On the plaque: Two-time first-team All-America and first-team All-Ivy every year he played varsity. Graduated with 200 career receptions and 26 TDs, both Penn records, and was second all-time with 2,365 career receiving yards. Caught 138 passes in Ivy League games, an Ivy record. Had the top three seasons in program history in receptions and the third, fourth and fifth-best seasons in receiving yards. Five games with 10 or more catches, tying the school record twice with 12 in a game. Class of 1915 Award recipient. 1993 Ivy League Rookie of the Year. 1995 PSWA Amateur Athlete of the Year.
 
When Miles Macik came to Penn in 1992, all he was hoping to do was make some sort of a contribution.
 
He came as a wide receiver, even though he was even more into basketball. And he arrived at a time when the Quakers -- after undergoing a long-overdue re-emergence that had gotten them six Ivy League championships in the 1980s -- had experienced three straight losing seasons and were about to welcome a new coach in Al Bagnoli, who'd been very successful at Division III Union College in upstate New York.
 
But he came nonetheless, for the same reasons that many young people do. For him it was more about opportunity. And not just on Saturday afternoons.
 
"I was a two-sport kid," said Macik, who went to Marlboro High in east-central New Jersey. "I was 6-4, maybe 180, so I was a (swingman). Now I'd be a point guard. I had some (scholarship) offers from small Division I schools and D-IIs for hoops. That was always kind of my passion. In football the schools recruiting me were just so much better: the (military) Academies, New Hampshire, Maine, William & Mary (all in the Yankee Conference). I had the Ivies and Patriot League. I wanted to play basketball. Then my dad sat me down and said I really didn't have a choice. It was a chance to get an education at Penn.
 
"In hindsight, I was blessed. What seemed to be a sacrifice at the time wasn't. Football was so good to me. But it was hard then. I took my visits, and I just fell in love with the place. It was close to home. Maybe it was a leap of faith."
 
Present head coach Ray Priore, who was then an assistant, was one of the staff holdovers who survived the transition. He was the one who sold Macik on the possibilities.
 
"If not for Coach Ray, I wouldn't have been there," said Macik, who is now a prominent lawyer in the Detroit area. "He told me about the direction they were heading. It was mostly a feeling on my part. I don't know how else to tell you. I looked at Colgate really hard. But there was something about Penn. When I walked into Franklin Field, it just felt right. I hate to say it, but it was more luck than anything else that I picked Penn.
 
"Think about it. You're making such a big decision that's going to impact the rest of your life, and you're a high-school kid. I had no idea of the significance of the moment, the choices you make … I wasn't a top-tier (prospect). A lot of it was based on academics. Everything that's happened to me was because of playing football at Penn. It changed my future, in ways beyond being an athlete."
 
But not before he made all-timer kind of contributions, for a team that would win back-to-back Ivy titles his first two seasons and put together a 24-game winning streak. He couldn't play as a freshman—coincidentally, the last year that freshmen weren't eligible for varsity football in the Ivy League—but the program's record with him was 26-3. He caught 200 passes for 2,365 yards and 26 touchdowns, in an era where the ball didn't get thrown nearly as much as it is today. He was first-team All-Ivy three consecutive times, and first-team All-American twice (1993 and '95). Many of the records he set have since been broken, but that's the way the game evolves. Especially when a Justin Watson eventually comes along with a full four years. But Macik will always be one of the program's greats. And for that he is being inducted into the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
"When you're playing, you never think about something like this," Macik laughed over the phone. "They didn't even have a Hall of Fame yet when I was there. When you do think about something like this, it's unbelievable. Penn has had a lot of great players. I was fortunate to play with some of them. I know what this means.
 
"When I got the call from Coach Ray to tell me, there were tears in my eyes."
 
Hey, you can bet there were wet eyes on the other end of the line, too.
 
"He might not have been a guy who was a 3-star recruit or whatever, but he had talent," Priore recalled, with pride in his voice. "And even better, had had all the intangibles you could want. He worked so hard. He was a student of the game, all year long. He ran precise routes. He could go up and get the ball. And he was part of something that turned things back around here. It's hard to put a proper value on that.
 
"When you talk about Miles, he checked all the boxes. We've had so many success stories. He's certainly one of them. It's great to see not only what he did here, but after he left. That's what truly matters. For us he was a great teammate and a great leader. He was one of those go-to guys who, when plays needed to be made, you know he would make them. You expected him to be good every single time. That's special.
 
"You get to know them when they're here, and you share that part of their lives. Then you get to see them 10, 15, 20 years later, and it just reinforces everything you felt back then. I definitely got choked up when I called to congratulate him. It was fun to deliver that news. But it does get emotional. When we recruited him, you never know how it's going to turn out. Maybe he might have had a better basketball career somewhere. I get the feeling some things are just meant to be."
 
Miles got his shot in the pros, but a back injury and circumstances conspired to get in the way. He did make the Detroit Lions as an undrafted free agent, and later played in NFL Europe (the same season as Kurt Warner). However, soon he moved on to the rest of the journey. And that's been fulfilling too. Doesn't mean he never wonders about the what-ifs. But he realizes that if nothing else, he'll always have those days as a Quaker. Memorable days.
 
"This is no BS," he said. "The things I learned at Penn helped me become better at fill in the blank. A better lawyer, a better person, a better father, you name it. But who can understand that when you're 18 years old? For me, it was kind of the perfect storm. When I got there I had Jim McGeehan as my quarterback. Local kid (Roman Catholic). Then I had Mark DeRosa my last two years. You couldn't get any better than those two. And the program was coming back in a big way. We were all in it together. The only thing now is Mark (a former major-league baseball player) has a better job than me (as a TV analyst for MLB Network). How about that?
 
"Seriously, my goal as a sophomore was just to make the travel team. That was always the joke. I had no idea. I kind of fell into a good situation. Sometimes that's what has to happen, you know? I didn't accomplish anything by myself. We won championships. Our pictures are always going to be on that wall for what we did as a group. That's what makes this all so humbling. The records are only going to be there for so long. But lifting trophies and getting rings, those images never go away.
 
"We went from coming out of nowhere to the team that everyone wanted a piece of. Bad. But we didn't lose for over two years. We put our egos aside. We were so tough mentally. And physically. It taught me so much. And it made my transition to the real world a lot easier."
 
He thought about being a sports agent. Then he chose law school. Only problem was, the term had already started weeks earlier. And that can be an issue. One day he walked into the admission's office at Detroit Mercy, just trying to see if anyone could point him in the proper direction. A Dean who just happened to be there asked if he could help in some way. So Macik told him his story and showed him his credentials/resume. They talked. The Dean said he would take a look. Some 30 minutes later he returned and asked him if he'd ever been convicted of a crime or arrested. The answer was no.
 
"So he asked if I could start the next day," Macik said. "If I'd played a few years in the NFL, maybe that never happens. Or maybe I wouldn't have wanted to go back to school at that point. I might have been a coach. Maybe I would have hit Coach Ray up for a job and hope he'd given it to me. I think about that sometimes. It's such a funny game. Not many can walk away on their own terms.
 
"That (1996 Detroit) team had Herman Moore, who was at the top of his game, Brett Perriman and Johnnie Morton. Scott Mitchell was the quarterback. That was the year after they got killed by the Eagles (58-37) in the playoffs. The second year ('97), Frank Reich was the backup (QB) … I wish I'd had a better chance, but it wasn't in the cards. It's funny how life works. I've always been an East Coast guy at heart. But the Midwest has grown on me. And I met my wife in law school. You really never do know."
 
Not too shabby, for someone just out to have a role. Instead, he's left his mark. And then some.
 
"Penn, and sports, have opened a lot of doors," Macik reflected. "I know it sounds cliché, but it doesn't happen just because you're better than the other team. We had to work for it. So many things carry over. I understand what having a goal is. It's not just about catching that touchdown pass. It's knowing what it takes, and what goes into that. And that never goes away. You feed off that, just like we fed off each other on the field."
 
Once, after he'd graduated, he ran into basketball coach Fran Dunphy when the Quakers were playing in Michigan. The response was, well, about what you'd expect.
 
"He saw me and smiled," Macik noted. "And he goes, 'Hey Miles, how's your basketball game?' "
 
In his case, no way it's ever about what might have been. Only what was. A career that was more than worthy. His dad was right.