Manatee High's Tommie Frazier Makes College Football Hall of Fame

A Manatee County football legend is now officially a college football legend.

Tommie Frazier, who played at Manatee High before taking the college world by storm at the University of Nebraska in the early 1990s, has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, it was announced Tuesday.

The Palmetto native starred for coach Joe Kinnan's Hurricanes as an option quarterback and eventually took his talents to Lincoln, NE, where he led the Cornhuskers to national titles in the 1994 and '95 seasons, capturing MVP honors in both games.

Frazier won All-America honors and a slew of national awards at Nebraska but finished runner-up to Ohio State's Eddie George in the 1995 Heisman Trophy voting. He holds numerous school records and was named to Sports Illustrated's 85-player All-Century team for the 1990s.

His memorable 75-yard touchdown run against Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl has become the stuff of legend and still lives on in a YouTube video. But a pro career never materialized due to blood clots in his legs that developed as a side effect of Crohn's disease.

Frazier became eligible for hall of fame induction in 2006 but had to wait seven years to get in, a controversially long delay for some college football pundits.

“This is quite an honor,” Frazier said in a statement on the Nebraska athletics homepage. “You never play the game and think you are going to be in the Hall of Fame one day. You just go out and try to be the best you can be and whatever happens, happens. I was fortunate that good things happened, but it certainly was not me alone. I had great teammates and coaches that played a big part in this honor."

Frazier will be joined by 13 other players and coaches in the 2013 Hall of Fame class to be inducted Dec. 10 in New York City.

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