Aikman, White to Hall of Fame

NFL greats Troy Aikman and the late Reggie White headlined a full class of six inductees into this year''s Pro Football Hall of Fame that was announced last February. It was called the most emotional announcement of a Pro Football Hall of Fame class in history. The formal induction ceremony of the class into the Hall of Fame will be on August 5.

The other members of this year''s class are Harry Carson, John Madden, Warren Moon and Rayfield Wright. With six people being inducted this year, this class is also the biggest ever inducted since 2001.

Aikman was once renowned as the NFL''s golden boy and one of the greatest quarterbacks of his era. He led the Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl titles in the 1990s. Today, Aikman is a television sportscaster for the Fox network and a joint owner of the NASCAR Nextel Cup racing team, Hall of Fame Racing, along with fellow former Cowboys quarterback, Roger Staubach.

White, nicknamed the "Minister of Defense," was one of football''s most prolific sackers ever, either in college, the USFL and the NFL.. White also earned his nickname as reference to his Evangelical Christian ordination. He died suddenly in 2004 after suffering a fatal cardiac arrhythmia caused by the sarcoidosis he had lived with for years. During the 2005 season, three teams retired White''s number 92 jersey.

Moon became the first African-American quarterback to ever be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Before him, no other African-American quarterback even got close to induction. Aikman and Moon followed Dan Marino, Steve Young and John Elway in a string of great quarterbacks to make the Hall in their first tries.

"To be the first African-American quarterback into the Hall of Fame, all African-American QBs who played before me should share in this," Moon said. "I don''t want to make this a racial thing, but I think it is significant. It shows that we have arrived at the pinnacle of our sport."

And, of course, there is Madden, the coach-broadcaster-video game entrepreneur who holds the record for the best winning percentage of any NFL coach with 100 victories (.759). He coached the Oakland Raiders for 10 years and won the 1977 Super Bowl.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Football, Golf, and Recreation