Horrocks' 18-year-old daughter, Christa, a college freshman in South Carolina, set the tone.
"He was a hero not because of the way he died, but because of the way he lived," she said. "He laughed often, and he loved deeply."
As she spoke on a podium next to the statue, her brother, Mick, 15, stood behind her, a hand resting on her shoulder.
Both wore purple West Chester University football jerseys with their father's No. 14. The life-size statue shows Horrocks, a starting quarterback for two years, throwing a pass.
Mounted on a marble pedestal in a corner just beyond the northern end zone, the statue and a scholarship endowment in Horrocks' name are the work of friends and teammates who decided to honor his memory.
(They have raised about $150,000 for the endowment. The goal is $500,000. Donations can be made through the West Chester University athletic department.)
Dozens of Horrocks' teammates were in the crowd Saturday. Most wore commemorative yellow T-shirts with NEVER and FORGET bracketing the number 14.
Christa Horrocks, whose remarks drew tears and led to a standing ovation, talked about how her father often had quoted a line from the 1993 movie The Sandlot to her and her brother.
The movie, about young boys playing baseball, underscored all that was good about sports, competition, and teamwork, things that she said her father had espoused.
"Remember, kid, there's heroes and there's legends," she said, repeating the line from the movie. "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you'll never go wrong."
Christa Horrocks spoke about how her sometimes clouded memory of her father is brought back sharply into focus when his friends and teammates tell stories about "his leadership, integrity . . . his character, modesty, and sense of humor."
