There’s a football in Bob Hartman’s athletic office at Whitehall that has signatures from Les Steckel, Matt Millen and Dan Koppen.

All three Whitehall alumni have their own Super Bowl stories, as Steckel was the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans in 2000 for Super Bowl XXXIV. Dan Koppen won two Super Bowls with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots during their dynasty in the early 2000s and Matt Millen was a four-time Super Bowl champion, winning two with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders and one each with the San Francisco 49ers and Washington Redskins.

Hartman showed Saquon Barkley the ball years ago in his office when Barkley was just starting his professional career as a member of the New York Giants. Barkley asked Hartman if he wanted him to sign it.

“I said no,” Hartman said. “I told him he can sign it after he wins a Super Bowl.”

Fast forward to present day, as Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles will be taking on the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday in New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX.

The Whitehall graduate, who signed in the offseason with the Eagles, has enjoyed a banner season and has catapulted himself in the conversation for this year’s MVP race, rushing for a league-leading 2,005 yards this season — good for eighth best all-time in NFL history.

He’s averaged 147 yards a game in the Eagles three playoff wins and has scored five touchdowns this postseason to lead the team to the Super Bowl.

After spending his first six seasons with the Giants, Barkley has literally ran his way to the top of the sports world.

“It’s phenomenal, and a little surreal,” said Hartman of watching the type of year Barkley has enjoyed. “The fact that he’s playing in the Super Bowl and that he’s the most dynamic and exciting player in the league right now is crazy to think a kid from here is that.”

Barkley graduated from Whitehall in 2015 and was a star in his own regard with the Zephyrs, racking up highlight reel plays every week that helped pave his way to Penn State, where he became the best running back in college football before being selected as the No. 2 overall pick by the Giants in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Barkley has always been a local celebrity since breaking out on the national scene at Penn State, but former Whitehall football coach Brian Gilbert still remembers the summer heading into Barkley’s junior season where the flip switched for the all-pro running back.

“We were at a 7-on-7 camp at Rutgers and they offered him a scholarship on the spot,” said Gilbert, who was the Zephyrs’ head coach from 2012-18. “Getting that Rutgers offer that summer motivated him to work harder. Through that process, he got his body ready and that made such an impact on those next two years. He exploded on and off the field the summer going into his junior year.”

Gilbert, who is now the athletic director at Palisades, feels the Saquon-mania around the Lehigh Valley really took off this past season signing with the Eagles. The success he’s had on the field has also multiplied the affection people have for him.

“I hear more people say that they’re from his hometown now than when he was with the Giants,” Gilbert said. “The season he’s having and with all the Eagles’ fans around here has done that. I hear people say I coached against him or played against him, even with me in the room and they may not even know who I am. People want to have that claim of knowing him to a degree, and I think it’s really cool.”

Hartman echoed those sentiments and understands how much a person like Saquon means to his hometown.

“It’s great for our community in the respect that people — right or wrong — take ownership of what he’s doing,” said Hartman. “He loves this area and he’s easy to identify with. He does so many good things and people are very proud of him.”

For people that watched Barkley play in high school, the dazzling plays he made as a Zephyr have translated to college and pro football, but the child-like nature that Barkley plays the game with are what Gilbert and company remember from his time in the maroon and gold.

Barkley’s 78-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC divisional round a few weeks ago cemented an Eagles’ victory on that snowy afternoon, but it also showcased the fun Barkley has playing football.

“When I saw that run it put everything in perspective,” Gilbert said. “When he smacked his helmet and slid in the snow, it’s like a kid that’s having fun. I still see a kid that loves football like he did at the Hokey youth level.”

Barkley will get one more game this season to have fun and possibly cement himself as a Super Bowl champion.

Either way, he’ll probably be able to sign that football in Hartman’s office now.