Three Canes on 2020 College Football HOF Ballot
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Three University of Miami football legends have their names on the 2020 ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, the National Football Foundation (NFF) announced Monday.
Defensive lineman Jerome Brown and linebacker greats Ray Lewis and Dan Morgan are among the 76 players and five coaches from FBS included on the ballot.
Brown, who played defensive tackle from 1983-86, led the Canes to four consecutive New Year’s Day bowl games. A unanimous first-team All-America selection in 1986, Brown was a finalist for both the Outland and Lombardi trophies as a senior. Brown finished his Miami career with 183 tackles, including 21 sacks, and added five forced fumbles. Brown’s life was tragically cut short when he was killed in an automobile accident in October 1992. A member of both the UM Sports Hall of Fame and the Miami Football Ring of Honor, his No. 99 was retired by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Lewis earned All-BIG EAST recognition in 1994 and 1995, compiling one of the most dominant careers by a linebacker ever at The U. Lewis, who ranks sixth all-time in career tackles at Miami with 388, has the two most prolific seasons in history to his name, having recorded 160 total tackles in 1995 and 152 in 1994. A two-time Super Bowl champion and 13-time NFL Pro Bowler, Lewis was drafted in the first round by Baltimore in 1996 and played all 17 seasons with the Ravens, compiling over 2,000 career tackles.
Miami’s leading tackler in three of his four seasons, Morgan was named 2000 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and set the Miami standard with 532 career tackles over a sparkling career. Morgan became the first player in college football history to sweep the three major defensive awards (Butkus Award, Bednarik Award, Nagurski Trophy) and was a unanimous first-team All-American in his final year. He was selected in the first round of the 2001 NFL Draft by Carolina and was a 2004 Pro Bowl selection.
Miami has eight players and 12 overall representatives who have been selected for the College Football Hall of Fame: Bennie Blades (Class of 2006), Don Bosseler (1990), Dennis Erickson (2019), Andy Gustafson (1985), Jack Harding (1980), Ted Hendricks (1987), Jimmy Johnson (2012), Russell Maryland (2011), Ed Reed (2018), Vinny Testaverde (2013), Gino Torretta (2009) and Arnold Tucker (2008).
The ballot will be emailed the week of June 2 to the more than 12,000 NFF members and current Hall of Famers whose votes will be tabulated and submitted to the NFF’s Honors Courts, which deliberate and select the class. The FBS Honors Court, chaired by NFF Board Member and College Football Hall of Famer Archie Griffin from Ohio State, and the Divisional Honors Court, chaired by former Marshall head coach, longtime athletics director and NFF Board Member Jack Lengyel, include an elite and geographically diverse pool of athletic administrators, Hall of Famers and members of the media.
As part of a continuing tradition, the NFF has partnered with the College Football Playoff (CFP) to announce the new College Football Hall of Fame class during festivities prior to the National Championship in the host city. The announcement of the 2020 Class will be made in January 2020 in New Orleans, and they will be inducted during the 63rd NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 8, 2020, at the New York Hilton Midtown. The inductees will be permanently enshrined at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
Of the 5.33 million individuals who have played college football since Princeton first battled Rutgers on Nov. 6, 1869, only 1,010 players have earned induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, or less than two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%) of those who have played the game during the past 150 years. From the coaching ranks, 219 individuals have achieved Hall of Fame distinction.
