Over 10 seasons, Claude Humphrey excelled for Falcons teams that would lose mind-numbing 91 games, a failure rate that eventually drove him to pack up in the middle of the 1978 season and go home to Memphis.

Three decades later, he was still wondering if he had left anything of himself behind.

Brandon Dill/Special (ENLARGE)

Former Atlanta Falcons defensive end Claude Humphrey poses with family portraits in his Bartlett, Tenn., home. Humphrey adds another accolade to his long list of achievements with his induction into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. Humphrey and former Falcons teammate Steve Bartkowski are among six to be inducted.

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"I just felt the people of Atlanta had forgotten about me," he said in an interview. "I felt like my time had come and gone."

Humphrey's time returns this weekend, when the Falcons' most fearsome pass rusher of all time joins five others in the 2008 inductions into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame.

Some 27 years after his retirement, Humphery requires only a moment to recollect the mantra that helped get him through some of the Falcons' longest autumns.

"My approach to the game was, my opponent may have won the game but he wasn't going to be happy about it," said Humphrey, 63.

Joining Humphrey in the Atlanta Hall's fourth set of inductees are quarterback Steve Bartkowski, the Falcons' all-time leading passer, LPGA Hall of Famer Louise Suggs, two-time Olympic gold medalist Edwin Moses, former NASCAR champion Bill Elliott and Braves president John Schuerholz.

Ceremonies at the Emory Conference Center begin at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

From 1968, when the Falcons selected him out of Tennessee State with the third pick of the draft, Humphrey would accumulate 941/2 sacks, still a franchise record. Chuck Smith (1992-98) ranks second with a distant 58 1/2.

"I always went out there with the attitude that we were good enough to win and if things went our way defensively, we always won," Humphrey said. "Offensively, we had problems.

"But the most rewarding thing was the fans. Those fans loved us."

With Tommy Nobis at middle linebacker and John Zook at right defensive end across from Humphrey on the left side, the three triangulated the team's defense for most of the 1970s. Nobis, "Mr. Falcon" and an inaugural inductee to the Atlanta Hall, would be named to four Pro Bowls. Humphrey would be named to five.

Zook will introduce Humphrey at the ceremony.

"We were always very close friends, not only teammates," Zook said. "We played the same position, but we had a lot more in common. It's an honor for me to introduce him."

Though Humphrey's career would reach its pinnacle with a Super Bowl appearance in 1981, two years after he had been traded to Philadelphia, he remembers with most partiality coach Norm Van Brocklin's Atlanta team of 1973.

Citing key players wide receiver Ken Burrow, tight end Jim Mitchell, offensive tackle George Kunz and defensive back Tom Hayes, Humphrey thinks that 9-5 team, while barely missing the playoffs, was ready for greater things.

"During that period of time, I thought we had a chance," Humphrey said. "But something happened. A lot of those guys got sent away for reasons I never understood."

Four seasons and three head coaches later, Humphrey found himself ever-altered in what would become defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville's "Gritz Blitz" scheme. While the unit would allow the fewest points in the NFL in 1977, Humphrey became a secondary rush option to the blitz, often dropping into pass coverage.

"I just didn't think I was producing the way I could have been producing," he said. "It was a long year for me. Frustrating. I just didn't feel it."

Four games into the 1978 season, assured that the team would not trade him, Humphrey left. The Falcons held on to his rights, finally sending him to the Eagles before the 1979 season for a pair of fourth-round draft picks. He would play three years in Philadelphia, including the loss to Oakland in Super Bowl XV.

Retired in 1981, Humphrey was summoned back from Tennessee four years ago for admittance to Georgia Hall of Fame but was left to ponder how he is regarded in Atlanta. Fans in 2006 declined to vote him into Falcons' Ring of Honor. Mention of his trade is omitted in the team's media guide.

Throughout though, he has kept close tabs on his first team.

"I followed them closely. Very closely," he said. "I consider myself more of a Falcon than an Eagle, even though the success we had in Philadelphia was just outstanding. If you cut me, I'll bleed red."