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Two St. Rita Graduates Headed To Detroit After 2017 NFL Draft

By Howard Ludwig | May 1, 2017 8:07am | Updated on May 5, 2017 11:34am
 Pat O'Connor (right) was selected in the seventh round by the Detroit Lions in the 2017 NFL Draft. His 2012 classmate at St. Rita High School, Kenny Golladay was also chosen by Detroit in the third round.
Pat O'Connor (right) was selected in the seventh round by the Detroit Lions in the 2017 NFL Draft. His 2012 classmate at St. Rita High School, Kenny Golladay was also chosen by Detroit in the third round.
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Detroit Lions

ASHBURN — Two St. Rita High School graduates are off to meet the Detroit Lions.

Both Kenny Golladay , a wide receiver for Northern Illinois, and Pat O'Connor, a defensive lineman for Eastern Michigan University, were selected by the team in the 2017 NFL Draft. Golladay was taken in the third round — 96th overall. O'Connor was selected in the seventh round — 250th overall.

Both are 2012 graduates of St. Rita.

According to the NFL's website, Golladay is described as "a height, weight, speed prospect." He gained 1,156 yards his senior year in DeKalb and had eight scores on 87 receptions. He is 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 218 pounds and has a 32-inch arm length.

O'Connor is also 6-foot-4, but he weighs 270 pounds. He is the all-time sack leader for Eastern Michigan (19.5) and is tied for most games played ever (49) despite missing all of the 2015 season with a shoulder injury.

Golladay, an Englewood native, transferred to Northern Illinois from North Dakota his junior year after a coaching change and to be closer to his family. His father, Kenneth, loads trucks at a railroad yard, and his mother, Stacy, is an elementary school teacher.

O'Connor is from Mount Greenwood, where he attended Mount Greenwood Elementary School and played football for St. Christina Parish. His father, Jim, is a Chicago firefighter.

St. Rita was transformative for O'Connor as a teen, according to the player and his family.

"Football has developed me into both a great football player and a man," O'Connor said late last year.