Emtman inducted into College Football Hall of Fame
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Steve Emtman chose to honor coach Don James and his Washington Huskies teammates on a night reserved for him at the College Football Hall of Fame.
“Playing for Don James, it was all about the tremendous respect his players had for him,” Emtman told a ballroom of 1,000 people at Saturday night’s enshrinement ceremony. “I think the reason I’m sitting up here is because we won a national championship. I had a bunch of great guys playing next to me.
“I just happened to be the guy picked for the honors.”
Emtman, the Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award winner as well as a unanimous First Team All-American pick in 1991, was part of a class of 20 to be enshrined at the Century Center in South Bend.
Other linemen inducted included Chad Hennings (Air Force, 1984-87), Chip Kell (Tennessee, 1968-70), Bruce Smith (Virginia Tech, 1981-84) and Carl Eller (Minnesota, 1961-63). It was a star-studded cast, as former Heisman Trophy winners Mike Rozier and Charlie Ward were also enshrined, along with former Florida great and NFL All-Time leading rusher Emmitt Smith and Florida State coach Bobby Bowden.
“The reality is, you look at the guys I’m going in with, and that speaks volumes about what it means,” Emtman said after the ceremony. “The words ‘Hall of Fame’ say it all, everyone understands it and gets it.
“It puts a great exclamation point on your career,” Emtman said. “This process has gone on for about a year, but now I’m actually here and I realize I’m a part of it forever.”
The 37-year-old Spokane native is the 11th Washington player to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Former Huskies’ assistant Larry Slade, now the defensive backs coach at the University of Tennessee, said you could see the Hall of Fame was in Emtman’s future as far back as his playing days at Washington.
“Steve had that temperament where he destroyed whatever was in front of him,” Slade said Saturday. “I remember one scrimmage where, for the first time, the offense moved the ball and scored on our defense.
“All of us defensive coaches were furious, and we started out onto the field to talk to the team, but before we could get out there, Steve was talking to them, and he told them ‘that doesn’t happen here, and it better never happen again.’ And you know what? The rest of the time he was there, it didn’t.”
After leading UW to the national title, Emtman left for the NFL with a year of eligibility remaining and was the first pick of the 1992 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts. Emtman’s pro career was cut-short after the 1997 season by various injuries after playing for the Colts, Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins.