Fitz' Hall of Fame salute

At halftime of Northwestern's homecoming game Saturday against Purdue, the National Football Foundation and the College Hall of Fame will recognize NU coach Pat Fitzgerald for being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

It's a cool honor, though we've known about it for months. Here's the bit of news about Fitz' induction that blows me away: He's the 11th Northwestern player in the Hall of Fame. That's just as many as Illinois, which has had quite a bit more on-field success than the Wildcats.

Here's the list of NU Hall-of-Famers per the website (www.collegefootball.org). Oh, and dig the crazy nicknames:

Jimmy Johnson (1904-05)
Paddy "The Wasp" Driscoll (1915-16)
Ralph "Moon" Baker (1924-26)
Jack Riley (1929-31)
Ernie "Pug" Rentner (1930-32)
Edgar "Eggs" Manske (1931-33)
Steve Reid (1934-36)
Otto "Automatic Otto" Graham (1941-43)
Alex "Sorky" Sarkisian (1946-48)
Ron Burton (1957-59)
Pat "Fightin' Fitz From the South Side" Fitzgerald (1993-96)

OK, so I might have made up Fitz' nickname...but he proudly refers to himself as a South Sider so frequently that I thought I'd toss it in there.

Here's Illinois' Hall of Famers:
Bart Macomber (1914-16)
Chuck Carney (1918-21)
Red "The Galloping Ghost" Grange (1923-25)
Bernie Shively (1924-26)
Alex Agase (1941-43)
Buddy Young (1944 and 1946)
Al Brosky (1950-52)
J.C. "Mr. Zoom" Caroline (1953-54)
Dick Butkus (1962-64)
Jim "Grabo" Grabowski (1963-65)
David Williams (1983-85)

Northern Illinois' lone entry is former QB great George Bork (1960-63).

Notre Dame, of course, has 42 players in the Hall of Fame. Good thing the HofF museum is in South Bend.

LW