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A&T Grad Makes Pro Football Hall of Fame

By Chris Wallace
Black College Wire

Defensive end Elvin Bethea earned eight trips to the NFL Pro Bowl and recorded 105 career sacks.

Former National Football League star Elvin Bethea, a graduate of North Carolina A&T, has been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, becoming the first A&T alum and the eighth Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference player to achieve the honor.

Others enshrined Aug. 3 were running back Marcus Allen (L.A. Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs), guard Joe DeLamielleure (Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns), wide receiver James Lofton (Green Bay Packers, Buffalo Bills) and Hank Stram, former head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. Only Bethea was an HBCU graduate.

Bethea played at A&T and spent 16 seasons with the Houston Oilers, from 1968 to 1983. He had been passed over by the Hall of Fame committee since he became eligible in 1989 and said he had given up on making it to the Hall.

�I was stunned,� said Bethea, laughing, when asked about receiving the January phone call about his selection. �My wife was jumping up and down on the bed. I couldn�t believe that it had actually happened because after all the years that I�d gone through just watching everyone like Joe Greene, Art Shell and Joe Namath go in, I just figured that I�d never be there. It�s gratifying and unbelievably great,� he said.

The former defensive end earned trips to the NFL Pro Bowl eight times, recorded 105 career sacks and wreaked havoc on opposing quarterbacks, but never reached the Super Bowl. The closest he and the Oilers came was in 1979, when they made it to the AFC championship game but lost 31-5 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But Bethea said that loss led to perhaps his high point as a player.

�The greatest moment was coming back after that Pittsburgh game in 1979 although we lost the AFC title to Pittsburgh,� said Bethea. After we got home four hours later, there were over 60,000 people waiting for us, and this was after we lost. We look back and say, �Just think if we�d won.'�

To Bethea, the Hall of Fame tops the Super Bowl.

�Most definitely,� he said. �I never got the [Super Bowl] ring, but now I do have a ring that many people will not have. . . . When you win a Super Bowl, everyone on the team has a ring, even the ball boy. This is a little different, because there are only 181 of us that I can say are the only ones who have this ring, and that�s quite an honor.�

The Aug. 3 selections give the Hall of Fame 221 members, 181 of whom are players.

Chris Wallace is a student at North Carolina A&T University and writes for the A&T Register.

Photo credit: Pro Football Hall of Fame

Posted Aug. 5, 2003