IRVING, Texas — Former Montana State all-American Bill Kollar is on the 2020 College Football Hall of Fame ballot, the National Football Foundation (NFF) and College Hall of Fame announced Monday.
“It’s an enormous honor to just be on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot when you think that more than 5.33 million people have played college football and only 1,010 players have been inducted,” NFF President and CEO Steve Hatchell said in a media release. “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, and we look forward to announcing the 2020 College Football Hall of Fame Class in January.”
Kollar, an Ohio native, is one of the best players in Montana State football history. He was inducted into the Montana State Hall of Fame in 1988, and his No. 77 is one of the Bobcats’ four retired numbers. He was a second-team all-American in 1972 and followed that up with a first-team all-America selection in 1973.
Kollar became the first lineman in Big Sky Conference history to earn first-team recognition three times, and he also was named the league’s defensive player of the year in 1972. Kollar earned Senior Bowl MVP honors in 1974, becoming the first defensive player to earn the distinction.
Kollar was selected in the 1974 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals with the 23rd overall selection. He was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prior to the 1977 season, ultimately spending eight years as a player in the NFL. He got into coaching in 1984 and has coached NFL defensive lines since 1990. Kollar is currently the defensive line coach with the Denver Broncos.
More than 12,000 NFF members and current Hall of Famers will submit their votes, which will then be tabulated and submitted to the NFF’s Honors Courts for deliberation and selection of the class.
The announcement of the 2020 class will be made in January 2020, and the class will officially be inducted during the 63rd NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 8, 2020, at the New York Hilton Midtown.
