Linebacker Reggie Williams and defensive tackle Wilson Whitley were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame at The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame annual awards dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on Dec. 4.
Williams, a first-team All-America linebacker at Dartmouth College who spent 14 seasons with the Bengals (1976-89), recently retired as vice president of Disney Sports Attractions in Orlando, Fla., for health reasons.

"You play a game you love so much," Williams said. "Many people have asked me if it is worth it after 13 surgeries. I answer with a resounding yes, and football has been an avenue of so many dreams.   "I grew up in Michigan and was told by head coach Bo Schembechler that I wasn't good enough to play at Michigan. I was able to convert a great education at an Ivy League school into another opportunity that was converted into success in sports and life. You could not ask for anything more."

Whitley, a consensus All-America at the University of Houston, was inducted posthumously.  A first-round draft pick in 1977, Whitley spent six seasons with the Bengals (1977-82), playing nose tackle for the famed "WEB" defensive line that also featured left end Eddie Edwards and right end Ross Browner.  Whitley served as the national director of sports marketing with Holiday Inn, Inc., at the time of his death in 1992.

"My family and I would like to thank you for this wonderful honor for Wilson," said Norma Whitley, Wilson's widow who lives outside Atlanta in Kennesaw, Ga.  "I was a little hesitant when they called and asked me to respond on behalf of my husband, but we are very appreciative. Wilson was a humble man. He loved his coaches and teammates. This is a huge validation to what he did, and I know he would be so glad that I was sitting next to his NFL teammate Reggie Williams at the news conference."

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