Curt Warner has simple plans for his visit to New York this December, when the former Penn State running back will officially become the 17th Nittany Lion to join the College Football Hall of Fame.
CDT file photo/Craig Houtz
Former Penn State All-American Curt Warner was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame on Thursday. He will be inducted in December.
“I would hope I get a chance to sit and see some of my old teammates,” Warner said Thursday when reached by phone at his office in Vancouver, Wash. “That would be special.”
Penn State’s leading career rusher, who outplayed Georgia’s Herschel Walker in the 1983 Sugar Bowl to lead the Nittany Lions to their first national championship, was quick to spread the credit for his superlative career.
“This moment is not an individual moment,” said the 48-year-old Warner. “It’s about what it represents with regard to the university and more importantly my coaches and my teammates. I share this with them. I am truly honored to be inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame. I don’t take it lightly.”
Joining Warner in the Class of 2009 are 15 players — Pervis Atkins, New Mexico State; Tim Brown, Notre Dame; Chuck Cecil, Arizona; Ed Dyas, Auburn; Major Harris, West Virginia; Gordon Hudson, Brigham Young; William Lewis, Harvard; Woodrow Lowe, Alabama; Ken Margerum, Stanford; Steve McMichael, Texas; Chris Spielman, Ohio State; Larry Station, Iowa; Pat Swilling, Georgia Tech; Gino Torretta, Miami (Fla.) and Grant Wistrom, Nebraska — and two coaches, Dick MacPherson (Massachusetts and Syracuse) and John Robinson (USC and UNLV).
Warner, Spielman and Station were three of 16 players nominated from Big Ten schools, including another former Penn State running back, D.J. Dozier.
A native of Pineville, W.Va., Warner helped lead Penn State to a record of 31-5 over his final three seasons.
He held 42 school records when he left for the NFL in 1983, and still has the marks for most 100-yard rushing games (18) and career yardage (3,398). He remains the only Penn State tailback to earn All-America honors in two seasons.
The third overall selection by the Seattle Seahawks in the 1983 draft, Warner played eight seasons in the NFL for the Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams, rushing for 6,844 career yards, scoring 56 touchdowns and going to Pro Bowls in 1983, ’86 and ’87. He retired after the 1990 season and was inducted into the Seahawks’ Ring of Honor in 1994.
Today, Warner owns a Chevrolet dealership in Vancouver and serves as the running backs coach for the Camas High School football team. His oldest son, 16-year-old Jonathan, will line up as a wide receiver for Camas this fall. Warner has found himself echoing his former head coach, Joe Paterno, and his former running backs coach, Fran Ganter, during practices.
“You do find yourself using a lot of their particular phrases when you’re trying to get (the players) to see things a certain way,” Warner said, laughing. “I’ve been able to carry that right along with me. It’s been insightful and helpful.”
Warner and his wife, Ana, created the Curt Warner Autism Foundation, which seeks to help financially disadvantaged families with autistic children — like the Warners’ twin 14-year-old sons, Austin and Christian — by providing financial support in the diagnostic or treatment phases.
“We are sort of at the latter stages of phasing it out,” said Warner, who hopes to help support similar foundations in the future. “We’ve met a lot of wonderful people and have received a lot of great help over last four or five years.”
Warner is the first Penn State player inducted into the Hall of Fame since lineman Keith Dorney in 2005. Paterno was inducted in 2007.
“In all my years at Penn State, we have had a lot of exceptional backs, and he is one of the very best of that distinguished group,” Paterno said in a university release. “Curt was a leader for the great teams we had in the early 1980s and played a big part in helping us win our first national championship. Curt was a very good student, has been very loyal to Penn State and has made a positive impact on his community in Washington.
“Curt is most deserving of induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, and we are very pleased that he will be joining its prestigious membership.”
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