PROVO -- LaVell Edwards' induction into the College Football Hall of Fame was completed this weekend at the 11th annual Enshrinement Festival. Sixteen players and four coaches were officially enshrined.
This year's Enshrinement Festival included the inaugural "Enshrinement Parade of Champions" through Downtown South Bend on Saturday. The parade included members of the 2005 Enshrinement Class, the Enshrinement Festival Queen, marching bands, floats, specialty units and other special guests.
Other festivities included a celebrity golf game, youth football clinic and enshrinee football game, as well as the enshrinement reception, dinner and show.
Edwards, BYU's most celebrated football coach, was born and raised just a few miles from BYU's campus at a time when the Cougars were enjoying only nominal success against mid-level opponents. In the first 47 years of BYU football, the team won only 43 percent of their games. That would all begin to change in 1972 with the hiring of Edwards.
Over his exceptional 29-year career, BYU became a national power, winning 71.6 percent of their games from 1972 to 2000. During this impressive span, Edwards led the Cougars to a 257-101-3 record, 20 WAC titles--including 11 in a row, 13 top-25 finishes, four top-10 finishes and the 1984 national championship.
At a time when most prominent football programs placed an emphasis on the running game, Edwards embraced a wide-open style of passing offense that is known today as the West Coast Offense. This system produced a number of celebrated quarterbacks including 1990 Heisman Tophy winner Ty Detmer, who also won the Davey O'Brien Award twice. BYU quarterbacks Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Gifford Nielsen and Marc Wilson all became College Football Hall of Famers.
In addition to his team's success, Edwards was also the recipient of more than a few individual honors. He was the Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year in 1979 and the AFCA National Coach of the Year in 1984. He also won the Grantland Rice Trophy from the National Football Writers Association in 1984 and the Neyland Trophy from the American Football Coaches Association in 1988.