When Randall Cunningham first heard of the effort to get him inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame more than a decade ago, he brushed it aside as a nice potential footnote to his legendary career.
The prestige of the honor didn’t really hit him until he got a call in January that he had been selected on his 11th time as a finalist on the ballot. The former UNLV star will officially become the school’s first inductee in December at the National Football Foundation Awards Dinner in New York.
“Coach (Harvey) Hyde was really (lobbying) to get me in, and I always just kind of thought, ‘Well, if it happens, it happens,’” the 53-year-old said Saturday after he was honored for the achievement on the field at Sam Boyd Stadium during UNLV’s 42-23 loss to Colorado State.