terry hanratty 2025 NFF COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS

terry hanratty

By Matt Fortuna

Terry Hanratty had a full-circle moment while riding the train back home in Connecticut last winter. Notre Dame assistant athletic director for alumni engagement Hunter Bivin called him. Bivin had been a teammate of Hanratty's son, Conor, on the Fighting Irish's offensive line. But now he was dialing up his buddy's father to inform him that he was part of the 2025 class of the College Football Hall of Fame.

"He was a year behind Conor, so they became very good friends," Hanratty said of Bivin. "Offensive linemen all stick together."

Doesn't he know it.

Hanratty, a quarterback, is now the 50th former Notre Dame player to make the Hall of Fame, the most of any school. He graduated from the school in 1969. He retired from the NFL in 1976.

Upon making the Hall, he heard from no shortage of characters who helped define that career and the life he's lived since hanging up his cleats.

"That's the biggest factor, because unlike any other sport, football is really a team effort," Hanratty said of the teammates and coaches who helped elevate him. "If you look at baseball, it's pitcher vs. batter, hitting home runs or doubles or singles or what not. Same thing with basketball. Guys are either hitting 3-pointers or making 'X' amount of points per game.

"If you're a quarterback in the football world, you need guys around you who are going to make you look good. George Goeddeke was my center in 1966. He called to congratulate me. I said: 'George, to be honest with you, part of this is you.' Football is the ultimate team sport, so you feel very gracious and honored to do this, but you know that, hey, it's not me.

"You look beyond that and you have (Hall of Fame coach) Ara Parseghian, and if he didn't pick me above anyone else or show me the way and what to do and how to do it, you wouldn't be there. So, there are a lot of people to be thankful for. The sad part of it is most aren't around anymore."

Hanratty was a three-year starter with the Irish, winning the national title in 1966 and finishing in the top-10 of the Heisman Trophy voting each season. He left South Bend, Ind., as the program's career record-holder in completions (304), passing yards (4,152) and passing touchdowns (27).

The Butler, Pa., native was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he won two Super Bowls. How the Western Pennsylvania native landed at Notre Dame is a story unto itself.

Hanratty was committed to Michigan State, but Irish defensive coordinator and area recruiter John Ray called him one day to see if he wanted to have lunch with Parseghian while the head coach was in Pittsburgh.

"We spent two hours talking," Hanratty said of the lunch. "The funny part is we're ordering lunch and I see this steak for three dollars, and what goes through my mind is if I order a steak, will he think I'm trying to gauge him? I went for the club sandwich with french fries.

"I went home and told my mother I'm going to Notre Dame. She said, 'What do you mean? I thought Michigan State.' I said I just met Ara and he's the coach I want to go with. We talked very little football. It was more about life and family; you needed to hear that at that age. I was 17 years old."

Then came the hard part - a call to Spartans coach and future Hall of Fame inductee Duffy Daugherty that turned out to be fortuitous.

"I get on the phone, I'm sweating. How bad is this going to be?" Hanratty said. "And for 15 minutes he told me how great a guy Ara was, how great a coach and how great a school Notre Dame was, but I'm going to try to beat you. And he was as gracious as you could possibly get."

For the 77-year-old Hanratty, the call from the Hall provides "great closure" - at least when talking to his kids about his career.

"I'm sure they're wondering, Wait a minute, was he as good as he talked about?" the old signal caller said, laughing. "I don't talk about it much. I told people: If you're good, people talk about you, there's no need to talk about yourself."