Gatewood Makes The Hall of Fame

• John Huarte to Jack Snow in 1964, with Huarte winning the Heisman and Snow placing fifth en route to a Cinderella season in which the Irish won a share of the national title.

• Terry Hanratty to Jim Seymour from 1966-68, with the marvelous sophomore duo making the cover of Time magazine during the march to the 1966 national title.

• Joe Theismann to Tom (now Thom) Gatewood from 1969-70 rewrote all the Irish passing records and highlighted a No. 2 finish in 1970 after ending No. 1 Texas' 30-game winning streak in the Cotton Bowl.

• Finally there was Tom Clements to Pete Demmerle in 1973-74, with the duo helping the Irish win the 1973 national title. Clements finished fourth in the Heisman balloting as a senior while Demmerle was a consensus All-American.

This week, Gatewood joined his battery mate Theismann in the National Football Foundation's College Football's Hall of Fame. Theismann was inducted in 2003, while Gatewood was one of 15 players and two coaches selected this week for 2015 enshrinement. He also joins Tim Brown (1984-87) as the second true Fighting Irish receiver to make the Hall.

Overall, Gatewood is the 45th former Notre Dame player - and the first since tight end Dave Casper in 2012 - to be elected into the College Football Hall of Fame. With 45 former players and six former coaches selected, Notre Dame boasts more honorees than any other school in the country.

In an interview with Blue & Gold Illustrated more than a decade ago, the Baltimore, Md., native Gatewood said he was mainly a high school tight end who was recruited as a running back.

"I didn't know that at the time because nobody said, 'Hey, you're going to be a great running back at Notre Dame,'" Gatewood recalled. "The tip-off for me was when I arrived in August. They gave me my jersey and assigned me No. 44. I said, 'Why am I 44? Don't they have any 80s left?' They said, 'We don't give 80s to running backs.'

"I said, 'No, you must have me mixed up with someone else.' Next thing I know I'm in line with the halfbacks and fullbacks, learning how to take handoffs I had never taken in my life."

With freshmen ineligible back then, Gatewood played running back on the junior varsity. Later during his 1968 freshman year when the Irish were preparing for Heisman Trophy winner O.J. Simpson and USC, Gatewood donned the Cardinal No. 32 on the prep team and played Simpson versus the varsity starters.

A confident sort who wasn't shy speaking his mind, Gatewood told the Irish coaching staff they were "missing the boat" on him as a 6-2, 210-pound receiver. Finally in the spring, Gatewood was given a chance to audition there because three-time All-American Seymour was graduating.

"They lined me up, sent me out wide, and said, 'Theismann, throw long to this guy,' " Gatewood said. "I just took off and Joe lofted one that I caught over my shoulder. They wanted me to do it again to see if it was a fluke....that's how it started in the spring of 1969."

Gatewood led the Irish in receiving the next three years, highlighted by the 1970 junior campaign in which his 79 receptions (including the Cotton Bowl win versus Notre Dame in which he scored the opening touchdown on a 26-yard pass) for 1,166 yards. It wasn't until 39 years later (2009) that a Notre Dame player caught more passes in a season than Gatewood, with Golden Tate snaring 93 in 12 games.

Meanwhile, Gatewood's career receptions total of 165 (including bowls) lasted 36 years before Jeff Samardzija eclipsed it in 2006 with 179. In a run-oriented era when 25 passes per game were considered an "air show," Gatewood's 13 career 100-yard receiving days are still third most at Notre Dame, behind only Michael Floyd (17) and Tate (15).

In addition to his exploits on the field - which included selection as Notre Dame's first black football captain in 1971 - Gatewood made the Dean's List all eight of his semesters at Notre Dame, graduating with a 3.6 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale.

The two-time first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 1970 and 1971 (and a second-team pick in 1969) also earned postgraduate scholarships from the NCAA and the National Football Foundation following his senior season.

He joins a prestigious group of 30 players who have been selected both to the NFF Hall of Fame and also as NFF Scholar-Athletes. Among them are two other former Notre Dame stars: linebacker Jim Lynch (1964-66) and Casper (1971-73), with Notre Dame the lone institution that has produced three. Gatewood is one of less than two-dozen Notre Dame student-athletes all-time who have earned the combination of All-America, Academic All-America and NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship honors.

Although his NFL days were cut short by an injury, Gatewood's career beyond football also has thrived, including serving as a college football analyst for ABC Sports and a producer on ABC News. He currently is owner and president of Blue Atlas Productions, a promotional products distributor in New Jersey. He's also co-owner of Larkspur Lane, Ltd., a video television production company that has won 11 network Emmy Awards, two network news Emmys and four Peabody Awards. He won an Emmy for "ABC 2000" for Millennium celebration coverage around the world, and a Peabody for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Gatewood is an advisory board member for the child health initiative "Healthy Children, Healthy Futures," launched by Strang Cancer Prevention Center and MetLife Foundation to reach into inner-city communities to help set groundwork for fitness and nutrition. He has volunteered for Minority Athletes Networking, Etc., a non-profit organization that annually serves approximately 5,000 inner-city youth through educational outreach and social activities.

This Monday, Gatewood will participate in the pregame coin toss prior to the College Football Playoff National Championship at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The executive director of the Cotton Bowl, which hosts the game, is his former teammate and starting center Dan Novakov (1969-71).