Penn St. star seeks biggest victory

TEANECK, N.J. — When Henry Hali's children were young, he had a rule about Christmas gifts: no toy guns. "People with guns, it makes me very nervous," he said in an interview at his home here. "These things were not in our household."

His children eventually saw many real guns while living with their mother in the West African nation of Liberia. They saw small boys fire large weapons during a civil war that lasted 14 years and killed at least 200,000 people. The war ended in 2003, and conditions have improved. A new president of Liberia was elected last month.

These days, the Hali family is prospering in the United States. Most prominent is Henry Hali's son Tamba, a defensive end for Penn State who was named to several all-American football teams.

But one important detail is unfinished. Hali's mother, Rachel Keita, who never married Henry Hali, remains in Liberia and wants to rejoin her children. During the war, she was wounded by gunfire in one of her knees. More recently, she spent time in a hospital with a fever.

Should all occur ideally, Keita could meet Hali and his three New Jersey-based siblings for the first time since 1994 when Penn State plays in the Orange Bowl against Florida State on Jan. 3 in Miami. At the least, the family would like to arrange a reunion before next year, when Tamba hopes to begin a National Football League career.

For now, Hali and his mother talk occasionally by cell phone, an improvement from the war years, when they shared little communication.

"She was sick; she's doing a little better," Hali said. "All she says to me is, 'I just want to be able to relax, Tamba. I don't want to do anything anymore.' She wants to be more concerned about little things instead of protecting herself and guarding herself."

Hali shook his head while describing childhood memories. "People killed in front of me and shot; people lined up in a straight line, and they sprayed them," Hali said. "Just bodies over bodies. It was really horrible."

The fighting forced the emigration of four Hali siblings, who moved to live with Henry Hali in the United States in 1994. Henry had left Liberia in 1985 to live permanently in the United States. He is a science teacher who has lived and worked for 20 years in this suburb of New York, just west of the George Washington Bridge.

Partly because of Hali's athletic profile, influential people are working on the family's behalf to secure a visa to make the reunion possible. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., is involved in the effort. Penn State officials said they were aware of NCAA rules prohibiting undue influence on behalf of athletes.