Steve Spurrier, Peyton Manning and former Georgia Southern running back Adrian Peterson are among the 13 players and coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame class of 2017.
Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy in 1966 and coached the Florida Gators to their first national championship in 1996.
Manning was the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1997 and finished his four-year career at Tennessee as the school’s leader in touchdown passes and passing yards.
Peterson starred at Georgia Southern from 1998-2001 and rushed for 6,559 yards -- not including the playoffs. In 1999, he became the first sophomore to win the Walter Payton award, given annually to the top player in FCS.
Peterson joins former quarterback Tracy Ham as the only Georgia Southern players in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Other members of the class include:
> Danny Ford, who coached Clemson to the national championship in 1981 at age 33.
> Matt Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner who quarterbacked Southern California to a pair of national titles.
> Marshall Faulk, who led the nation in rushing and scoring as a freshman at San Diego State in 1991.
> Notre Dame linebacker Bob Crable (1978-81)
> Michigan State wide receiver Kirk Gibson (1975-78)
> Texas offensive tackle Bob McKay (1968-69)
> Texas A&M linebacker Dat Nguyen (1995-98)
> Boston College nose guard Mike Ruth (1982-85)
> New Mexico defensive back Brian Urlacher (1996-99)
> Mount Union coach Larry Keheres, who won 93 percent of his games and 11 Division III national championships from 1986-2012.
The class will be inducted at the National Football Foundation banquet in New York in December and their accomplishments will be forever immortalized at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
--The Associated Press contributed to this report.
