Urlacher tops Lobo pack with Hall of Fame honors
Brian Urlacher, a former Lobo football star and retired Chicago Bears linebacker, is running with an impressive pack of thoroughbreds that includes fellow NFL retiree Peyton Manning, who quarterbacked for the Denver Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts.
Urlacher, Manning and 11 other former college standouts will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame next December at the National Football Foundation Annual Awards Dinner in New York City.
He joins two other New Mexicans who have received the honor — the late Warren Woodson, who coached the New Mexico State Aggies from 1958-67 and who was inducted in 1989, and running back Pervis Atkins, who played for Woodson at NMSU from 1959-60 before playing professionally for the Los Angeles Rams, Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders, and who was elected in 2009.
Urlacher grew up in Lovington, where he helped the Wildcats win the 1995 Class 3A title and went on to play for the University of New Mexico Lobos where, in 1998, he led the nation in tackles. In 1999, he was a Jim Thorpe Award finalist and was 12th in the Heisman Trophy voting. He was named to the 1999 AP All-America team and was picked ninth in the 2000 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears.
And he’s an All-Pro player who has never forgotten his New Mexico roots. Congrats to Brian Urlacher, a hometown boy who made New Mexico proud.