OL Orlando Pace (7-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl Champion, CFB HOF, NFL HOF)

[BUCKYLE]

The NFL Draft happens in a week, and in the 2nd and 3rd rounds future Orlando Pace will be on TV to announce the picks

Future Orlando? Will he be dressed like Rufus from Bill & Ted?

 

[Buckskin86]

Former Ohio State Buckeye Orlando Pace named to College Football Hall of Fame
By Associated Press sports staff
May 07, 2013

NEW YORK -- Former Ohio State All-America tackle Orlando Pace will join Heisman Trophy winners Danny Wuerffel of Florida and Ron Dayne of Wisconsin as members in the newest class for the College Football Hall of Fame, which was announced today.

Other notables include two-time national champion Tommie Frazier of Nebraska and former Browns quarterback Vinny Testaverde, who starred at the University of Miami and was announced as an inductee Monday.

The class of 12 players and two coaches was chosen by the National Football Foundation.

The rest of the players to be inducted in December are: Ted Brown of North Carolina State; Tedy Bruschi of Arizona; Jerry Gray of Texas; Steve Meilinger of Kentucky; Rod Shoate of Oklahoma; Percy Snow of Michigan State; and Don Trull of Baylor.

The new Hall of Fame coaches are Wayne Hardin, who led Navy and Temple, and Bill McCartney of Colorado.

Orlando Pace is considered one of the most dominant offensive linemen in college football history. He finished fourth in the Heisman voting in 1996.

Pace is the 24th Buckeye player to make the Hall.

After arriving in Columbus from Sandusky High School, he took over a starting position from his first day of preseason camp as a freshman at Ohio State in 1994. Among his accomplishments at OSU:

? In 1995 he became the first sophomore to win the Lombardi Award;

? In 1996 he became the first to ever win the Lombardi Award twice;

? He was a first-team consensus All-American in 1995 and 1996;

? He was first-team all-Big Ten Conference in 1995 and 1996;

? In 1996 he was the first offensive lineman since Ohio State's John Hicks in 1972 to finish among the Top 4 vote getters for the Heisman Trophy;

? He was the first pick of the 1997 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams.

Pace's college coach remains convinced of his first-mover and No. 1 status.

"Orlando Pace is not only the best offensive lineman I have ever coached, but he is the best I have ever seen," John Cooper, Ohio State coach from 1988-2000 and a 2008 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, said. "Every game was a highlight reel for him. We ran a lot of counter sweeps and a lot of screens, and on many of those plays Orlando had to be out in front of the ball carrier. And we had some pretty good ball carriers.

"I don't know how you could play the position any better than he did. He was just a fantastic football player. He was the best."

cont...

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2013/05/former_ohio_state_buckeye_orla.html

 

[eightpointbuck]

With as many honors as he has won, I still think Orlando is one of the most underrated players of all time. All those plays he was blocking for WRs and RBs down field, the pancakes, just utter dominance. And don't forget the tape of him playing high school basketball.



He has to rank top 10 tOSU football athletes of all time...

And a classy Ohio kid to boot. Thanks Orlando.

 

[BUCKYLE]

One of my top five all time Buckeyes. The greatest college OL of my lifetime without a doubt. In my imo. Watching him pancake...well, everyone, was just pure awesome. To this day, he remains the only Buckeye that left early that really upset me.

Also, it's absurd he wasn't already in.

 

[eightpointbuck]

Non Ohio state Rant. But that Nebraska kid was overdue too.



and with bad knees too.

 

[Saw31]

I watched Orlando Pace in person and it scared me. I was always 30 or 40 yards away in the stands, and it still scared me. Long overdue. Congrats and well deserved...

 

[Buckskin86]

Ohio State's Pace headed to college football hall of fame
By Tim May
The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday May 7, 2013

On Pace

In 1995 became first sophomore to win Lombardi Award

In 1996 became tfirst to ever win the Lombardi Award twice

First-team consensus All-American in 1995 and '96

First-team all-Big Ten Conference in 1995 and '96

In 1996 was first offensive lineman since Ohio State?s John Hicks in 1972 to finish among the top four in voting for the Heisman Trophy

Was first pick in the 1997 NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams

Eric Albrecht | Dispatch

In 1996 Ohio State offensive lineman Orlando Pace became the first-ever two-time winner of the Lombardi Award.

Orlando Pace, he of the pancake block, today became the 24th player from Ohio State named to the College Football Hall of Fame.

?It?s a great honor,? Pace said this afternoon from his home in the St. Louis area. ?Any time you?re inducted into any hall of fame, especially the college hall of fame where I?m representing my school, The Ohio State University, it?s always a plus.

?It?s about what I considered my life as a football player, and I am excited about it, and very honored.?

One of the premier left tackles in the game?s history, Pace was the wheelhorse on an OSU offensive line in the mid-1990s that propelled Eddie George to the 1995 Heisman Trophy and the Buckeyes to victory in the Rose Bowl after the 1996 season.

?People ask me all the time, ?Who is the best athlete you ever coached?? ? said John Cooper, OSU head coach from 1988-2000. ?And I always tell them I don?t know, because I had a bunch of great athletes, like Joey Galloway, and Robert Smith, and David Boston, and on and on and on.

?So then they?ll ask me, ?Well, who?s the best football player?? I don?t hesitate. Orlando Pace. Seriously, how could you play your position any better than Orlando Pace did??

Pace was relayed the compliment.

?That means so much, especially coming from coach Cooper, because I know the caliber of talent of the players that came through while he was there,? Pace said. ?But to be labeled the best by your peers, the people that you played with, I hold that in the highest regard.

?Every Saturday I went out there and played, not just giving my all ? I left it all on the field. And I really wanted to be the best.?

cont...

http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/con...07/0507-ohio-states-pace-elected-to-hall.html

 

[Apache]

One of the all time greats. If you want a clinic on lineplay, watch him. Not only a gifted athlete, great leverage and techinque, but a certain tenacity that mad him exeptional.

Congrats to Orlando.

 

[Buckskin86]

 

[Buckskin86]

Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2013 Announced

Group includes 14 inductees, with 12 former student-athletes and two coaches

June 13, 2013

John Cooper
Football Coach 1988-00
John Cooper, a previous inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame and the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame, now enters Ohio State's Athletics Hall of Fame after a coaching career that included guiding Ohio State to 111 victories and five Top 10 national finishes between 1988-2000.

Explosive offenses and excellent defenses were the hallmarks of Cooper's 13 years as Ohio State head coach. The only coach to win Rose Bowls as coach of a Pac-10 school (Arizona State in 1987) and a Big Ten school (Ohio State in 1997), Cooper's Buckeye teams still own the top three single-season passing totals in school history and four of the Top 5 total offense totals.

Individually, Cooper produced 22 First Team All-Americans at Ohio State, 16 first-round draft picks with Dan Wilkinson and Orlando Pace both selected No. 1 overall, Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George, seven NFF Scholar-Athletes and two handfuls of major award winners, including Lombardi (Pace), Outland (Pace), Butkus (Andy Katzenmoyer), Thorpe (Antoine Winfield), Biletnikoff (Terry Glenn) and Draddy (Bobby Hoying) honorees. The All-Americans and greats he coached also feature Korey Stringer, Mike Vrabel and Shawn Springs.

He led the Buckeyes to three Big Ten championships - his three teams combined for nine total conference titles - and his 1996 Ohio State team defeated Arizona State in the 1997 Rose Bowl and finished 11-1 and No. 2 in the nation. His 1998 team also finished 11-1 and No. 2 with a win in the Sugar Bowl.

Cooper grew up in the Knoxville, Tenn., suburb of Powell. He spent two years in the U.S. Army after graduating and then went to Iowa State University where he played on the football team and served as a team captain as a senior. He graduated in 1962.

Cooper was named the Associated Press national Coach of the Year in 1986 and he earned similar honors from the Sporting News, Football Writers Football News and the Pac-12 Conference during his 39 years as a collegiate coach. He has an overall record of 192-84-6. Cooper, who served as president of the American Football Coaches Association, is a scout for the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals.

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-wrestl/spec-rel/061313aaa.html

 

[Buckskin86]

Legendary lineman Orlando Pace stays busy post-football career with business, family
1993 American Family Insurance ALL-USA selection popularized the 'pancake' block
Jim Halley, USA TODAY High School Sports

Orlando Pace was an American Family Insurance ALL-USA selection at Sandusky (Ohio) HS in 1993. / USA TODAY Sports, Sandusky HS

This marks the 30th anniversary of USA TODAY recognizing the nation's top high school athletes. We are digging into the archives and checking in with ALL-USA honorees from the past three decades. Today, we catch up with 1993 American Family Insurance ALL-USA selection Orlando Pace of Sandusky, Ohio., who was an All-American offensive lineman at Ohio State and a five-time All-Pro offensive lineman in the NFL.

Orlando Pace chuckles at the question. Will an offensive lineman ever win the Heisman Trophy?

No offensive lineman has come close since Pace finished fourth in the Heisman voting in 1996.

"I think it will be tough," Pace says. "The way offensive linemen are playing now, they don't play the way I played. I was shocked that they even had me come to the (Heisman) ceremony."

MORE: All-Time American Family Insurance ALL-USA Football Team
PHOTOS: All-Time ALL-USA Team Then & Now

Few players were as dominant as Pace, a two-time unanimous First-Team All-American and the first player to repeat as a Lombardi Trophy winner. He was also the first player taken in the 1997 NFL draft, a seven-time Pro Bowler in 13 NFL seasons and won a Super Bowl with the 1999 St. Louis Rams.

On Dec. 10, Pace will be inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame. When today's high school players are ranked for their "pancake" blocks, they can thank Pace for making the statistic famous.

"It was one of those things that really wasn't a stat until Ohio State came up with it," say Pace, who played at 6-7 and 325 pounds. "Before that, it was just called a knockdown. During my Heisman campaign, they started keeping track of it. There aren't a whole lot of stats for offensive linemen."

Pace's numbers these days are kept on a balance sheet.

He is part owner of St. Louis radio station KFNS-AM and TITLE Boxing Club in the city. He also owns various rental properties in Ohio.

cont...

http://www.usatodayhss.com/amfam/article/orlando-pace-all-usa-where-are-they-now

 

[Buckskin86]

tBBC OSU HOF: John Cooper

 

[Buckskin86]

BIG MAN, BIG DAY: Orlando Pace, voted into the College Football Hall of Fame, will be honored during Ohio State's Oct. 26 game against Penn State.

The big offensive lineman, who will be officially inducted on Dec. 10 in New York City, will be presented with a Hall of Fame plaque which will be put on permanent display at the university.

Pace played tackle for the Buckeyes from 1994-96, winning the Lombardi Trophy in 1995 and '96 and the Outland Award in '96. He was drafted in the first round by the St. Louis Rams in 1997 and had a stellar NFL career.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/29/3594535/the-stress-and-strain-of-being.html#storylink=cpy

 

[Buckskin86]

 

[Buckskin86]