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<a class="postlink" href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/viewart/20130507/SPORTS/305070010/OSU-s-Orlando-Pace-College-HOF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/vie ... ollege-HOF</a>
[wrapimg=left]http://cmsimg.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=B7&Date=20130507&Category=SPORTS&ArtNo=305070010&Ref=AR&MaxW=300&Border=0&OSU-s-Orlando-Pace-College-HOF[/wrapimg]COLUMBUS — Ohio State All-American tackle Orlando Pace was named Tuesday as a member of the 2013 College Football Hall of Fame Class by the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF).
Pace is the 24th Buckeye player to be so honored by the NFF. Another Ohio native, Canton’s Percy Snow, was also on the list.
“Orlando Pace is not only the best offensive lineman I have ever coached, but he is the best I have
ever seen,” said John Cooper, Pace’s coach in Columbus and a College Football Hall of Famer. “Every game was a highlight reel for him. We ran a lot of counter sweeps and a lot of screens, and on many of those plays Orlando had to be out in front of the ball carrier. And we had some pretty good ball carriers.
“I don’t know how you could play the position any better than he did. He was just a fantastic football player. He was the best.”
Pace started every game — 38 in all — between 1994-96 before bypassing his senior year to enter the NFL Draft. Still considered as one of the most dominant offensive linemen ever to play the game, the 6-6, 330-pound Pace made the “pancake block” famous his junior year by knocking an opposing player to the ground a reported 80 times.
Heisman Trophy winners Danny Wuerffel of Florida and Ron Dayne of Wisconsin, along with two-time national champion Tommie Frazier of Nebraska, were part of a class that includes 12 players and two coaches.
The rest of the players to be inducted in December are: Miami Heisman winner Vinny Testaverde, whose selection was announced Monday; Ted Brown of North Carolina State; Tedy Bruschi of Arizona; Jerry Gray of Texas; Steve Meilinger of Kentucky; Rod Shoate of Oklahoma; Percy Snow of Michigan State; and Don Trull of Baylor.
The new Hall of Fame coaches are Wayne Hardin, who led Navy and Temple, and Bill McCartney of Colorado.
Pace and the rest of the 2013 Hall of Fame Class will be inducted at the 56th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on December 10, 2013, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. They will be honored guests at the National Hall of Fame Salute at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 2, 2014 and officially enshrined in the summer of 2014.
Pace’s football career was full of firsts. He took over a starting position from his first day of preseason camp as a freshman at Ohio State in 1994.
Pace won the 1996 Outland Trophy Award and was the Football News and the Big Ten Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year that season. He was further honored in1996 with the Chicago Tribune’s Silver Football as the Most Valuable Player in the Big Ten and he was a finalist for the Maxwell Award.
Ohio State’s team MVP in 1996 when he helped the team to a Big Ten co-championship, Pace was the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year in 1994 and the Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year in 1995 and 1996.
After being chosen as the first pick of the 1997 NFL Draft by the Rams, Pace went on to a storied, 13-year career in the league. He was a member of the Rams’ 1999 Super Bowl championship team and was the anchor of an offensive line that paved the way for the team’s “greatest show on turf” offenses that featured the NFL’s MVP for three consecutive years (Kurt Warner in 1999 and 2000 and Marshall Faulk in 2001).
Pace was named All-Pro five times and he was voted into seven Pro Bowl games. He started 154 consecutive games in his career that included 12 years with St. Louis and one season with Chicago.
In addition to winning the Super Bowl in 1999, Pace was named that year to Sports Illustrated’s NCAA Football All-Century teaml. In 2011 he was voted into Ohio State’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Snow was a Canton McKinley gradaute who became a standout linebacker at Michigan State. He became the first player to win the Butkus award as the nation's top linebacker and the Lombardi as the top linemen or linebacker as a senior with the Spartans in 1989.
[wrapimg=left]http://cmsimg.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=B7&Date=20130507&Category=SPORTS&ArtNo=305070010&Ref=AR&MaxW=300&Border=0&OSU-s-Orlando-Pace-College-HOF[/wrapimg]COLUMBUS — Ohio State All-American tackle Orlando Pace was named Tuesday as a member of the 2013 College Football Hall of Fame Class by the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF).
Pace is the 24th Buckeye player to be so honored by the NFF. Another Ohio native, Canton’s Percy Snow, was also on the list.
“Orlando Pace is not only the best offensive lineman I have ever coached, but he is the best I have
ever seen,” said John Cooper, Pace’s coach in Columbus and a College Football Hall of Famer. “Every game was a highlight reel for him. We ran a lot of counter sweeps and a lot of screens, and on many of those plays Orlando had to be out in front of the ball carrier. And we had some pretty good ball carriers.
“I don’t know how you could play the position any better than he did. He was just a fantastic football player. He was the best.”
Pace started every game — 38 in all — between 1994-96 before bypassing his senior year to enter the NFL Draft. Still considered as one of the most dominant offensive linemen ever to play the game, the 6-6, 330-pound Pace made the “pancake block” famous his junior year by knocking an opposing player to the ground a reported 80 times.
Heisman Trophy winners Danny Wuerffel of Florida and Ron Dayne of Wisconsin, along with two-time national champion Tommie Frazier of Nebraska, were part of a class that includes 12 players and two coaches.
The rest of the players to be inducted in December are: Miami Heisman winner Vinny Testaverde, whose selection was announced Monday; Ted Brown of North Carolina State; Tedy Bruschi of Arizona; Jerry Gray of Texas; Steve Meilinger of Kentucky; Rod Shoate of Oklahoma; Percy Snow of Michigan State; and Don Trull of Baylor.
The new Hall of Fame coaches are Wayne Hardin, who led Navy and Temple, and Bill McCartney of Colorado.
Pace and the rest of the 2013 Hall of Fame Class will be inducted at the 56th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on December 10, 2013, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. They will be honored guests at the National Hall of Fame Salute at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 2, 2014 and officially enshrined in the summer of 2014.
Pace’s football career was full of firsts. He took over a starting position from his first day of preseason camp as a freshman at Ohio State in 1994.
Pace won the 1996 Outland Trophy Award and was the Football News and the Big Ten Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year that season. He was further honored in1996 with the Chicago Tribune’s Silver Football as the Most Valuable Player in the Big Ten and he was a finalist for the Maxwell Award.
Ohio State’s team MVP in 1996 when he helped the team to a Big Ten co-championship, Pace was the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year in 1994 and the Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year in 1995 and 1996.
After being chosen as the first pick of the 1997 NFL Draft by the Rams, Pace went on to a storied, 13-year career in the league. He was a member of the Rams’ 1999 Super Bowl championship team and was the anchor of an offensive line that paved the way for the team’s “greatest show on turf” offenses that featured the NFL’s MVP for three consecutive years (Kurt Warner in 1999 and 2000 and Marshall Faulk in 2001).
Pace was named All-Pro five times and he was voted into seven Pro Bowl games. He started 154 consecutive games in his career that included 12 years with St. Louis and one season with Chicago.
In addition to winning the Super Bowl in 1999, Pace was named that year to Sports Illustrated’s NCAA Football All-Century teaml. In 2011 he was voted into Ohio State’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Snow was a Canton McKinley gradaute who became a standout linebacker at Michigan State. He became the first player to win the Butkus award as the nation's top linebacker and the Lombardi as the top linemen or linebacker as a senior with the Spartans in 1989.