It was a full-circle moment for former NFL great LeSean “Shady” McCoy.
He returned home to Harrisburg on Tuesday to address the Harrisburg Area YMCA’s annual meeting as it celebrated 171 years of service to the community. Three decades ago, one of the inner-city kids the Y served was a six-year-old McCoy.
“This is where it all started, the YMCA,” McCoy, 37, told the capacity crowd at the National Civil War Museum. “I’ve had a lot of years with the YMCA, for sure. This is like a big family, a big extended family.”
In fact, McCoy said he spotted old faces in the crowd of board members, staff, directors and volunteers who he once knew as childhood friends, their bonds formed at the Camp Curtin YMCA on North Sixth Street in the city’s Uptown where McCoy grew up.
“A lot of guys back here are guys that I remember competing against in the YMCA. And we’re going back like, I don’t know, six years old, five years old, eight years old. As a kid, the YMCA was everything,” McCoy said.
It’s where a young boy first experienced confidence.
“The YMCA gave me a sense of power,” he recalled. “It was a place that I could go.”
It’s where McCoy first experienced adult caring outside of his own family.
“There were people and staff members that cared, and they would ask me questions out of love. ‘Hey, did you eat today?’ ‘Did you shower the night before?’ ‘Do you have a place, a home to live at? And I’m like, ‘Man, these people, they care if I ate today’.”
It’s also where McCoy said he experienced one of his most treasured memories from childhood -- and it had nothing to do with football. Read on for the big reveal.
YMCA officials made clear in remarks prior to McCoy’s address that children are still being asked those same questions at places like Camp Curtain, which is slated to be expanded, with construction beginning soon.
YMCA President and CEO David Ozmore said the five Y branches served more children than ever this past year – an estimated 200,000 individuals regardless of age, income, or background.
“For 171 years, the Y has been a place where everyone belongs and where lives are changed every day,” Ozmore said.
Arizona Cardinals v Philadelphia Eagles
LeSean McCoy celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals on November 13, 2011 in Philadelphia. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)Getty Images
McCoy credited the Y with helping develop his athletic skills, before going on to star at Bishop McDevitt High as a running back. Early on, McCoy’s interests almost went in a different direction when he took second place in a talent show at Camp Curtain at age 8.
“I remember just having so much fun,” McCoy said.
And while the former running back won two Super Bowls, played in six Pro Bowls and was named to the NFL’s All Decade Team, McCoy said a rite of passage that occurred at the Y ranks right up there with all his football firsts.
“I think about all my first time moments, right? But I remember in the YMCA, I got my first kiss. As a 37-year-old kid that’s done a lot in his career, I think back to that,” he said, as the crowd roared with laughter.
Drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round in 2009, McCoy played a dozen NFL seasons, including stints with the Eagles, Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His two Super Bowl rings came with the Chiefs in 2019 and Buccaneers in 2020. The next year, he retired as an Eagle, where he still stands as the team’s all-time leading rusher with 6,792 yards.
In warm introductory remarks, Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams hailed McCoy as “one of the most electrifying running backs in NFL history.” But she said he’s an even better person who “has never forgotten where he came from.”
Williams lauded what she called McCoy’s multi-million-dollar investments in affordable housing developments across the city of Harrisburg.
The ribbon-cutting of JMB Gardens, LeSean McCoy’s new affordable housing
Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro meets Ron and Daphne McCoy, parents of LeSean McCoy outside JMB Gardens, a new 41-unit, $16.7 million affordable housing community on North Sixth Street in Harrisburg. June 24, 2025. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.comJoe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com
“He is opening doors of opportunity for families who deserve a safe and dignified place to live,” she said. “I have known Shady for many years. And personally, I can tell you that what you saw on the field -- his drive, his energy, his passion -- he brings to every project, every partnership and every community initiative that he touches.”
Through his real estate development company, Vice Capital, McCoy launched a $16.7 million affordable housing project in Uptown Harrisburg. It includes 41 affordable units and a community center. McCoy also continues charitable efforts through his Shades of Greatness Foundation.
In his remarks, McCoy credited the Y for helping shape the person he is today.
“I could have been in a lot of different places, I don’t know, with maybe bad friends or bad influences,” he told the crowd. “But instead, I was going to the YMCA where we were having different activities and things to do.”
Fittingly, when a large ladder went missing on one of McCoy’s construction sites located near the Camp Curtain Y, a director he remembers from his childhood there helped get it back.
“One of my favorite directors for the YMCA, he said, ‘I got to get (LeSean) his ladder back. He’s doing great things for the community’.” McCoy recounted. “Sure enough … he found out who took the ladder.”
It’s just another of McCoy’s countless YMCA connections that continue to enrich his life and the community he still calls ‘home.’
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