'Mongo' McMichael in latest college Hall of Fame class
NEW YORK - Former Chicago Bears tackle Steve McMichael, now the head coach of the Chicago Slaughter football team in Hoffman Estates, has been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
He'll be joined by Heisman Trophy winners Tim Brown and Gino Torretta, along with two-time All-American Chris Spielman. In all, 16 players added added to the College Football Hall of Fame.
McMichael dominated the defensive line for the Longhorns from 1976-79. He was a consensus All-American as a senior, when he led the team in tackles (142) and tackles-for-loss (18). He still ranks seventh on the all-time Texas list in tackles (369) and sixth in sacks (28.5). He played 15 years in the NFL.
"When you picked up a helmet and a football when you were 8, 9 years old, the last thing you thought about was ending up in the college football Hall of Fame," said Brown, the 1987 Heisman winner for Notre Dame.
Torretta won the 1992 Heisman for Miami and went 26-2 as the starter during Miami's heyday.
"I went to Miami to have a chance to win a national championship. You don't know if you're going to get a chance to play and start," said Torretta, who along with Brown and former Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson attended a news conference at the Nasdaq stock market in midtown Manhattan.
"Everything worked out, we won a couple of titles, you do good things and you're a good person, you end up in good places."
Others selected for induction by the National Football Foundation are: Penn State's Curt Warner; New Mexico State's Pervis Atkins; Arizona's Chuck Cecil; Auburn's Ed Dyas; West Virginia's Major Harris; BYU's Gordon Hudson; Alabama's Woodrow Lowe; Stanford's Ken Margerum, who once played for the Chicago Bears, Iowa's Larry Station; Georgia Tech's Pat Swilling; and Nebraska's Grant Wistrom.
The NFF's veteran's committee selected Williams Lewis, who played center for Harvard from 1892-93.
Coaches John Robinson of Southern California and MacPherson will also be inducted in December.
"To be able to be selected in this tremendously honored group, there's nowhere to go from here," MacPherson said.
Associated Press contributed to this report.