{"id":733352,"date":"2026-02-06T11:56:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/733352\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:56:30","slug":"nebraska-football-alum-roger-craig-elected-to-pro-football-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/733352\/","title":{"rendered":"Nebraska Football Alum Roger Craig Elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">Roger Craig&#8217;s three-decade wait to hear his name join the hallowed halls of Canton, Ohio, officially came to a close Thursday night. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">Craig, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/nebraska\/football\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nebraska football alum<\/a> and legendary NFL running back, was announced as one of five  new members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026 during the NFL Honors ceremony in San Francisco. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">The  Bay Area setting was fitting  for Craig, who built his NFL Hall of Fame resume as a key part of the San Francisco 49ers&#8217; dynasty of the 1980s.   A two-way threat as a runner and receiver out of the backfield, he was the first player in NFL history to top  1,000  yards rushing and 1,000  yards receiving  in the same season. Craig accomplished that in 1985 and later led the NFL with 2,036 yards from scrimmage in 1988.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/01kgr3qba88jyza03770.jpg\" alt=\"San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig (33) and Guy McIntyre (62) in action against the Washington Redskins\" title=\"San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig (33) and Guy McIntyre (62) in action against the Washington Redskins\" width=\"3900\" height=\"2193\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"77\"\/><\/p>\n<p>San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig (33) and Guy McIntyre (62) in action against Washington Redskins defensive back Martin Mayhew (35) at Candlestick Park. | Peter Brouillet-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">Prior to becoming a key cog of Bill Walsh&#8217;s West Coast offense, Craig arrived at Nebraska in 1979 from Davenport, Iowa, to play college football. Craig was a legacy Cornhusker, joining the program after his brother Curtis was a wingback for the Huskers from 1975-77. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">Craig was an almost  immediate star despite the depth at I-back for the Huskers in the early 1980s.  He began  his sophomore season in 1980 as the third-string back yet gained 769 rushing yards for a 7.1 yards per carry average along with 15 rushing touchdowns. He was named  Big Eight Conference offensive player of the week after a  late-October  matchup against Colorado, rushing for 176 yards and three scores. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">As a junior  in 1981, Craig led the team  in rushing with 1,060 yards,   becoming  Nebraska&#8217;s seventh single-season 1,000-yard rusher despite splitting  time with future  Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier. During his final year in Lincoln in 1982, injuries  slowed  Craig down  while he again split time with Rozier &#8211; including an experiment putting Craig at fullback with Rozier at I-back. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">Craig would finish his four seasons at Nebraska three yards shy of the No. 3 spot in the career-rushing list at the time with 2,446 rushing yards. Craig now sits 21st all-time in Nebraska history, <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/01kgr4aw0ya94t0gh63h.jpg\" alt=\"San Francisco 49ers running back (33) Roger Craig follows the block of (81) Jamie Williams against the New York Giants\" title=\"San Francisco 49ers running back (33) Roger Craig follows the block of (81) Jamie Williams against the New York Giants\" width=\"3900\" height=\"2193\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"7u\"\/><\/p>\n<p>San Francisco 49ers running back (33) Roger Craig follows the block of (81) Jamie Williams against New York Giants defensive tackle (70) Leonard Marshall at Candlestick Park during the 1990 NFC Championship Game. The Giants defeated the 49ers 15-13. | Tony Tomsic-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7y\">Craig would go on to be selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 1983 NFL Draft, being picked at No. 49 overall. The 49ers and Craig became a force, winning Super Bowls to cap the  1984, 1988, and 1989 seasons, with the running back earning AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors in 1988. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"81\">Craig would follow  his final season in San Francisco in 1990 with a one-year stint with the Los Angeles Raiders in 1991 and a two-year period with the Minnesota Vikings from 1992 to 1993. He  finished his NFL career with 8,189 rushing yards, including 51 scores, while nabbing 566 receptions for 4,911 receiving yards with 17 touchdowns. The dynamic back finished with 13,100  yards from   scrimmage   over 11 NFL seasons. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"84\">Since Craig&#8217;s historic 1,000 rushing, 1,000 receiving yard season in 1985, only two NFL   players  have matched the feat: Marshall Faulk in 1999  and Christian McCaffery  in 2019. Craig is also  one of only three NFL running backs to lead the league in receptions for a single season, while his 410 yards from scrimmage in Super Bowl appearances are the third-most ever. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Exclusive: Roger Craig elected to Hall of Fame\u2026according to multiple sources. Official announcement comes Thursday at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@NFL<\/a> Honors show. 65 year old <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/49ers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#49ers<\/a> legend is 3-time <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SuperBowl?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#SuperBowl<\/a> champion who was 1st player to have 1K yards rushing\/receiving in same season. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nbcbayarea?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@nbcbayarea<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YDTr1KO8W2\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/YDTr1KO8W2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Raj Mathai (@rajmathai) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rajmathai\/status\/2019134622391758921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8a\">Craig&#8217;s formal induction this summer will give Nebraska its sixth honoree in Canton. The running back will join Guy Chamberlain, Roy &#8220;Link&#8221; Lyman, Bob Brown, Will Shields, and Mick Tingelhoff as former Huskers enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>More From Nebraska On SI<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-19\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8n\">Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/nebraska\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI<\/a>,\u00a0subscribing to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@huskermax1183\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HuskerMax on YouTube<\/a>\u00a0and visiting\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huskermax.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HuskerMax.com<\/a>\u00a0daily.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Craig&#8217;s three-decade wait to hear his name join the hallowed halls of Canton, Ohio, officially came to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-733352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","13":"tag-sanfrancisco","14":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116023564898716087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}