McPherson's Journey Pauses for College Football Hall of Fame Induction
12/8/2008 7:44:18 AM | Football
By Steve Richardson, NFF Correspondent
Prior to Don McPherson's arrival on the football team at Syracuse with Coach Dick MacPherson, the Orange finished 2-9 as an independent in 1982. By the end of his senior campaign, the Orange were vying for the national title and finished No. 4 in both major polls with an 11-0-1 record during their 1987 season.
McPherson will join 14 other former Orange men, including Ernie Davis, Tim Green, Jim Brown, Larry Csonka and Floyd Little, in the College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday, Dec. 9.
"Before school even started my freshmen year in 1984, I was in a (knee) cast, and when I finally did get on the field my sophomore year I separated my shoulder," McPherson said. "I actually thought of transferring out of Syracuse, I was so miserable at one point. To think I would be sitting here, much less having the kind of career I had and the kind of seasons that followed, I never would have imagined (it)."
Included in that magical 1987 season was a thrilling 32-31 victory over West Virginia in the final regular season game. McPherson led the Orange on the winning drive late in the game and completed a touchdown pass to tight end Pat Kelly to bring them within a point of West Virginia. The Orange then secured the victory with a two-point conversion when McPherson handed off to running back Michael Owens.
The Hempstead, N.Y., native, completed 129-of-229 passes for 2,341 yards and 22 TDs in 1987. Additionally, he ran for 531 yards and another four TDs. His pass efficiency rating as a senior was a sterling 164.3, which led the nation. McPherson culminated his college career with MVP honors in the 1988 Sugar Bowl against Auburn, when the War Eagles elected to kick a field goal in the late going for the 16-16 tie. He won the Maxwell, Davey O'Brien and Johnny Unitas awards and finished second in the Heisman Trophy balloting in 1987 after setting 22 Syracuse individual records. McPherson's leadership obviously was a catalyst in jump-starting the Syracuse program, as the Orange, following his departure (under MacPherson and later Coach Paul Pasqualoni), went to 11 bowls in the next 14 seasons and won nine of them.
McPherson was among 75 former players and eight coaches on this year’s ballot. As a whole, just more than 800 individuals out of 4.7 million who have played college football earn this distinction.
"I can honestly tell you the game of football has given me more than I have given it. I am tremendously indebted to players, coaches, administrators," he said. "I look at the list of names (of nominees for the College Football Hall of Fame), I am impressed. When it came out, I thought there was no way I would get in. When I see my name on there, that is the name on my bills. That's the name on my address. It is not that impressive."
McPherson, selected in the sixth round of the 1988 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, played four years in the NFL and retired in 1994 after a stint in the Canadian Football League. He founded the Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi University and has become a leading advocate of the prevention of men's violence against women. He has appeared on "Nightline" and the "Oprah Winfrey Show."
"The journey I was on leading up to my years at Syracuse University and since was a very difficult one, a very long one," McPherson said. "And the journey I have been on since has been working with young people and the tremendous lessons and messages I have been able to deliver because of the game of football: perseverance, teamwork and togetherness."
The 2008 Hall of Fame Class will be officially inducted at the NFF's Annual Awards Dinner, held at New York City's historic Waldorf=Astoria Hotel on Tuesday, December 9. The National Hall of Fame Salute at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl follows on January 5, giving the class recognition on a national stage, and events culminate with the College Football Hall of Fame's Enshrinement Festival in South Bend, Ind., July 17-18.
The 2008 class includes Troy Aikman (UCLA), Billy Cannon (LSU), Jim Dombrowski (UVA), Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Wilber Marshall (Florida), Rueben Mayes (Washington State), Randall McDaniel (ASU), McPherson (Syracuse), Jay Novacek (Wyoming), Dave Parks (Texas Tech), Ron Simmons (Florida State), Thurman Thomas (Oklahoma State), Arnold Tucker (Army), Coach John Cooper (Tulsa, ASU, Ohio State) and Coach Lou Holtz (William & Mary, NC State, Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame, South Carolina).
