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InducteesErskine "Erk" Russell

Class of 1991

Born: July 23, 1926 in Birmingham, Alabama

Category: Football

Erk Russell grew up playing football in Ensley Park and later at Ensley High School. At the collegiate level, Russell was a four-sport letterman at Auburn University. After starting his coaching career at Grady High School in Atlanta, he went on to serve as assistant coach at Auburn and Vanderbilt before joining Coach Vince Dooley’s staff at Georgia in 1964. It was at Georgia that he became famous for creating the Junkyard Dog defense which led Georgia to a national championship in 1981. Later that year, Russell was hired to build a football program at Georgia Southern University. He produced three national championship teams at GSU and was runner-up on two other occasions.

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College Football Hall of Fame needs to abolish draconian rule and admit Erk Russell

There are three coaches’ names that are spoken with solemn reverence by football fans in Georgia — Wally Butts, Vince Dooley, and Erk Russell. One of them is unfairly omitted from the College Football Hall of Fame.

I want to offer a preamble to this column. I’m a huge supporter of the College Football Hall of Fame. Their work is vital and they are an institution that keeps the story of this nation’s most endearing sport alive. Without their work in preserving not only the actual artifacts but the stories and players behind them, the sport of college football would be a mere shadow of its own existence.

With that, there is one area where the College Football Hall of Fame can make an immediate impact by making a small but significant change. That change involves what a coach must accomplish to be inducted as a member.

Georgia football legend Erk Russell belongs in the College Football Hall of Fame, and an outdated rule is the only thing keeping him out.

For a coach to be inducted into the C

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Legendary football coach Erk Russell, who led UGA’s “Junkyard Dawgs” defense and built a small-college powerhouse of his own at Georgia Southern University, died Sept. 8 after an apparent stroke in Statesboro. He was 80.

“Erk Russell is an icon of Georgia football history, and we join all the Bulldog Nation in mourning his passing,” UGA President Michael F. Adams said. “I had come to know him over the years and have great respect for his many contributions to the university and its football program. His tenacity, combined with a loving spirit, inspired loyalty in his players, fellow coaches, and all who love the University of Georgia.”

“Coach Russell touched the lives of so many people,” said Damon Evans, director of athletics. “His status as a hard-nosed defensive coordinator at the University of Georgia will always be remembered. Erk truly embodied what it means to be a Georgia Bulldog.”

“Erk and I coached together at Auburn as assistants and were a close team for 17 years at Georgia,” said Vin