Three former Notre Dame stars — Dave Casper, Terry Hanratty and Jim Seymour were placed on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot today. The entire ballot contains 79 players and nine coaches.
The Hall of Fame class will be announced May 11 and the players will be inducted at the College Hall of Fame’s Annual Awards Dinner Dec. 6 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
To be eligible for the ballot, players must have been chosen first-team All-America by a major/national selector, played their last year of intercollegiate football at least 10 years prior, and played within the last 50 years and be retired from the NFL.
Coaches must be out of the college coaching profession for at least three years, coached a minimum of 10 years/100 games, not be coaching on the professional level and have won at least 60 percent of the time. Each year, 15 candidates not selected for the Hall of Fame are named automatic holdovers and bypass the district screening process and automatically appear on the ballot the following year.
Here are details on the three former Irish players on the ballot:
* Terry Hanratty – Quarterback — Consensus first-team All-American in 1966 . . . finished third in Heisman Trophy voting in 1968, sixth in 1966 and ninth in 1967 . . . led Irish to 1966 national championship . . . set Notre Dame career marks for pass completions, passing yards and TD passes . . . career statistics include 304 pass completions on 550 attempts for 4,152 yards and 27 TDs . . . still holds Irish record for pass attempts in a game with 63 against Purdue in 1967 .
* Dave Casper – Offensive Lineman/Tight End – 1973 consensus first-team All-American . . . played in 1974 Hula Bowl and College All-Star Game . . .Notre Dame co-captain and offensive MVP in 1973 on national championship team . . . 1973 Academic All-America selection .
* Jim Seymour – End – Two-time first-team All-America selection in 1967-68 . . . led the team in receiving from 1966-68 . . . setNotre Dame career records for receptions (138) and receiving yards (2,113) and for pass receptions in a game (13 vs. Purdue in 1966) and still holds record for receiving yards in a game (276 in that same game).
Notre Dame has 43 former players and six former coaches already enshrined in the Hall of Fame, providing more inductees than any other institution. The most recent addition is former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown, who was inducted in 2009 and enshrined in July 2010 in South Bend.