Tennessee football: Al Wilson, Willie Gault, Bobby Majors up for CFB HoF
Three Tennessee football Volunteers, Al Wilson, Willie Gault and Bobby Majors, may reach the CFB HoF.
The National Football Foundation’s 2021 College Football Hall of Fame ballot features three former Tennessee football players: Linebacker Al Wilson, wide receiver and return specialist Willie Gault and defensive back Bobby Majors. There are 78 players and seven coaches from the FBS level on the ballot this year and 99 players and 33 coaches from the divisional ranks.
Two of the Vols, Majors and Wilson, were on the 2020 ballot along with Larry Seivers. None of those players were inducted, however. In fact, the last Vol to be inducted was Peyton Manning back in 2017.
Spanning three different eras, Wilson, Gault and Majors were all superstars in their own right for Tennessee football. One was a national champion, one was an olympic athlete and another became a record-setter as a member of a legacy family.
Wilson, who played from 1995 to 1998, effectively earned his way onto the Mt. Rushmore of Vols players with his performance as a senior. He was the sole All-American and the glue guy as the middle linebacker on that national championship team, and his best game came against the Florida Gators, when he forced three fumbles in a 20-17 win.
After his college career, he went to the pros and spent eight years with the Denver Broncos, reaching five Pro Bowls, before a neck injury cut short his pro career. Still, he did enough to become a legend just with that short tenure.
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Gault was one of the earliest players for Johnny Majors, joining the program as a return specialist and wide receiver from 1979 to 1982. For his career, he had 1,522 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns. However, his standout play was as a return specialist. He had four career kickoff returns for a touchdown, including three in 1981, and one punt return for a touchdown.
In 1982, Gault earned All-American honors. He then enjoyed an 11 year pro career, five with the Chicago Bears and six with the Los Angeles Raiders, serving as the leading receiver and main kickoff returner on the 1985 Bears Super Bowl championship team that is widely hailed as the greatest of all time. Gault was part of the 1980 Olympic team that boycotted the event.
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Speaking of Johnny Majors, his younger brother Bobby Majors continued the legacy of the family with Tennessee football. While Johnny Majors was an All-American in 1956 and eventually became a head coach, Bobby Majors, who played for the Vols from 1969 to 1971, became a superstar defensive back.
During those three years, Majors helped UT win an SEC title, a Sugar Bowl and secure a top five finish. In 1970, he set the single-season school record with 10 interceptions, leading a Vols team that set an SEC record with 36 interceptions overall. His play earned him All-American honors, and while he only spent a year in the NFL, that level of success alone turned him into a college legend.
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All three of these Vols are Tennessee football legends and more than deserving of reaching the College Football Hall of Fame. If one player was to make it, though, Wilson should be that player. He picked up where Manning left off in 1998, and there’s a legitimate argument for Wilson to be in contention for greatest Vol of all time.