Yes, Harold “Ed” Woodsum, former record-setting offensive end for the Yale University football team and a three-sport star at South Portland High, is thrilled to be one of nine former athletic greats to be inducted to the Maine Sports Hall of Fame this Sunday at the Italian Heritage Center in Portland.

He’s also happy to be in his fourth year as the athletic director at Yale, a position he took after 30 years of legal practice in Portland.

It’s just that if he had it all to do over again, there’s one thing the 60-year-old Woodsum would change.

“I wonder if I’d been drafted right out of college if I might have played,” said Woodsum, referring to his being drafted by the NFL Chicago Cardinals after he spent two years in the Army following his career at Yale. “There was a lot I didn’t know. Today, having seen more of it, I’d have given it a full shot. You always wonder what might have been….”

Woodsum actually reported to the Cardinals training camp in 1954, but because he got out of the Army late, he missed the first few weeks of practice. He had been accepted at Yale law school for that coming fall, and he had to return to Fort Dix in New Jersey to be formally discharged.

“I was on leave and before I went back I asked the Cardinals to give me a decision. They said they wanted to look at me some more. I had to make a decision, and I chose Yale Law School. I was invited back the next year, but by that time I didn’t feel it was a very wise idea to go out. On balance, it was the right decision,” said Woodsum, who went on to co-found the Portland law firm of Drummond, Woodsum, Plimpton, and McMahon P.A.

Even without playing in the NFL, Woodsum amassed a resume loaded with achievements.

At Yale, he served as captain of the 1949 freshman football team and then started all three seasons on the varsity. He broke the career receiving records of 1936 Heisman Trophy winner Larry Kelley. In 1952, Woodsum led the Ivy League in scoring with a school-record 11 touchdown receptions.

He also set Yale records for receiving yards in a game (160), receiving yards in a season (640), and catches in a season (40). They’ve all since been broken, but Woodsum’s feat of catching three TDs in a game twice in ’52 is a Yale mark he still shares.

At South Portland High, Woodsum earned nine letters (3 each in football, basketball, and baseball). As co-captain of the ’48 Red Riot football team, he earned All-State honors and was selected for the All-American Secondary School Football Team that played an all-star contest in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Joining Woodsum as Maine Sports Hall of Fame inductees are: former University of Maine and New York Yankees manager Carl “Stump” Merrill of Brunswick, former Westbrook High and Old Dominion University women’s basketball standout Lisa Blais Manning of Westbrook, sports philanthropist Harold Alfond of Waterville, former Olympic javelin competitor Arthur Sager of Gardiner, and former Portland sports writer Dick Doyle.

Posthumous inductees are former Bangor Daily News sports editor Owen Osborne, former Boston Braves baseball player Bill “Midget” Jones of Old Town and Millinocket, and Bowdoin graduate and 1928 Olympic bobsledding gold medalist Geoffrey Mason.

Tickets for the 5 p.m. induction ceremonies and banquet can be obtained by calling 883-2131 days, or 883-5021 evenings.