A Sweatervest, a Wizard and The Boz as part of the latest class to be added to college football’s pantheon honoring its best? Yep, seems about right.
Friday morning, the National Football Foundation announced the 2015 Class of the College Football Hall of Fame that includes 17 members -- 15 players, one former head coach and one current head coach. Before getting to the specific individuals involved, here’s the criteria for eligibility: for players, they have to be a first-team All-American from at least one of a handful of organizations recognized by the NCAA, who’s been out of college football for at least 10 years, is not a current NFL player and whose last college game was no more than 50 years ago, while coaches need to have coached at least 100 games and won at least 60 percent of their games (The Schnellenberger Clause). Current coaches need to be at least 75 years of age.
With no disrespect to the others, the most noteworthy of this year’s class are Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder, former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth and Texas running back Ricky Williams.
Snyder, author of one of the greatest building jobs in college football history at K-State, becomes only the fourth coach to earn induction into the College Football Hall of Fame while still actively heading a program, joining Bobby Bowden (Samford [Ala.], West Virginia, Florida State), John Gagliardi (Carroll [Mont.], Saint John’s [Minn.]) and Joe Paterno (Penn State). Snyder has won 187 games during his 23 seasons with the Wildcats, which is 147 more wins than any other coach in K-State history. Outside of his success on the field, Snyder is one of the classiest men off of it, as his handwritten notes to the opposition continues to attest.
The other coach, Tressel, was one of the best at both the FBS (Ohio State) and FCS (Youngstown State) levels before being ousted in disgrace by the Buckeyes in the midst of an NCAA scandal. Tressel, who still has a show-cause against that runs through next year, won five total national championships, one at OSU and four at YSU, where he currently serves as president. He’s the only head coach to win national titles at both the FBS and FCS levels.
Bosworth remains the only two-time winner of the Butkus Award, while Williams, the 1998 Heisman winner, left the Longhorns as the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher with 6,279 yards.
Below are the remaining members of the College Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015.
TREV ALBERTS – LB, Nebraska (1990-93)
BOB BREUNIG – LB, Arizona State (1972-74)
SEAN BREWER – DL, Millsaps (Miss.) (1989-92)
RUBEN BROWN – OT, Pittsburgh (1991-94)
WES CHANDLER – SE, Florida (1974-77)
THOM GATEWOOD – SE, Notre Dame (1969-71)
DICK JAURON – RB, Yale (1970-72)
CLINTON JONES – HB, Michigan State (1964-66)
LINCOLN KENNEDY – OT, Washington (1989-92)
ROB LYTLE (deceased) – RB, Michigan (1974-76)
MICHAEL PAYTON – QB, Marshall (1989-92)
ART STILL – DE, Kentucky (1974-77)
ZACH THOMAS – LB, Texas Tech (1992-95)