Allstate Sugar Bowl announces 2024 Hall of Fame class

Sixth Hall of Fame Class Features Two Star Players, One Legendary Coach; and an AD

NEW ORLEANS (December 13, 2023) – The Allstate Sugar Bowl will introduce four legends as the sixth class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame in conjunction with the 90th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2024. This year’s class of Hall of Famers includes two College Football Hall of Fame players, a legendary coach, and a longtime award-winning director of athletics.

“All of us at the Sugar Bowl are thrilled to recognize this outstanding group,” said Richard Briede, the president of the Sugar Bowl Committee. “Their collective contributions to the history of college football and the Sugar Bowl itself are legendary, and we’re so pleased to be able to honor them in conjunction with this year’s CFP Semifinal game.”

The members of the sixth class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame, or their representatives, have all been invited to New Orleans for this year’s Allstate Sugar Bowl. Honorees and their guests will participate in select Sugar Bowl VIP activities and will be recognized on the field during pregame ceremonies leading up to the annual Sugar Bowl Classic.

Allstate Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame – Class of 2024
Name, School, Position — Sugar Bowl(s)
Jeremy Foley, Florida, Director of Athletics — 1994, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2010, 2013
Lee Roy Jordan, Alabama, Center/Linebacker — 1962
Ara Parseghian, Notre Dame, Head Coach — 1973
Danny Wuerffel, Florida, Quarterback — 1995, 1997

Jeremy Foley was the director of athletics at the University of Florida for 24 years (1992-2016), a stretch of unparalleled success for the Gators that included six Sugar Bowl appearances. Florida’s first Sugar Bowl appearance under Foley’s leadership came in the 1994 game as the Gators rolled to a 41-7 victory over West Virginia. After a loss to archrival Florida State in the 1995 Sugar Bowl, Foley and the Gators gained revenge in the 1997 Sugar Bowl as they defeated the Seminoles, 52-20, a blowout victory that secured the first football national title in Florida history. Recognized for making excellent coaching hires, including Urban Meyer in football and Billy Donovan in basketball, Foley directed Gator teams to 27 national championships, including football (3), men’s basketball (2), women’s soccer, and softball. Florida ranked among the top five athletic programs in the country for 18 of Foley’s 24 years.

A star linebacker and center for the Alabama team that established the Crimson Tide as a national force, Lee Roy Jordan led Alabama to a 29-2-2 mark in his three years of terrorizing opponents. Jordan and the Tide capped Bear Bryant’s first Alabama national championship season with a 10-3 victory over Arkansas in the 1962 Sugar Bowl. While Jordan didn’t earn MVP honors, he tallied 13 tackles and led a defense which held the Razorbacks to just 168 yards of offense. The following year, Jordan turned in a legendary 30-tackle performance in ’Bama’s 17-0 victory over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. The Excel, Ala., native was a unanimous All-America selection as a senior in 1962 and then went on to a 14-year career with the Dallas Cowboys. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983. His legendary coach said of Jordan, “He was one of the finest football players the world has ever seen. If runners stayed between the sidelines, he tackled them. He never had a bad day; he was 100 percent every day in practice and in the games.”

College Football Hall of Fame coach Ara Parseghian made one of the most memorable play calls in college football history. With his undefeated Notre Dame squad clinging to a 24-23 lead over undefeated Alabama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl, the Fighting Irish coach shocked everyone when he opted to pass out of his own end zone on a third-and-6 play with 2:12 to go. Tom Clements’ 36-yard pass was completed to Robin Weber, a backup tight end who hadn’t caught a pass all season, as Notre Dame clinched the Sugar Bowl victory and the national championship. Parseghian, an Ohio product, is credited with returning the Fighting Irish to national prominence after he was hired in 1964. In 11 years at the helm of the program, he posted a 95-17-4 record, winning a pair of national championships, placing in the Associated Press Top-10 nine times, and never finishing lower than No. 14. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980, and he passed away in 2017 at the age of 94.

Danny Wuerffel earned essentially every honor that a college football player could collect during his legendary career at Florida. An under-the-radar accomplishment for the star quarterback from Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is that he threw for more yards than any quarterback in Sugar Bowl history with 700. He had 306 yards and three touchdowns and earned the Miller-Digby Award as the Sugar Bowl MVP when the Gators rolled to a 52-20 win over Florida State to clinch the national championship in the 1997 game. Prior to that, he had thrown for 394 yards (then a Sugar Bowl single-game record) and a TD in the Gators’ 1995 loss to FSU. A two-time First-Team All-American, Wuerffel claimed the 1996 Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award, and the Maxwell Award. The two-time SEC Player of the Year posted a 45-6-1 career mark as a Gator, finishing his career with nearly 11,000 passing yards and 33 school records, taking Florida to bowl games in each of his four seasons. He also earned the William V. Campbell Trophy, the National Football Foundation’s top honor which is recognized as the Academic Heisman.

The New Orleans Mid-Winter Sports Association was founded in 1934 by a group of civic-minded businessman and professionals interested in promoting amateur athletic events geared toward bringing visitors to New Orleans during what had traditionally been a slow period for tourism. Now known as the Sugar Bowl Committee, the organization remains a voluntary group whose members serve without remuneration.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 103 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 89-year history. The 90th Allstate Sugar Bowl Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2024. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting nearly $2.4 billion into the local economy in the last decade. For more information, visit www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.