UVA great Jim Dombrowski makes College Football Hall of Fame

NEW YORK—Jim Dombrowski, who helped lead the resurgence of Virginia football under coach George Welsh, is among the 15 former players and coaches elected today to the College Football Hall of Fame.

The 6-foot-5, 295-pound Dombrowski anchored Virginia’s offensive line for four consecutive seasons and earned unanimous All-America honors in 1985 as a senior. He was a two-time winner of the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s top blocker and led the rebuilding Cavaliers to three consecutive winning seasons.

Virginia retired the No. 73 worn by the native of Williamsville, N.Y.

The sixth overall selection in the first round of the 1986 NFL draft, Dombrowski played 11 seasons with the New Orleans Saints, appearing in a club-record 147 consecutive games before retiring.

Aikman started his college career at Oklahoma, then transferred to UCLA. After two stellar seasons (1987-88) with the Bruins, he was drafted first overall by the Dallas Cowboys.

Holtz coached six schools to 249 victories in a career that spanned more than 30 years. He won a national title with Notre Dame in 1988.

Cannon played tailback for LSU from 1957-59, winning the Heisman Trophy his senior year.

The other 10 players chosen by the National Football Foundation’s selection committee are Northwestern linebacker Pat Fitzgerald; Florida linebacker Wilber Marshall; Washington State running back Ruben Mayes; Arizona State guard Randall McDaniel; Syracuse quarterback Don McPherson; Wyoming tight end Jay Novacek; Texas Tech split end Dave Parks; Florida State nose guard Ron Simmons; Oklahoma State running back Thurman Thomas, and Army quarterback Arnold Tucker.

John Cooper, who went 192-84-6 with Tulsa, Arizona State and Ohio State, is the other coach selected for induction.

The latest class will be inducted at the NFF banquet in New York in December and enshrined in the summer of 2009 at the Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.