Tuesday 12/11/2001
Dec. 11, 2001
NEW YORK – Former Clemson Tiger Terry Kinard will be inducted in to the College Football Hall of Fame and current senior center Kyle Young will be honored as a National Football Foundation Postgraduate Scholar at the 44th Annual Awards Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria. Clemson is the only school with two honorees at the dinner.
Kinard, who played for the Tigers from 1978-82 and was named National Defensive Player of the Year by CBS Sports as a senior, will be just the second Clemson player in history to be honored by the College Football Hall of Fame, and the first since Banks McFadden in 1959.
A native of Sumter, SC, Kinard was a first-team Associated Press All-American in 1981 and 1982, the only two-time first-team AP All-American in school history. He was a unanimous selection in 1982, the only consensus first-team All-American in Clemson history. Kinard recorded 17 interceptions during his Clemson career, still the high mark in school history and second in ACC history. He ranked in the top 15 in the nation in interceptions in 1981 and 1982 and was a major reason Clemson had a combined record of 21-1-1 over those two years. Clemson’s defense ranked in the top-10 in the nation in scoring defense each year. He was Clemson’s second leading tackler on the 1981 National Championship team and led the 1982 squad that finished eighth in the final Associated Press poll.
At the conclusion of his Clemson career, Kinard was chosen in the first round of the NFL draft by the New York Giants, the 10th overall pick of the draft. He played seven years for the Giants, including the team’s 1986 Super Bowl Championship season. Kinard was named to the NFL All-Rookie team in 1983 and to the Pro Bowl in 1988.
Since his retirement from the game, Kinard was named to Sports Illustrated’s All-1980s team that was released in conjunction with the magazine’s All-20th Century team of college football. In 2000 he was named Clemson’s top player of the 20th Century by CNNSI.com. He was also chosen to the USA Today All-Decade team for the 1980s. In 1996, he was named to Clemson’s Centennial Team and received more votes than any other defensive player.
Kinard will also be honored at the Hall of Fame site in South Bend, IN, in August of 2002.
Young was one of 16 recipients of a Postgraduate scholarship as selected by the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame. The Clemson graduate and starting center for the Tigers the last three seasons is the first Clemson football player to receive a scholarship from the National Football Foundation since 1978 when Steve Fuller was so honored.
Young is actually just the fifth Clemson football player to receive the honor overall. In addition to Fuller, the others are Jimmy Bell, a quarterback in 1964, Jimmy Addison, a quarterback in 1967, and Ben Anderson, a defensive back in 1972. Young graduated Summa Cum Laude from Clemson last May and is taking graduate courses this year, his final year of eligibility. He had a 3.98 career GPA and had A’s in every course but one over his four undergraduate years.
On the field, Young leads the Clemson offensive line in knockdown blocks this year with 145. He is a big reason Clemson has averaged more than 400 yards per game in total offense and has had a positive effect on the play of Woodrow Dantzler, who ranks eighth in the nation in total. Young was a second-team All-American on the field last year and became a three-time first-team Academic All-American earlier on Tuesday.
Each scholar-athlete was awarded an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship.
December 8, 2024
