Two UCO Players On Hall of Fame Ballot

6/4/2015 12:59:00 PM

IRVING, Texas (June 4) – Former Central Oklahoma greats John Fitzgerald and Randy Page are listed on the 2016 ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame, the National Football Foundation has announced.

Ninety-two players from the divisional ranks (NCAA Divisions I-AA, II and III and NAIA) are included on the ballot, with 76 players from the Football Bowl Subdivision on a separate ballot. Voting ends in late June and the 2016 class will be announced Jan. 8, 2016 in Scottsdale, Ariz., site of the Division I national championship game.

Page and Fitzgerald are both members of the UCO Athletic Hall of Fame, with Page inducted in 2000 and Fitzgerald in 2010.

Fitzgerald is one of the most decorated players in UCO's rich football history as an offensive lineman who paved the way for a powerful running game in the late 1990s.

He's the only three-time NCAA Division II All-American in school history, earning first-team honors in 1998 and second-team accolades the following two seasons. Fitzgerald was a three-time first-team All-Lone Star Conference North Division selection who helped lead the Bronchos to an undefeated regular season and the No. 1 ranking in 1998, with UCO winning its only overall LSC titles in 1998 and '99.

Also an Division II indoor track All-American in the discus, Fitzgerald was named to the Oklahoman All-Century Team (1900-99) for state college football in addition to making the UCO All-Century Team and the Lone Star Conference All-75^th Anniversary Team.

Page led the Bronchos to a 20-3-1 record during his three years as starting quarterback. He went 2-0 in 1981 before suffering a season-ending injury, 10-2 in 1982 when UCO won the NAIA national championship and 8-1-1 in 1983.

The left-handed signal-caller passed for what was then a school-record 2,464 yards and a school-record 25 touchdowns in 1982 while adding 268 yards rushing. He was 16-of-16 passing for a then-record 367 yards in a win over Eastern New Mexico.

Page passed for 687 yard and eight TDs in UCO's three-game playoff run to the national title in earning first-team All-District 9 and second-team NAIA All-America honors.

He was a first-team All-America pick as a senior in 1983 after passing for 1,605 yards and 10 TDs for a UCO team that was ranked No. 1 season before suffering an upset loss in the first round of the playoffs.

Page finished his career with 4,187 passing yards and 4,812 total yards while accounting for 57 touchdowns (school-record 37 passing, 20 rushing). He was named to the UCO All-Century Team.

To be eligible for the ballot, players must have been named a first-team All-American by a major/national selector as recognized and utilized by the NCAA for their consensus All-America teams; played their last year of intercollegiate football at least 10 years prior; played within the last 50 years and cannot be currently playing professional football.

Once nominated for consideration, all player candidates are submitted to one of eight District Screening Committees, depending on their school's geographic location, which conducts a vote to determine who will appear on the ballot and represent their respective districts.

Of the 5.06 million individuals who have played college football since Princeton first battled Rutgers on Nov. 6, 1869, only 963 -- less than two ten-thousandths (.0002) of one percent -- have earned induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

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