University of Richmond Athletics
Space Flight Approaches For Former Spider Football Star
June 25, 2007
HOUSTON (Richmond Times-Dispatch - June 24, 2007) - By A.J. Hostetler, Times-Dispatch Staff Writer.
As a boy, Leland Melvin loved to watch the world go by from the back seat of the family car during camping trips to the beach and the mountains.
In six months, Melvin, who grew up in Lynchburg, Va., and played football at the University of Richmond, will watch the entire world go by from the space shuttle Atlantis. On what will probably be his only space trip, the 43-year-old will help deliver a European laboratory to the International Space Station.
"It was always an adventure, seeing trains and cars go by," he said of those family vacations to Cape May, N.J., Niagara Falls, or the Great Smoky Mountains. As teachers with their summers off, his parents, Deems and Grace Melvin, would pack the car or camper with their son and his older sister, Cathy.
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