Another Great Hall of Fame Class Announced

The National Football foundation announced another outstanding class of football players and coaches as the newest members of the College Football Hall of Fame. Fifteen former star players and two heralded coaches have been added to the Hall and once again the voters have done a fine job. I also want to give credit With the announcement moved to January this year--and for the time being--to lock into the national championship game and its media coverage, the group certainly had a lot of local flavor. With the game being played in Irving, Texas, the announcement was held there too and two players who played for state universities, Zach Thomas of Texas Tech and Ricky Williams of Texas, made it as too Brian Bosworth who played in some memorable Oklahoma-Texas games in the nearby Cotton Bowl and Arizona State linebacker Bob Breunig, who played professionally for the Cowboys. The rest of the country was represented well too as Trev Alberts of Nebraska is finally in, along with Ronnie Brewer of Millsap, Ruben Brown of Pitt, Wes Chandler of Florida, Tom Gatewood of Notre Dame, Dick Jauron of Yale, Clint Jones of MSU, Lincoln Kennedy of Washington, Rob Lytle of Michigan, Michael Payton of Marshall and Art Still of Kentucky. The coaches selected were Bill Snyder, who is the fourth coach to named while still being active, and Jim Tressel of OSU. I will break down each new member individually over the next few days. But once again the Hall is richer for the inclusion of these players and coaches.

Hall of Fame Announcement Ceremonies

Well another class of college football greats has been voted into the Hall of Fame. The National Football Foundation hosted a nice party Tuesday to make the announcement, even bringing along new inductees Lloyd Carr, Russell Maryland and Marty Lyons. In all 14 players and 2 coaches were voted in with more players and coaches from programs not in the football bowl subdivision to follow.
Deion Sanders is perhaps the biggest name in the class and Deion has been eligible for a few years so he was clearly doing some penance. Remember, this hall is not just about the playing field and Deion's flash did not help him here. He has been aided by his work with youth and that finally outweighed any worry the NFF members had over him.
As much as the Hall is open to players like Sanders, who excelled in the pros, it is an honor reserved to the all-time great regardless of their NFL play. And so for every Will Shields, the great Nebraska and Kansas City Chief guard, gaining membership this year we have former players like Oregon State's Bill Enyart, who excelled as a FB in the 1960s but had a quiet three-year pro career with the Bills and Raiders.
Either way this is a great honor for these men and the fact that big Marty Lyons had to fight back tears Tuesday is a testament to the emotions involved. More to follow.

View From Bennett Avenue

I have a lot more to say about Urban Meyer but will save that for later. After all, his story ebbs and floes.

I wanted to drift back to the NFF press conference from the other day. Once the inductees and then Bill Cosby and Tom Brokaw spoke, the free-for-all to secure interviews before the next phase of the presser begins. It can be crazy. My main concern was Sam Cunningham, but he was surprisingly busy. I would have introduced myself to Marie Tillman, but she was nowhere to be seen. With many of the heavy hitters of college football journalists in attendance, plus a couple of tele-journalists, I tend to spend my time with the forgotten inductees. After all, my emphasis is on the history of the sport and therefore any Hall of Famer is a worthwhile story. And there was poor Mark Herrmann being ignored as any Purdue player from the era between the Bob Griese/Leroy Keyes teams from the late 1960s and Drew Brees would be. After I chided Herrmann for not getting an analyst gig with fellow Boilermakers Griese and Gary Danielson busy as such, we talked about his recruiting (wanting to stay local he chose Purdue over Notre Dame because he could play right away...as a Notre Dame fan I am forced to wonder how good the Irish could have been in 1979 and 1980 when they were rock solid everywhere but at QB) and about his coach Jim Young. Young and Hermann began at Purdue at the same time and together they rebuilt a program that had slipped to mediocrity after the heights of the late 1960s. By year two they were 9-2-1, beginning a string of three years that produced a 28-7-1 record with three final poll rankings and three bowl wins. Herrmann had nothing but praise for Young, who he credits with both his development as a future Hall of Fame quarterback and with instilling ideals in all of the Boilermakers of that era.

After finishing with Herrmann, I waited nearby Cunningham who was being interviewed. But there was a camera crew nearby so I needed to get something accomplished about a book i am proposing that would need a lengthy interview with Sam the Bam. And so, fortunately for me, I was able to spend some time with Charles Young, a classmate of Cunningham's at Southern Cal and a fellow member of the Hall of Fame. Despite being both a Trojan and an Eagle, Young is a great guy and instantly offered his services to introduce me to Cunningam. That had to wait until the current college players, finalists for the Campbell Trophy that honors a healthy mix of athletic achievement, academic success and community service, spoke. Once they finished--and the award went to DE Sam Acho of Texas (see Texas did win something this year)--I was able to talk to both Cunningham and Young for a long time about the book project, which as Cunningham points out, hopes to be accurate about the integration of the SEC. I'll write more about Sam the Bam and this book project in the off-season, after I do a full interview with the talented back.

Old-time Football

I returned to the Yale Bowl this past weekend to watch Fordham lose to the home team 7-6. Yeah, that's right. 7-6. There were two huge plays for the Bulldogs in the fourth quarter as sub QB Brook Hart threw a 29y TD pass to WR Jordan Forney for a 7-6 lead and then DT Chris Dooley blocked a go-ahead FG attempt to end final Fordham drive into Yale red zone. Yale is now 4-1 on the season as they look to compete for the Ivy title while the Rams fell to 2-5.

While the stirring action on the field was on a break, it was time to look around the old dame for signs of its past glory. You need a lot of imagination. It's place as an inspiration to other fields and stadiums is evident by how much of its age shows through. The Yale Bowl was shaped by digging out the bowl shape--with the field in the middle--and then putting the fans on the pitch heading up to the perimeter as inspired by similar fields in Ancient Rome. And when you walk through the portals to get to your seats (mind the splinters) you can imagine yourself in Rome for a brief moment. But to truly remember its days hosting football powerhouses, one would have to return when Harvard is in town and the now 61,000 capacity is stretched. But the game served our purpose, which was to enjoy a great fall day with family and friends. This was my daughter Pilar's fourth game and she had fun with her friends. They especially enjoyed running onto the field after the game (not as vandals but partaking in a Yale tradition). So while the glory days are long gone--and a Fordham-Yale match-up would have been one to watch 75 years ago--the Yale Bowl can still put a smile on a kid's face.

New Hall of Fame Class

With so many college football programs, the number of good players to choose from when selecting College Football Hall of Famers is always daunting. The 14 men chosen this year (Dennis Byrd, Ronnie Caveness, Ray Childress, Randy Cross, Sam Cunningham, Mark Herrmann, Clarkston Hines, Desmond Howard, Chet Moeller, Jerry Stovall, Pat Tillman, Alfred Williams and coaches Barry Alvarez and Gene Stallings) are another outstanding group, albeit without too many headliners. In fact the biggest name might be the only deceased member of the group, Pat Tillman, who certainly deserved enshrinement based on both his play on the field for Arizona State in the 1990s and his sacrifice off of it.

You see the College Hall, more than any other, gives a great deal of focus in picking enshrinees on what the player did off of the field. One has to have been great on it, earning All America status, but the criteria for selection also includes classwork and contributions to society, etc. So Pat Tillman, who not only died serving his country but was an honor student at Arizona State, is in, but Brian Bosworth is not, as he is considered a boor by voters and was caught cheating with steroids while at Oklahoma (although he was a good student). Chet Moeller, the fine safety at Navy in the early to mid '70s gets the nod, but Deion Sanders, one of the great defensive backs in college football history has to wait. Deion famously did not go to class his final year once his requirements for eligibility were over. The Hall is reserved for student-athletes, or at least those players who do not mock the idea of going to class.

But let's focus on the positive. Three members of the class, Dennis Byrd, Ronnie Caveness and Jerry Stovall, played before my time but certainly deserved their spots. I especially like Byrd's inclusion as the Wolfpack need some more members of the Hall. The rest of the group all bring back memories as I saw them play or coach. My friends and I actually created a game we called "Sam Cunningham" to honor his leaping ability. Two kids defended the back of a couch and a third had to try to get into the end zone--the front of the couch--by leaping between/through the others. Yes we broke some things, mostly egos. As a Notre Dame fan, Herrmann's career was probably the one I watched the most as he made the Boilermakers formidable in the late '70s. And coach Alvarez was smart enough to build a great system in Madison around what the state grew best: big offensive linemen and hard-nosed defenders.

In the coming days I will include some of the games in our encyclopedia that feature fine play or coaching by the new members. Congratulations to all.