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The Colorado Buffaloes will be well represented on the ballot for the 2022 class of the College Football Hall of Fame, according to a press release by the National Football Foundation Wednesday.
Three Buffaloes appear on the ballot, hoping to become the latest to be enshrined next year in Atlanta. Offensive guard Joe Garten (1987-90), defensive back Chris Hudson (1991-94), and running back Rashaan Salaam (1992-94) made the initial cut for national voting.
Garten, a member of the 1990 National Championship team, was a two-time All-American on the offensive line at CU. He was a runner-up for the Outland Trophy during his senior year in 1990.
As shutdown corner who was also an All-American, Hudson won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back in 1994. He left CU with 141 career tackles and 15 interceptions, second-most in school history.
Colorado’s lone Heisman winner is one of the most celebrated Buffaloes not in the Hall of Fame. Salaam scampered for 2,055 yards and 24 touchdowns during his in 1994, edging Penn State’s Ki-Jana Carter and Alcorn State’s Steve McNair in Heisman voting. He also won the Walter Camp and Doak Walker awards that year. At the time, he was only the fourth player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.
“It’s an enormous honor to just be on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot considering more than 5.47 million people have played college football and only 1,038 players have been inducted,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell.
“The Hall’s requirement of being a First-Team All-American creates a much smaller pool of about 1,500 individuals who are even eligible. Being in today’s elite group means an individual is truly among the greatest to have ever played the game, and we look forward to announcing the 2022 College Football Hall of Fame Class early next year.”
Colorado’s Michael Westbrook was named to the 2020 class. He joined previous CU players inducted into the hall including Byron “Whizzer” White (1954), Joe Romig (1984), Bobby Anderson (1993), Dick Anderson (2006), Alfred Williams (2010), John Wooten (2012), and Herb Orvis (2016). Bill McCartney is the only CU coach in the Hall of Fame and was inducted in 2013.