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Mount’s Borchert on HOF ballot

ALLIANCE — Former Mount Union quarterback Bill Borchert is back on the ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

The National Football Foundation on Tuesday announced the 78 players and seven coaches from major college football who are up for selection to the Atlanta-based Hall of Fame. There also are 99 players and 33 coaches from non-Division I programs eligible for induction in 2021.

Borchert was a four-year starter for the Purple Raiders from 1994-97. Mount Union went 50-3 over those four seasons, winning four Ohio Athletic Conference titles and NCAA Division III national championships in 1996 and 1997.

He won the 1997 Gagliardi Trophy, given to NCAA Division III’s top all-around player, and the 1996 and 1997 OAC Mike Gregory Awards as the conference’s top offensive back.

He still holds school career records as he was 946-for-1,447 for 14,482 passing yards with 189 passing touchdowns. He accounted for a record 15,308 yards of total offense and was responsible for 200 touchdowns.

As a senior in 1997, he threw a school-record 63 touchdown passes.

Borchert has already been inducted into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Mount Union M-Club Hall of Fame in 2013.

He is currently a sales executive with IBM and lives with his wife Erin and daughters Lauren and Emily in Richfield.

Mount Union has one coach and one player already in the College Football Hall of Fame as former head coach and current athletic director Larry Kehres was inducted in 2017 while former quarterback Jim Ballard was inducted in 2008.

Other players on the ballot are Pitt quarterback Matt Cavanaugh (Youngstown Chaney High School); Ohio State defensive back Mike Doss (Canton McKinley High School); Ohio State linebacker James Laurenaitis; Ohio State offensive lineman Chris Ward; Notre Dame linebacker Bob Golic (Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School and current Akron radio broadcaster); Akron linebacker Steve Cockerham; and Ashland kicker/punter Vince Mazza.

Coaches under consideration are Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops (Youngstown Mooney High School) and Toledo’s and Missouri’s Gary Pinkel (Akron Kenmore High School and Kent State tight end).

The College Hall of Fame class of 2021 will be announced early next year.

The ballot was sent to more than 12,000 National Football Foundation members. Votes will be tabulated and then the NFF honors court will select the class of 2021 from the top vote-getters.

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