Small College Stars Inducted

One year after opening the doors to its new home in South Bend, Ind., the College Football Hall of Fame let in its first class of small-college players. Fourteen former players and coaches from schools in NCAA Division I-AA, II, III and the NAIA were inducted Saturday, including Walter Payton and Terry Bradshaw.

“Nothing is complete when you exclude someone by design or by error,” said Payton, who played at Jackson State.

The other nine players inducted were: Bradshaw, Louisiana Tech; the late Buck Buchanan, Grambling State; Vern Den Herder, Central College; Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, Widener; Neil Lomax, Portland State; Tyrone McGriff, Florida A&M; Wilbert Montgomery, Abilene Christian; Gary Reasons, Northwestern State; and Jim Youngblood, Tennessee Tech.

The coaches were the late Harold Burry, Westminster College; Edgar Sherman, Muskingum College; the late Gilbert Steinke, Texas A&I; and the late Lee Tressel, Baldwin Wallace.

For its first eight years, players from any school were eligible for the hall. But in 1958, the selection committee decided candidates had to be All-Americans from a “major” school.

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Louisville Coach Ron Cooper was in good spirits during a team scrimmage less than a day after suffering chest pains and nausea during a radio call-in show. “I feel great,” Cooper said. “There’s nothing wrong.”