Inagural af2 Hall of Fame Class to be Decided by Fan Vote
Published on August 11, 2009 under arenafootball2 (af2)
Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz News Release
OKLAHOMA CITY - The arenafootball2 league released the 15 finalists out of a lengthy list of candidates for its inaugural Hall of Fame class. The finalists include two former Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz, QB Craig Strickland and WR Jarrail Jackson. The list of 15 will be cut to 10 by way of a final vote among the af2 Hall of Fame Committee, media and fans. Fans can submit their Top-10 (4 players, 3 coaches, 2 owners, 1 at-large) list via email to HallofFame@af2.com. The email address will be active for all fans from Tuesday, August 11 through Saturday, August 15. The inaugural class of 10 inductees will be announced on Monday, August 17. The group will be honored at the 2009 ArenaCup celebration in Las Vegas on August 22.
The final 15 includes six players, four coaches, three owners and two at-large contributors:
PLAYERS (6)
Mitch Allner
E.J. Burt
Jarrail Jackson
Kevin Prentiss
Matt Sauk
Craig Strickland
COACHES (4)
Skip Foster
Kevin Guy
Rich Ingold
Chris Siegfried
OWNERS (3)
Jim Foster
Brady Nelson
Dan Newman
AT LARGE (2)
Jerry Kurz
Bill Niro
Craig Strickland played six seasons in the af2, finishing his career in 2006 with the Yard Dawgz as the league's all-time leader in pass completions (1,736), pass attempts (3,029), passing yards (22,688), and touchdown passes (481). Earlier this season, Strickland was named as the top Quarterback of all-time in arenafootball2. He was named to the All-af2 First Team in 2004 and All-af2 Second Team in 2003 and 2006.
As a member of the Yard Dawgz, Strickland led the team to a 31-17 regular season record and three playoff appearances. He holds Yard Dawgz career passing records in both yards (12,179), and touchdowns (270). Strickland also holds the single season touchdown record with 98 TDs. Strickland's #9 jersey was retired by the Yard Dawgz on July 19, 2008. His number remains the only retired jersey for Oklahoma City to date. Strickland is a graduate of Carl Albert High School in Midwest City. He spent two seasons at Oklahoma State University followed by stints at Butler County Community College and the University of Texas at El Paso.
Jarrail Jackson spent three seasons with the Yard Dawgz during his af2 career and still holds franchise career records in missed field goal return yards (349), kickoff return yards (3,432), and combined return yards (3,781). He also holds single season franchise records in receptions (125), receiving yards (1,636), missed field goal return yards (175), kickoff return yards (1,393), combined return yards (1,529), and the Dawgz single game record for receptions with 15 catches. In 2006, he was named to both the All-af2 First Team and All-af2 Second Team at different positions.
Jackson can also be found in the top ten of 23 different af2 career, single season, and single game records including the leagues career leader in all-purpose yards (12,095). He is the first player to eclipse the 10,000 all-purpose yards mark and is currently the only player with over 11,000 all-purpose yards.
Player nominations included only retired athletes while coach nominations included only those with three or more years of af2 tenure.
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