DALLAS Youve probably heard the basics of the story by now, and if not they will surely be pounded into your consciousness numerous times over the next seven days: Aaron Rodgers(notes), the undersized, unknown quarterback at out-in-the-boonies Butte College, attracted the attention of Cal coach Jeff Tedford only because he happened to be throwing to teammate Garrett Cross, a tight end the Golden Bears were recruiting.

While watching Rodgers zing preternaturally accurate passes to Cross on an autumn day in 2002, Tedford had one of those revelatory, What the moments that every college coach craves. During the three-hour drive back to Berkeley, Tedford stunned that such a talented player was there for the taking called and offered Rodgers a scholarship.
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Rodgers holds the trophy for Most Outstanding Offensive Player of the 2003 Insight Bowl.
(Steve Grayson/WireImage)

The rest of the plot played out rather conspicuously, and it will reach a new level of hype this week as Rodgers prepares to lead the Green Bay Packers against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium on Sunday.

As you sift through the narrative, know that when Rodgers says his past experiences as an unrecruited high school beanpole from Chico, Calif., and an anonymous JC quarterback, helped instill the drive that brought him to the precipice of superstardom, he speaks from the heart. And if his story resonates with overlooked athletes in every nook and cranny of this football-obsessed nation, its felt on an even more personal level in his Northern California hometown, where you can frolic in one of Americas grandest and most gorgeous civic parks, catch a buzz at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, visit the state university that Playboy ranked as Americas No. 1 Party School nearly a quarter century ago and, if youre a kid whos very good at sports, have a very tough time getting noticed outside of Butte County.

Chico is off the beaten path, and not a lot of big-time athletes come out of the area, says former Chico High standout Mike Sherrard, a talented wide receiver who played 11 NFL seasons for four teams. For Aaron to reach such heights is awesome, because maybe it will help the people who come after him get noticed. Trust me I know what its like to be ignored.

And trust me I know more about the unlikely journeys of world-class athletes from Chico than most humans, because by a quirk of fate I happen to know all of them. OK, just four of them, but arguably the four most important ones to come out of the town in the past three decades. (And if you disagree? Hey, its my Mount Rushmore, and Ill chisel the likenesses as I see fit.) I also live close enough to the town of roughly 80,000 to pay the occasional visit to watch my kids compete in various sporting events, and lets just say that when I need to assess my Mexican food options, I have some very accomplished advisers.

Like Rodgers, whom I met as he was lifting my alma mater to heart-fluttering heights and have enjoyed covering ever since, Chico native Haley Clark (nee Cope) achieved athletic greatness at Cal. One of the unlikeliest success stories in the history of swimming, Copes triumphs and travails were chronicled in my book Golden Girl, which ended with her winning a silver medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics while her friend Natalie Coughlin dominated.

Another improbable Chico-raised Olympian, Emily Azevedo, finished fifth in the bobsled competition at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. Before she pushed massive sleds down icy tracks, she helped mold my children into the little hypercompetitive angels they are, so Im kind of biased when extolling her virtues.

Sherrard, a former Dallas Cowboys first-round draft pick, signed with the San Francisco 49ers before the 1989 season, when I was a rookie beat writer working for a now-defunct paper in Sacramento. After more than two decades of covering pro football, I regard him as one of the coolest, most intelligent and genuinely nice athletes Ive encountered and the dude was a pretty good player, too.

Yet Sherrard didnt get any attention from college coaches during his high school career, save one visit from an Idaho State assistant named Mike Sheppard, who is now the Cincinnati Bengals receivers coach. He was the only coach who came and talked to me and I think the only reason he did was because our names are so similar, says Sherrard, now a Hollywood producer and assistant coach at Southern California football powerhouse Oaks Christian High School. He wont admit it, but I really think thats what it was.

In the 90s I was with the Giants and he was coaching with the Browns, and I saw him down on the sidelines before a game. He said, Do you remember me? I said, Yeah! You came by Chico High when you were at Idaho State, and you didnt offer me a scholarship. And thank god you didnt cause I wouldve taken it.

Instead, Sherrard used his academic credentials to get into UCLA and enrolled in summer school before his freshman year to satisfy English and math placement requirements. He happened to walk by an unofficial workout involving the Bruins football team and was surprised by what he saw. I was thinking these guys would be like Lynn Swann, Sherrard recalls, but I realized that they werent that much better than me.

Sherrard later approached offensive coordinator Homer Smith and asked if he could try out for the team. He said, Sure, why not? Sherrard recalls. He probably figured Id be a tackling dummy.

Azevedo, a track standout at Chico High, was a star hurdler at UC Davis who was finishing out her final semester of coursework when she started watching my kids. The following winter, around the time of the Torino Winter Olympics, we were standing in my kitchen when she blurted out, So my coach was talking to the U.S. bobsled federation about me, and theres a chance I could fly my way out to Lake Placid and go through some tests to see if Id be someone they might be interested in. Do you think I should do it?

HELL YES! I answered in about 0.4 seconds only I might not have said hell.

It wasnt a smooth process, but by that summer Azevedo had worked her way onto the U.S. World Cup team and headed off to exotic locales like St. Moritz, Switzerland, which is where she was when I checked in with her last week. It was a bummer to lose her she was a great babysitter who is lovely in every way, and lets just say that if I neglected to walk her to her car late at night, I wasnt particularly worried, other than for the safety of any creep who might be foolish enough to hassle her.
Chico's Emily Azevedo finished fifth in bobsled at the 2010 Winter Games.
(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Three-and-a-half years later she teamed with driver Bree Schaaf to finish two slots away from the medal stand at Whistler, and she spent the next several nights celebrating accordingly. Sleep-deprived and drained upon returning to the States, Azevedo was stunned to find nearly 100 people waiting for her as she disembarked at Chicos small municipal airport.

It was pretty incredible, Azevedo recalls. I had tried to keep it a secret knowing how hellish Id look after not getting much sleep for four nights, and there were people waiting there with signs and stuff to congratulate me. At the time I didnt appreciate it. Now, looking back, I appreciate it a lot more.

Thats the thing about Chico. The entire town comes together to support one of their own.

Azevedo got to know Rodgers, who attended rival Pleasant Valley High, as the two recent high school grads trained together at a local fitness center not the one, incidentally, owned by Chico native and former 49ers defensive lineman Jeff Stover. So shes happy for his success both on a personal level and a practical one.

When I tell people Im from Chico, its mostly the party-school thing that comes up, Azevedo says, referring to Playboys 1987 ranking of Chico State University atop its list. I then ask them if they know of Sierra Nevada its fun being somewhere and pointing out the Chico, CA on the bottle. Now when I tell people Im from Chico, theyre going to say, Oh, thats the place Aaron Rodgers is from.

Though Azevedo assumes her chances of repeating as Chico Sportsperson of the Year are roughly the same as those of Brett Favre(notes) winning Green Bay Sportsperson of the Year in 2011 I dont think Ill be beating out Aaron this year, she says, laughing shes thrilled that the town is probably out of control with Packers fever this week.

I am sure Chico is going crazy with him going to the Super Bowl! she says. I cant tell you how many random people from home emailed me or wanted to shake my hand when I got home from the Games. People would come up to me and tell me, Thank you. I could never really understand it, but they told me I inspired them and showed them that anything is possible no matter where you are from. It still happens when I come home, and it surprises me every single time.

Clark, the only member of the quartet who still lives in Chico, says she receives little in the way of fanfare. There were some nice things when I was at the Olympics, she says. One of the swim-team parents went around and got billboards donated that said, Good Luck, Haley. There were about five of them around town. But the only place anyones ever stopped me on the street and recognized who I am was Australia.

Then again, there are times when a lower profile has its privileges. In college, Clark posed nude in a Girls of the Pac-10 pictorial for Playboy, appearing under the nom de plume Natasha Paris. Nobody has told her they recognize her from that spread, either. That would be even weirder, says Clark, who runs a Chico-based swim school with her husband, Brian, In my current line of work, I occasionally tell parents, Dont Google me.

An afterthought in Cals 1998 recruiting class, Cope blossomed in Berkeley, earning Pac-10 swimmer of the year honors in 2000, and kept improving after she graduated, a rarity in competitive swimming. She makes a point of mentioning other Chico-raised success stories, including ex-Golden Bears mens swimmer and 1992 Olympian Roque Santos; Stover, who won a Pac-10 shot put championship at Oregon and later started for the mid-80s Niners; and former Chico High teacher Jack Yerman, who won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in the 4x400 relay. Other notables include former major league reliever Pat Clements and Sherrards mother, the former Cherrie Parish, who competed in the 80-meter hurdles in the 1964 Olympics and later coached track at Chico State, where she and her late husband were both professors.

Rodgers, of course, is now experiencing a measure of fame that will dwarf that of all the others combined. In recent days, Clark says she has been amused while reading the Chico Enterprise-Record, noting, Its amazing how many people are best friends with Aaron Rodgers. Everybody knows him and has been hanging out with him since they were kids. At the pool, everyones wearing Packers stuff, and hes all people are talking about.

And while Clark, who has three young children, says she plans to pay only casual attention to the pride of Chicos performance on Super Sunday If Im home and cleaning the house, that might be on television instead of Pandora, for once, she says count her among the legions of residents eager to pay a visit to Rodgers father, Ed, a local chiropractor.

I hear his father is a fabulous chiropractor, Clark says. And I may be visiting soon, after having an 11-pound, 2-ounce baby [six months ago].

And when not-so-little Ansel Clark grows up, goes off to college and tells people hes from Chico? Well, he should probably get used to hearing all about a certain quarterback who, a little more than eight years ago, would have killed for a tiny bit of name recognition.