Former Miami Hurricanes Ed Reed and Edgerrin James and Head Coach Jimmy Johnson were all named Semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday. If all three are selected for entrance this summer it would make for a special class in Canton.
The Miami Hurricanes have never had more than one player enshrined in the same Class. Ray Lewis was the most recent Miami alum enshrined. Lewis was part of the most recent class this summer. Before Lewis, Warren Sapp was inducted in 2013.
The other Miami Hurricanes enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame are former Oakland Raiders Jim Otto in 1980 and Ted Hendricks in 1990, the Buffalo Bills Jim Kelly in 2002, Michael Irvin of the Dallas Cowboys in 2007 and Cortez Kennedy who spent his entire career with the Seattle Seahawks in 2012.
If Howard Schnellenberger was the Godfather of the modern Miami Hurricanes football, Jimmy Johnson was the Don. Schnellenberg put Miami on the map and coached their first National Championship in 1983. Schnellenberger left for a job with the Miami team in the USFL that never materialized.
Johnson was hired to replace him. Under Johnson, the swagger that Miami became known for was established. The team raised four fingers at the end of the third quarter to signal the fourth quarter is ours. The Miami Hurricanes didn’t back down to anyone under Johnson.
Johnson came to Miami from Oklahoma State. He had been a defensive lineman in his playing days at Arkansas and played on their 1964 National Championship team.
Among the people that crossed his path with the Razorbacks were his teammate Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his rival, former arch nemesis at Oklahoma and his successor with the Cowboys Barry Switzer who was an Assistant Coach.