A couple of years after Gen. Douglas MacArthur made good on his promise to return to the Philippines, he and legendary Army football coach Red Blaik joined forces with sportswriter Grantland Rice to get the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame off the ground.
Things have changed a lot since 1947, when the NFF Hall of Fame was founded, and the first of 1,093 players and 233 coaches were inducted.
These days, via the internet, you can participate in the voting process by making a donation and joining the NFF. Just go to footballfoundation.org and click on the menu on the right. You have to hurry to vote on the class of 2025, though … the deadline is Monday. You can vote for Hawaii products Manti Te’o and Olin Kreutz, and, in the coaches category, former University of Hawaii athletic director Paul Durham.
After the membership voting is compiled, it is handed off to a group called the honors court “to be used as a reference” before it makes final decisions on who gets in.
Clark Shaughnessy, who popularized the T formation and later finished his coaching career with a season at UH in 1965, was inducted in 1968. Herman Wedemeyer, the Saint Louis graduate who was fourth in the 1945 Heisman Trophy voting while starring at St. Mary’s, was enshrined in 1979.
I’m often asked why other coaches and players with Hawaii ties aren’t in this hall of fame. The answer in most cases is that it’s pretty hard to get on the ballot — and as the rules stand now, impossible for many who could be deserving of at least appearing on it.
The first item listed in the criteria for players is in all caps on the NFF website:
“First and foremost, a player must have received first-team All-America recognition by a selector recognized by the NCAA and utilized to comprise their consensus All-America teams.”
The NCAA recognizes five All-America teams for this purpose: Associated Press, American Football Coaches Association, Football Writers Association of America, Sporting News and Walter Camp Foundation.
That’s why Te’o and Kreutz are on the ballot among the 178 players and 43 coaches, but Colt Brennan does not qualify.
Te’o (Punahou, Notre Dame) was a unanimous first-teamer and Kreutz (Saint Louis, Washington) was a consensus first-team pick — and Te’o was runner-up for the 2012 Heisman Trophy.
Brennan was third in the 2007 Heisman Trophy voting, but he was never a first-team All-America choice. In 2006, Troy Smith of Ohio State swept the first-team QB honors. In 2007, Florida’s Tim Tebow, who won the Heisman, was first on four of the All-America teams, with Boston College’s Matt Ryan getting the nod from the AFCA. Brennan was a third-team choice by AP in 2006 and 2007.
UH’s Jason Elam isn’t on the ballot, but he qualifies. He was the 1992 AFCA choice at kicker (also, by the way, AP third team as punter). Defensive lineman Al Noga from Farrington and UH meets that requirement, too, based on his AP first-team spot in 1986.
What about Marcus Mariota? The unanimous first-team All-American and Heisman Trophy winner from Saint Louis and Oregon will likely be on the next ballot; players are not eligible for consideration until a full 10 years after the end of their college careers.
As for coaches, June Jones, Mouse Davis, Bob Wagner and Dick Tomey don’t qualify for the ballot because of a rule requiring a .600 career winning percentage. Paul Johnson, who was the UH offensive coordinator before becoming a head coach, is in the hall because of his success at Georgia Southern, Navy and Georgia Tech. He was 189-99 as a head coach (.656).
Mike Leach — like Jones and Davis, a pioneer of the college passing game — died in 2022 while still coaching at Mississippi State. Unless the rules change, he also won’t ever qualify for the ballot. Leach’s career winning percentage as a head coach is .596.
More than 25 coaches in the hall of fame don’t meet the .600 standard, which was enacted in 2005. It’s time for the honors court, or whoever is in charge of eligibility, to fix a flawed rule.
