NEW YORK -- Through a small gap in Shea Stadium's chain-linked fences, a fan in a New York Jets jersey squeezed a football into the hands of former Pro Bowl wide receiver Wesley Walker.

Such an object in a baseball stadium might seem like a strange novelty, but for any Jet who played here between 1964-1983, football was their business at Shea. They might have been considered second-class citizens in many respects -- not getting to play games in New York until the Mets' season finished -- but the Jets reminisced about what was their home for many years at "Jets Night at Shea" on Tuesday.

On a table in the Shea Stadium picnic area sat the two trophies that symbolized the stadium's dual citizenship amongst professional sports during that time period. Both the 1969 Lombardi Trophy and the same year's World Series trophy were framed in a photo opportunity for fans that wanted to remember how both franchise's rich histories overlapped on the same grounds.

"This was the only place I ever played," said former Jets running back Emerson Boozer, who helped New York win Super Bowl III with Hall of Famers like Joe Namath and Don Maynard. "This was truly home for me."

Boozer, who played in the National Football League from 1966-75, roamed through the halls of Shea with his No. 32 jersey on Tuesday, remembering all of the hard rehab he had done there, only to walk by former teammate and center John Schmitt and mock his gait. "You got no reason to be limping," Boozer shouted at Schmitt, who definitely knows otherwise from his bloody adventures at this very stadium.

As he stood on the warning track dirt outside of the Mets' dugout, Schmitt pointed to left field -- what he would consider an area near the goal line from his perspective -- and he could envision the puddles that once caused the football to float away from him before taking a snap.

Marty Lyons, one of three former Jets who threw out the first pitch at Tuesday's game, remembered a playoff game vs. Buffalo where the fans rocked the the temporary seats at Shea. Most of the year, though, the team recognized this was a baseball venue, as the Mets would have 81 games in Shea to the Jets' eight contests.

NFL Films highlights of old Jets games played on the Mets' big board in between innings on Tuesday, but it wasn't the first time Shea's football team seemed like it was just popping in for the day.

"Since we only had eight games here, basically unless we made the playoffs, we were basically visitors in our own house," said Lyons, who was still with the Jets when they moved to the Meadowlands in 1984.

Regardless, Tuesday's cause was an admirable one, because the $20 proceeds from each Meet and Greet ticket sold benefitted the Mets and New York Jets Foundations. This Jets Night was a somewhat of a whirlwind for Walker. Now a physical education teacher, he observed as one of his former students -- a dancer for the New York Jets Flight Crew -- sat next to Boozer at an autograph table.

"It's just a privilege when I come here and see, to be privileged to help people at another level that wasn't just football," Walker said.