Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler.
This is Ken Huff’s last chance to make the College Football Hall of Fame.
One of the most decorated offensive linemen at a school that came to be known as Tailback U, Huff’s list of accomplishments almost fills an entire sheet single-spaced. All-ACC and consensus All-American, Jacobs Blocking Trophy as top O-lineman and Jim Tatum Award as best senior student-athlete in the ACC, all in 1974, followed by the No. 3 pick in the NFL draft, plus making the NC Sports Hall of Fame in 2008 and honored jersey in Kenan Stadium.
Etc., etc., and so forth.
“As an All-American and all-pro in an era when how good you were mattered far more than social media attention, Ken Huff was one of the best offensive linemen to play at Carolina and the ACC,” says Mack Brown, UNC’s Hall of Fame head coach. “He is a Hall Famer in every definition of the honor.”
The National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame has an archaic rule that players are no longer eligible 50 years past their last season, so the oft-nominated Huff has only one more shot a half-century since serving as captain of the Tar Heels and College Football All-Star team against the Steelers.
He has been nominated multiple times, starting with the Southeast Chapter of the Hall of Fame, named for Bill Dooley, Huff’s old coach as a Tar Heel who if he hadn’t died in 2016 would still be lobbying hard for the gentle giant who played 11 years in the NFL including for the Washington Redskins in the 1984 Super Bowl vs. the Oakland Raiders.
The hundred or so nominees each year are paired down to 70 from which 12 are selected to be inducted. Huff always let his blocking do his talking and thinks that may have kept him out all these decades.
“I was never a rah, rah guy,” he said. “It was block your man and go onto the next play. And there weren’t a lot of statistics for linemen back then; how many pancake blocks did I make?”
Huff has been an award-winning custom home builder in Chapel Hill going on 40 years, twice named Builder of the Year by the prestigious Governors Club community. He turned down an appointment to the Naval Academy to accept Dooley’s scholarship offer in 1971 and thinks induction to the College Hall of Fame would be a career-capper.
“It’s not going to validate my career, but it’s the recognition that comes with it,” he said. “I guess for your legacy, more for my family and kids. Kind of the epitome of my career, which just kind of tops it off.”
Vote Huff in 2023!
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
