Saturday July 25th & Sunday July 26th
Last weekend the National Football Foundation had their Hall of Fame Festival at the College football Hall of Fame with their 2009 class of 21 players and coaches to the College Football Hall of Fame. First of all I would like to let you know that I am honored to be a voting member of this fine organization. I am going to do my best to make it to New York for the December 8th enshrinement dinner. Here is a little background on the NFF.
Founded in 1947, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame inducted its first class of inductees in 1951. The first class included 32 players and 19 coaches, including Illinois’ Red Grange, Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne, Amos Alonzo Stagg and Carlisle’s Jim Thorpe. Out of the more than
4.6 million individuals who have played college football over the past 140 years, only 850 players and 184 coaches have been immortalized with a place in the sport’s most hallowed institution.
279 schools are represented with at least one College Football Hall of Famer. The current building in South Bend, Ind. was built in 1995 as a $17 million state-of-the-art interactive facility for fans of all ages.
The class of College Football Hall of Famers from the Football Bowl Subdivision, which was announced April 30, 2009, will be inducted at the NFF Annual Awards Dinner on December 8, 2009, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
Here is the list of the 21 enshrinee’s in the 2009 class.
2009 FOOTBALL BOWL SUBDIVISION ENSHRINEMENT CLASS
Players
· TROY AIKMAN – QB, UCLA (1987-88)
· BILLY CANNON – RB, LSU (1957-59)
· JIM DOMBROWSKI – OT, Virginia (1982-85)
· PAT FITZGERALD – LB, Northwestern (1994-96)
· WILBER MARSHALL – LB, Florida (1980-83)
· RUEBEN MAYES – RB, Washington State (1982-85)
· RANDALL McDANIEL – OG, Arizona State (1984-87)
· DON McPHERSON – QB, Syracuse (1984-87)
· JAY NOVACEK – TE, Wyoming (1982-84)
· DAVE PARKS – SE, Texas Tech (1961-63)
· RON SIMMONS – NG, Florida State (1977-80)
· THURMAN THOMAS – RB, Oklahoma State (1984-87)
· ARNOLD TUCKER – QB, Army (1944-46)
Coaches
· JOHN COOPER – 192-84-6 (.691) – Tulsa (1977-84), Arizona State (1985-87), Ohio State (1988-2000)
· LOU HOLTZ – 249-132-7 (.651) – William & Mary (1969-71), North Carolina State (1972-75), Arkansas (1977-83), Minnesota (1984-85), Notre Dame (1986-96), South Carolina (1999-2004)
2009 DIVISIONAL ENSHRINEMENT CLASS
Players
· ROGER BROWN – Maryland-Eastern Shore, DT (1956-59)
· FRED DEAN – Louisiana Tech, DT (1971-74)
· SAM MILLS* – Montclair State (N.J.), LB (1977-80)
· ROD SMITH – Missouri Southern State, WR (1988, 1990-93)
Coaches
· VOLNEY ASHFORD* – 197-55-12 (.769); Missouri Valley (Mo.) (1937-71)
· JIM DONNAN – 104-40-0 (.722); Marshall (1990-95), Georgia (1996-2000)
* Deceased
Philip Marwill at the NFF was kind enough to send me over a list of the 850 players and 184 coaches that are now in the Hall of Fame. In the next few weeks each of the teams pages will have a section listing all of the players from that team that are in the Hall of Fame. I will also do a little analysis once I get the list sorted. I will look at which conferences have the most inductees, which teams have the most in each conference, which teams have more coaches than players (if any), etc. I will also give a list of some prominent players that are not in the Hall of Fame. In the next few weeks we will put up a College Football Hall of Fame tab on the site with information on visiting the Hall of Fame which is in South Bend, Indiana. We will also have a link so you can click on your favorite team and see who is in the hall on this tab as well as the team pages. I work a lot of hours and don’t get out to much and I must admit I have not been to the Hall of Fame since it was in Cincinnati but I will make sure I get out there next year.
Look at the names on the list that is above. You have to admit this is an outstanding class and most of the players played while I have been a college football fan. Billy Cannon is the only one that played before I was born but I have read a lot about him and was surprised he was not in sooner. I was only 3 when Dave Parks ended his college career but I followed him and Billy in the NFL. If you want to revisit the careers of each of this years inductees you have two choices. You can click on the players name and his bio will pop up. You can also click HERE and the entire list with all the bios will pop up. I enjoyed my stroll down memory lane reading each bio and you will too.