Little on Ballot for Pro Football Hall
8/26/2009 8:19:54 AM | Football
Former Syracuse standout and National Football League great Floyd Little '67 is in line to become the seventh Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrine with ties to Syracuse University. The six individuals with Syracuse ties who are enshrined include Jim Brown, Jim Ringo, Larry Csonka, John Mackey , Art Monk, and Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis. Syracuse is one of just nine schools to have at least six alums in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Little and former NFL cornerback Dick LeBeau were named by the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Seniors Committee as finalists for election into the Hall of Fame with the Class of 2010.
The sixth player selected overall in the 1967 draft, Little made an immediate impact on the football field. A multi-dimensional player Little combined his rushing talents with great hands and also served as a return man for the Denver Broncos
A five-time Pro Bowl pick, Little amassed more than 12,000 all-purpose yards during his career that spanned from 1967 to 1975. The first-round draft-selection gained 6,323 yards on 1,641 career carries and scored 43 touchdowns. He added 215 receptions for 2,418 yards and nine touchdowns. Little, who lead the AFL in punt returns as a rookie, totaled 893 yards on 81 career punt returns and returned 104 kickoffs for 2,523 yards in his nine-season career.
In 1971, he became the first player in Broncos history to rush for 1,000 yards when he won the NFL's rushing crown with 1,133 yards on the ground that season.
Little and LeBeau will join 15 still-to-be-named modern-era candidates on the list of finalists from which the Class of 2010 will be selected. The Hall of Fame selection meeting will be held on February 6, 2010, the day before Super Bowl XLIV in South Florida. To be elected, the former standouts must each receive the same 80 percent voting support that is required of all finalists. The Hall's Board of Selectors can elect a maximum of two senior candidates and five modern-era candidates for a class no smaller than four or larger than seven during next February's meeting.
Senior nominees are selected by the Hall of Fame's Seniors Committee comprised of nine members of the overall selection committee. Through mail vote, the 2010 senior nominees were reduced to final list of candidates that included 17 nominees, who had to have been retired from the NFL for at least 25 years.
A three-time All-American and 1966 ECAC Player of the Year at Syracuse, Little was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and is one of 17 Syracuse representatives to be inducted. Little holds the Syracuse record for career touchdowns (46) and career punts returned for touchdowns (6). He finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting both this junior and senior years.
Playing from 1964 to 1966, Little amassed 2,704 yards and 35 touchdowns on the ground. During his junior season, he became the first Syracuse back to run for more than 1,000 yards, gaining 1,065 on 193 carries for a 5.5 average. That same season he returned a career-high three punts for scores, including a school-record 95-yarder, and became the second Syracuse student-athlete to gain more than 2,000 all-purpose yards.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2010 will be formally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame during the enshrinement ceremony on Saturday, August 7 at Canton's Pro Football Hall of Fame Field at Fawcett Stadium.
