Illini Football in the College Hall of Fame (18 members)
Alex Agase
(Inducted in 1963)
An All-America guard at Illinois in 1942 and ’46, he holds the rare distinction of earning All-America honors at another school (Purdue) in 1943 while in the Army. He also was selected to Walter Camp Foundation’s All-Century Team in 1989. Agase enjoyed a lengthy Big Ten coaching career, first as a head coach at Northwestern from 1964-1972 and Purdue from 1973-1976. He was also a volunteer assistant coach at Michigan in charge of special teams from 1982-1987. Agase also served as athletic director at Eastern Michigan University from 1977-1982. He passed away in May, 2007.
Bob Blackman
(Inducted in 1987)
Blackman served as Illinois’ head football coach from 1971-76, compiling a 29-36-1 record. During his six seasons at Illinois, Blackman coached future NFL stars Scott Studwell, Larry McCarren and Revie Sorey, as well as All-Americans Tab Bennett and Dan Beaver. Before heading the Illinois program, Blackman enjoyed great success at Dartmouth College, where he compiled a 104-37-3 record in 16 seasons. In 15 years of official Ivy League competition, Blackman’s Dartmouth Indians were 79-24-2, won four league championships outright, shared three other championships, had three perfect 9-0 seasons (1962, 1965, 1970) and won two Lambert Trophies, symbolic of supremacy in Eastern college football. He served as chairman of the selection committee for the annual East/West Shrine Game. Blackman passed away in March of 2000.
Al Brosky
(Inducted in 1998)
Brosky piled up staggering numbers that still stand in the NCAA record book. He holds the NCAA record for career interceptions with 29, consecutive games with an interception (15) and most interceptions per game (1.07) in his career. His remarkable interception streak spanned parts of three seasons from 1950-52, also including a theft in a 16th game, the 1952 Rose Bowl. His records have stood up through 50 years and the revolution in the passing game in college football. Brosky intercepted 30 passes in just 28 games, including the 1952 Rose Bowl, in his three-year UI career and was also an outstanding punt returner. Brosky, who played at Illinois from 1950-52, led the Fighting Illini to a three-year mark of 20-7-1, including the 1951 Big Ten title, an undefeated 9-0-1 record and a 40-7 victory over Stanford in the 1952 Rose Bowl. The Illini, under coach Ray Eliot, were ranked third in the final UPI poll in 1951, the highest finish for a UI squad since the 1927 national championship. Illinois also posted a 7-2 (No. 11) mark in 1954. Brosky died in 2010.
Dick Butkus
(Inducted in 1983)
Butkus remains the standard to which all linebackers are compared. He played two All-America seasons at Illinois (1963-64) before enjoying a Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Bears, where he was a six-time All-Pro selection. In 1964 he finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting to Notre Dame’s John Huarte. College football’s annual award for the outstanding collegiate linebacker is appropriately named after Butkus and is awarded each year by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, Fla. Butkus and Red Grange are the only players to have their numbers retired at Illinois. Butkus’ No. 50 was retired during halftime of the Illinois-Nebraska game, Sept. 20, 1986. He was also honored on the 1989 Walter Camp Foundation All-Century team and is a member of the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. Butkus died Oct. 5, 2023.
Chuck Carney
(Inducted in 1966)
Tall, slender and sure-handed, Carney was an All-America receiver at Illinois in 1920. One of Head Coach Bob Zuppke’s favorite targets, the coach once instructed one of his quarterbacks to “bombard passes in Carney’s direction.” After leaving Illinois, Carney served as the end coach at Northwestern, Wisconsin and Harvard. He is also the only Illinois athlete to earn All-America honors in both football (1920) and basketball (1920 & 22). Carney died in 1984.
J.C. Caroline
(Inducted in 1980)
Caroline led the nation in rushing as a sophomore in 1953 with 1,256 yards in just nine games and was named an All-American. He was called “the best all-around athlete I ever had in 26 years of coaching,” by his head coach Ray Eliot. He led the Fighting Illini in rushing again in 1954 before entering the Canadian Football League, and later spent 10 seasons in the NFL with the Chicago Bears. Caroline was a longtime physical education instructor at the Urbana Middle School in Urbana, Illinois. He died in 2017.
Pete Elliott
(Inducted in 1993)
After a distinguished collegiate playing career at the University of Michigan, Elliott went on to have a long collegiate coaching career and helped lead Illinois to the 1963 Big Ten title and a 1964 Rose Bowl victory. A native of Bloomington, Ill., Elliott graduated from Michigan in 1949 after quarterbacking the Wolverines to undefeated seasons in 1947 and 1948, winning the 1948 Rose Bowl and earning a national championship in his senior season. After assistant coaching stints at Oregon State and Oklahoma, Elliott was the head coach at Nebraska and California, where he led the Bears to Pasadena in 1959. Elliott became the head coach of Illinois in 1960 and stayed for seven seasons, coaching the likes of Dick Butkus and Jim Grabowski. He compiled a record of 31-34-1 while at Illinois. Elliott went on to serve as athletic director and head coach at the University of Miami and assistant coach of the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals. He also has been inducted into the University of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, the State of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame and the State of Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame. Elliott is the retired executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He died in 2013.
Moe Gardner
(Inducted in 2022)
Gardner was arguably the best defensive tackle in Fighting Illini history. He was a two-time consensus All-American star and helped Illinois to three consecutive bowl games, a Citrus Bowl victory over Virginia in 1989, and a share of the 1990 Big Ten Championship. Gardner earned All-Big Ten honors all four seasons from 1987-90, including first-team recognition his final three years in Champaign. He was a finalist for the 1990 Rotary Lombardi Award and 1989 Outland Trophy.
Jim Grabowski
(Inducted in 1995)
By the time Jim Grabowski left Illinois, he was the all-time leading rusher in Big Ten history with 2,878 career yards. A bruising fullback, Grabowski was named an Associated Press All-American in 1964 and 1965. He was named the 1964 Rose Bowl MVP after leading Illinois to a 17-7 victory over Washington by rushing for 125 yards. Besides his All-America honor in 1965, Grabowski also was named the Back of the Year by the Washington Touchdown Club and the Co-Player of the Year by The Sporting News. He finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1965. After graduating with a finance degree in 1966, he was the first-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers and played in the NFL for six years with the Packers and the Chicago Bears. An excellent student-athlete, Grabowski earned GTE Academic All-America honors in 1964 and 1965 and was inducted into the GTE Academic All-America Hall of Fame in 1993. In 1997, Grabowski was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.
Harold E. “Red” Grange
(Inducted in 1951)
As its first legitimate “star,” Grange is credited with establishing the popularity of professional football. At 5-foot-10-inches and 170 pounds, Grange was a three-time consensus All-America halfback at Illinois from 1923-25. After his final game at Illinois, Grange signed with the Chicago Bears, owned by Illinois alumnus George Halas. During an age when professional football rarely saw crowds of more than a few thousand, Grange attracted 36,000 spectators for his pro debut on Thanksgiving Day at Wrigley Field; 10 days later 73,000 watched him play at New York’s Polo Grounds. In addition to his feats as a halfback, Grange is sixth on Illinois’ all-time career interception list with 11; seventh in career punt return yardage; and possessed amazing average-yards-per-carry statistics in interceptions (22.5), pass receptions (18.1) and kickoff returns (30.2). He is also a charter member of both the college and pro football Halls of Fame. Grange’s legendary No. 77 was retired after the completion of his final game at Illinois, Nov. 21, 1925. Grange is a member of the Camp Foundation’s All-Century team. He died Jan. 28, 1991.
Edward K. Hall
(Inducted in 1951)
Hall became the third coach in Illinois history, coaching from 1892-93. He compiled a 12-5-5 record. It is Hall’s off-field contributions to the game of football that earned him his recognition. He is credited with proposing and writing the first football code for the proper conduct of its players. In an age when the game was often brutal and reckless, Hall’s code was adopted and later appeared in the Official Football Guide. Hall is also known for putting the 1892 Illinois team through the most grueling schedule ever thrust upon a college football team. The Fighting Illini, with only 18 players, played six games in just eight days, in three states. Illinois went 4-2 on the trip and finished Hall’s first season with a 9-3-2 record. No Illinois team has ever played more games in one season. At the time of his death in 1932, William Bingham, Harvard’s athletic director, said, “If Walter Camp was the father of American Football, certainly E.K. Hall was the ‘savior’ of the game.”
Dana Howard
(Inducted in 2018)
Howard, the Big Ten’s all-time leading tackler, was one of the great college linebackers of the 1990’s. He recorded at least 147 tackles in each of his four seasons in Champaign and totaled 595 tackles for his career, along with 30 TFLs, 10 sacks, four interceptions and seven fumble recoveries. He was the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1993 and 1994 and was named an All-American in both seasons. Howard won the Butkus Award in 1994 as the nation’s top linebacker, on his way to a consensus All-American selection.
Bart Macomber
(Inducted in 1972)
Macomber joined All-American Harold Pogue in the backfield to lead Illinois and second-year Head Coach Bob Zuppke to their first national championship in 1914. That team shut out its first four opponents, and allowed just 22 total points during a perfect 7-0 season. Macomber had also played for Zuppke as a prep at Oak Park High School. The following year, Macomber earned All-America honors as a halfback, and he was captain of the 1916 team. He was a versatile athlete who could play every backfield position, and did a majority of the team’s kicking. Macomber died in 1971.
Bernie Shively
(Inducted in 1982)
“Red” Grange was led to many of his spectacular scores by an agile, athletic guard who was so quick and powerful for his size that he wrestled for the Big Ten heavyweight championship in 1926. He lost the bout, however, after wrestling George Fisher of Indiana to a draw during regulation and then losing the coin toss to decide the champion. Shively earned All-America honors as a guard in 1926. He joined the University of Kentucky’s staff as an assistant football coach, before being named that school’s athletic director in 1938, a post he held until his death in 1967.
David Williams
(Inducted in 2005)
Illinois’ all-time leading receiver, David Williams finished his collegiate career as the second-leading receiver in NCAA history. He was a two-time unanimous First-Team All-American. In 1984, he led the nation with 101 receptions, becoming only the second player in NCAA history to surpass the 100-reception mark. He was twice named First-Team All-Big Ten and led Illinois to a conference title in 1983. He currently works in sales and lives in Gardena, Calif.
George W. Woodruff
(Inducted in 1963)
Woodruff coached the University of Pennsylvania in its greatest days of college football. He compiled a 124-15-2 record from 1892-1901 at Penn. His 1897 Pennsylvania team was a perfect 15-0 and was recognized as national champions. Woodruff coached one season at Illinois, compiling a record of 8-6 in 1903. He died in 1934.
Claude “Buddy” Young
(Inducted in 1968)
In a college career split by the armed services, the 5-foot-5-inch halfback earned All-America honors in 1944. Young scored 13 touchdowns in his All-America year, while rushing for 842 yards with an amazing 8.9 yards-per-carry average. He rushed for 103 yards in Illinois’ 45-14 upset of unbeaten UCLA in the 1947 Rose Bowl and was selected as the game’s MVP. A world-class sprinter, Young enjoyed a lengthy pro football career and served as an assistant commissioner in the NFL. He died in an automobile accident in 1983. He was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1993.
Robert Zuppke
(Inducted in 1951)
Hired by Athletic Director George Huff as head football coach in 1913, Zuppke held the position for 29 years, the longest tenure of any Illinois head coach. An innovator and trend-setter, Zuppke established many of the current traditions and styles of football today. He is credited with inventing several different formations, the flea-flicker, the huddle and spring practice. He also recruited and coached “Red” Grange, considered by many as the greatest player in football history. In all, Zuppke won four national titles (1914, 1919, 1923, 1927), seven conference championships and compiled a record of 131-81-13. The playing field at Memorial Stadium is named after him and is identified by a large stone engraving in the north end zone. Zuppke died in 1957.
