Salata’s good will is prolific

Rick Devereux

The idea of “doing something nice for someone for no reason” does not

end at Irrelevant Week festivities for Newport Beach resident Paul

Salata.

Salata created Irrelevant Week in 1976 as a way to celebrate the

underdog, specifically the last pick in the NFL Draft. The last pick

-- known as Mr. Irrelevant -- gets a free trip to Southern California

and is showered with gifts from the local community.

Andy Stokes, a tight end from William Penn University in

Oskaloosa, Iowa, was the 255th and final pick in the draft by the New

England Patriots. Stokes’ reign as Mr. Irrelevant begins with today’s

arrival party at the Newport Dunes Resort at 5 p.m.

Salata will be the emcee of the event, a position he has enjoyed

at countless charity functions throughout the Southland for years.

Salata, the second of seven boys whose father died when he was 12

years old, attended the University of Southern California on a

football scholarship.

After college, he played for the San Francisco 49ers, was traded

to the Baltimore Colts, then to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and played

another three years in the Canadian Football League.

After ending his professional football career in 1953, Salata

worked briefly as an office manager for a Los Angeles construction

firm and then moved into sales. He sold building materials for

another firm and then started his own businesses, both dealing with

construction and building materials.

Salata is a prominent member of the USC Alumni Association and was

an advisor for several former USC athletic directors.

He created the Orange County Sport Celebrities Foundation in 1971,

which has raised millions of dollars in scholarships for Orange

County universities and community colleges.

He has worked for dozens of other philanthropies and organizations

throughout his life.

He was a potential investor in what some hoped would become the

Anaheim Rams, before the Los Angeles Rams left Anaheim Stadium and

relocated to St. Louis.

He was named Grand Marshal of the Orange County Fourth of July

Parade in 1993 and received the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame

Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.

The NFL Alumni-Greater Los Angeles chapter bestowed its Man of the

Year award on Salata in 2001, and Goodwill Industries gave him its

first American Tribute Award in 2002 for his lifetime of generosity.