exhibit of former Cowboys coach Tom Landry, who drafted the receiver 11th overall in 1988.

"I just looked at Tom Landry for quite a while, and thought about I wouldn't be here had he not pulled the trigger to get me," Irvin said.

The 37-year-old Modano, in his 18th season with the Stars and the only player remaining who moved with the team from Minnesota to Dallas in 1993, is the first hockey player inducted into the Texashall.

"Being a little kid skating on the ponds of Detroit, you don't really visualize this," Modano said after viewing his exhibit that included references to being a three-time Olympian.

When Hamm was slated for induction last year, she was unable to travel to the ceremony while pregnant with twin girls, who turn 1 later this month.

Hamm won two World Cups and two Olympic medals while competing on the U.S. women's soccer team for 18 years, retiring after the 2004 Athens Olympics. Part of a military family, she grew up on Air Force bases in San Antonio and Wichita Falls, where she played high school soccer.

"So much of my personality and my competitiveness was forged here in this state, competing against all the boys that I did, and on the girls teams, and having the support of friends and families and coaches here," Hamm said. "No matter where I end up, there will always been that connection."

Hamm still has a house in Austin, but she is married to baseball player Nomar Garciaparra of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and home is "wherever my husband is playing right now."