Four Longhorns named to FWAA 75th anniversary team

Four Alabama greats made the cut on the Football Writers Association of America’s 75th Anniversary All-America Team, which was announced Thursday – and two of those players made the first team.

The FWAA, which was founded in 1941, has selected an All-America team since 1944.

A nomination ballot with selected players from all FWAA All-America teams was sent to the entire membership this spring. Selection of the teams also involved a “Blue Ribbon” committee of past FWAA presidents, current board members and officers. The list honors players through the 2014 season and includes such old-school greats like Roger Staubach, Archie Griffin, Herschel Walker and Mike Singletary as well as newer names like Tim Tebow and Ndamukong Suh.

The Bears had good representation.

The FWAA’s first All-America team in 1944 included Army’s famous running back tandem of Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis and Georgia Tech’s Frank Broyles, who later became Arkansas’ legendary head football coach.

A native of Mosinee, Wis., Abney was named the third-team kick returner on the squad, which covers college football since the FWAA was founded in 1941.

Interestingly, Butkus couldn’t crack the top unit despite having the linebacker award named after him.

Jones was a three time first team All Big Ten guard. Pittsburgh led all ACC schools with five selections, followed by Florida State with 3 selections, and then, Miami coming in at third with the 2 selections.

“This was one of the most fun, yet most difficult exercises I’ve had in life – next to parallel parking, that is”, said Austin American-Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls, chairman of the FWAA 75th All-America Committee. Utah State finished the 1961 season ranked 10th in both the Associated Press and United Press international polls, the highest-ever final ranking for a USU team. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. Each decade since the FWAA started releasing its teams is represented in the selections.