Peppers Inducted Into College Football Hall Of Fame

Las Vegas – Carolina football legend Julius Peppers was inducted into the National Football Foundation (NFF) College Football Hall of Fame at the National Football Foundation dinner in Las Vegas on Tuesday night.

Peppers is the 10th representative of Carolina and the seventh player to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He joins players Harris Barton, Dre' Bly, William Fuller, Charlie Justice, Don McCauley and Art Weiner, and coaches Mack Brown, Carl Snavely and Jim Tatum.

"It's an enormous honor to just be on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot considering more than 5.62 million people have played college football and only 1,074 players have been inducted," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "The Hall's requirement of being a First-Team All-American creates a much smaller pool of about 1,500 individuals who are even eligible. Being in today's elite group means an individual is truly among the greatest to have ever played the game."

Peppers played in Chapel Hill from 1999-2001 becoming one of the most disruptive defensive players the sport has ever seen. A unanimous first-team All-America in 2001, he won the Chuck Bednarik Award for the nation's top defensive player and the Rotary Lombardi Award, which at the time was given to the nation's top interior lineman. He finished 10th in the Heisman Trophy balloting, was a finalist for the Nagurski Trophy and was honored as Chevrolet's Defensive Player of the Year.

"Julius Peppers is no doubt one of the greatest to play football at Carolina, and we are pleased that he will now officially be added to the list of college football's all-time greats," said UNC Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham. "His dedication to his sport at every level and his generosity in giving back epitomize what a Hall of Famer should be, and we congratulate him for this much-deserved honor."

A first-team All-ACC selection in both 2000 and '01, Peppers finished his career with 177 tackles, 30.5 sacks, 53 tackles for loss, five INTs and five forced fumbles. He went on to be drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the first round of the NFL Draft. During his professional career, Peppers earned nine Pro Bowl selections, three first-team All-Pro honors, three second-team All-Pro recognitions and was named to the NFL's All-Decade team for the 2000s. Peppers is currently a finalist for the 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction class.

Peppers has also been extremely generous philanthropically, having donated to the UNC General Alumni Association's Light on the Hill Society Scholarship fund on two separate occasions. He was also the Panther's 2018 NFL Man of the Year nominee.

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