From the national ballot of 75 candidates and a pool of hundreds of eligible nominees The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame announced the 2008 College Football Hall of Fame Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) Class, which includes the names of 13 First Team All- America players and two legendary coaches. Notre Dame Legend Lou Holtz was among the chosen few to be enshrined to College Football immortality.
Archie Manning, Chairman of the NFF and CFOH said,
"The 2008 class represents six decades of football's finest athletes, and they are all exceptionally worthy of having their accomplishments preserved forever in the College Football Hall of Fame."
The only coach in NCAA history to lead six different programs to bowl games, Coach Lou Holtz was a fixture in the college football coaching landscape for more than three decades.
Best known for his tenure at Notre Dame, Holtz led the Fighting Irish to the 1988 National Championship and 100 wins. He won conference championships at William & Mary, North Carolina State and Arkansas and is the only coach to guide four different programs to final Top 20 rankings. The Follansbee, W.V., native produced the best four-year win-loss record in NC State history and led Arkansas to six straight bowl games and four Top Ten finishes.
Holtz received Man of the Year laurels from the Walter Camp Foundation in 1997 and twice earned the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Academic Achievement Award, which annually honors the school with the highest graduation rate among members of its football team. He also coached Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown and College Football Hall of Fame inductees Chris Zorich and Billy Ray Smith.
Here is the list of the 2008 class:
Players
TROY AIKMAN- QB, UCLA (1987- 88)
BILLY CANNON - HB, 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)
Speaking of Brown, Tim was just short on his first try of making the Hall of Fame. Only one Heisman Trophy winner, Billy Cannon (LSU), was selected for the 2008 class. Below is a breakdown of recipients' accomplishments:
- One Heisman Trophy winner (Cannon)
- Three players who placed in the Top Three in Heisman Trophy voting
(Cannon - 1st and 3rd, McPherson - 2nd, Aikman - 3rd)
- Nine consensus First Team All-Americas
(Aikman, Cannon, Fitzgerald, Marshall, Mayes, McDaniel, Novacek, Simmons, Thomas)
- Three unanimous First Team All- Americas (Cannon, Dombrowski, McPherson)
Four multiple-year First Team All-America honorees (Cannon - 2, Fitzgerald - 2, Marshall - 2, Simmons - 2)
- One Maxwell Award winners (McPherson)
- One Walter Camp Player of the Year (Cannon)
- One Sullivan Award winner (Tucker)
- Two Davey O'Brien Award winners (Aikman, McPherson)
- One Nagurski Award winner (Fitzgerald - Two-time recipient)
- One Bednarik Award winner (Fitzgerald - Two-time recipient)
- Two members of National Championship teams (Cannon, Tucker)
- Five conference Players of the Year (Aikman, Cannon, Fitzgerald, Mayes, Thomas)
- Eight multiple-year First Team All- Conference selections
(Cannon - 3, Dombrowski - 2, Fitzgerald - 2, Marshall - 3, Mayes - 2, McDaniel - 2, Parks - 2, Thomas - 3)
- Six first round NFL Draft picks
(Aikman - 1st Overall, Cannon, Dombrowski, Marshall, McDaniel, Parks - 1st Overall)
- Six Decades Represented: 1990s (1) - Fitzgerald; 1980s (8) - Aikman, Dombrowski, Marshall, Mayes, McDaniel, McPherson, Novacek, Thomas; 1970s (1) - Simmons; 1960s (1) - Parks; 1950s (1) - Cannon; 1940s (1) - Tucker
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