Steve McMichael, a Texas Longhorn legend, has been inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame.

Steve McMichael, a former Texas Longhorn All-American, has been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

His admission into the Hall as a member of the 2024 class was revealed Thursday night at NFL Honors, the league’s annual honors program held in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.

McMichael spent 15 seasons in the NFL and was a star defensive tackle for some very excellent Chicago Bears teams in the 1980s, notably the Bears’ famed 1985 club, which went 15-1 in the regular season and won Super Bowl XX. Though he was never a great name for the positions he played in college and the pros, he was regarded as a hard worker and a highly aggressive and noisy player who always made the most of his abilities, and his power and personality lent themselves to the nicknames he earned along the way.

He is best known, especially in Chicago, where he continued to live after his playing career, as “Mongo”, a nickname given on him by his longtime Bears teammate. Dan Hampton is referring to the humorously muscular but stupid character of the same name in the 1974 film Blazing Saddles, portrayed by former NFL defensive tackle Alex Karras.

Prior to his NFL career, he had a storied and successful collegiate career with the Longhorns, where he was a four-year letterman from 1976 to 1979, twice named to the All-Southwest Conference first team as a defensive tackle, and team captain and consensus All-American as a senior in 1979. He signed with Texas as a 6’2″ 215-pound prospect in the 1976 recruiting class from Freer High School in South Texas.

McMichael was a multi-sport standout at Freer, earning letters in football, basketball, baseball, track and field, golf, and tennis.

During his senior football season at Freer in 1975, he was named to the Associated Press’s Class 2A All-State team at three separate positions: first team defensive end and kicker, and second team tight end.

In that 1975 season, he reportedly averaged 18 tackles per game on defense, caught 22 passes for 464 yards while playing tight end, rushed for another 585 yards after being moved from tight end to fullback, and served as his team’s kicker, converting 29 of 30 PAT attempts and 7 of 11 field goal attempts, including a season-long field goal of 48 yards.

His squad finished the regular season 9-1, but this is still the era where One team from each district advanced to the postseason; the Freer Buckaroos did not since they lost their district championship to Hebbronville, which advanced to the third round of the 2A playoffs before falling 47-0 to eventual state champion La Grange.

He arrived at the University of Texas in 1976 as part of Darrell Royal’s final recruiting class.

He signed his word of intent despite having made no formal trips as a recruit and only visiting the Texas campus once, for a 1975 home game versus Texas Tech. He spent the first part of his freshman season as a backup tight end before being shifted to defensive end in late October after three Longhorn defensive ends suffered injuries.

He was credited with 16 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and one sack that year. Early in his undergraduate career, he earned the nickname “Bam Bam” after the Flintstones character.

Weighing in at 235-240 pounds, he was a regular starter at defensive tackle as a sophomore in 1977, the Longhorns’ first season under new coach Fred Akers. During the season, Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman stated that McMichael “could pass for the UT tower in a police lineup”.

He finished the 1977 season tied for seventh on the team in total tackles with 78, including 12 sacks. That year, he was named to the Associated Press All-Southwest Conference Second Team.

A late-season injury to star placekicker Russell Erxleben allowed him to showcase his kicking abilities, as he had in high school. During UT’s late-season wins against Baylor and Texas A&M, he made 8 of 10 PATs. Against A&M, he attempted and made a 48-yard field goal. The Longhorns were 11-0 in the regular season that year and were rated #1 in the last six AP polls, but their national title ambitions were shattered by a 38-10 loss in the Cotton Bowl to fifth-ranked Notre Dame.

McMichael’s legend rose throughout his last two seasons in Austin.

As a junior in 1978, he was the team’s best tackler, with 102 solo tackles, 18 tackles for loss, 8 sacks, 43 quarterback hurries, and 4 caused turnovers. As a senior in 1979, he was the team’s leading tackler again, with 89 solo tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, and 4 forced fumbles.

He was selected a consensus All-American that year after making the first teams of the Associated Press, United Press International, American Football Coaches Association, and Football Writers Association of America.

The New England Patriots selected him in the third round of the 1980 NFL Draft as the 73rd overall choice.

He appeared in just six games as a rookie that season and was released by the Patriots during training camp in 1981. He eventually signed with the Chicago Bears, where he spent 13 seasons.

He was a regular starter at defensive tackle by 1983, and he was voted a first-team All-Pro in 1985 for a Bears team that had the NFL’s top scoring defense in the regular season and outscored its three playoff opponents 91-10 on the way to winning Super Bowl XX.

He was chosen to the first team All-Pro for the second time in 1987. With McMichael in With the defensive lineup, the Bears won six division titles in seven seasons (1984-90) and advanced to the NFC Championship Game three times.

After 13 seasons with the Bears, he signed with the Green Bay Packers in 1994 and retired after just one season. By the end of his career, he had two Pro Bowl appearances, two first-team All-Pro selections, three second-team All-Pro selections, and 95 sacks, with all but 2.5 coming as a Bear. (Sacks became an official NFL statistic in 1982, McMichael’s third season with the league.) According to a press release from the Chicago Bears, McMichael ranks second on the team’s all-time sack chart with 92.5, and he previously played in a team-record 191 consecutive games, a remarkable feat of tenacity that he earned while playing through numerous maladies and eight knee surgery,

Prior to 2023, despite being a renowned and highly respected professional player, he had never been a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In August of last year, he was one of three players designated finalists by the Hall of Fame’s Seniors Committee. His induction to the Hall of Fame required a “yes” vote from 80% of the 50-member Selection Committee, which he earned.

His selection is bittersweet for many Longhorn and Bears fans because it comes nearly 30 years after the end of his playing career and just under three years after it was publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which has left him physically a shell of the man who was once one of the most feared linemen in the Southwest Conference and the NFL. His illness prevented him from attending the NFL Honors ceremony, where his imminent induction was announced, so his wife attended on his place. Larry Mayer, a senior writer for ChicagoBears.com, posted a video on X (previously Twitter) of the atmosphere at McMichael’s home when his Hall of Fame selection was announced.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2024 induction class will be enshrined on Saturday, August 3, in Canton, Ohio. McMichael will join Bobby Layne, Earl Campbell, and Bobby Dillon as former Longhorns who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame as players. Former Longhorn defensive back and 1948 team captain Tom Landry is also in the Hall, having been inducted as a coach in 1990 after coaching the Dallas Cowboys for 29 seasons. In addition to those, UT graduate Tex Schramm, the Dallas Cowboys’ longtime general manager, was recognized as a contributor in 1991.

Prior to his selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Steve McMichael was inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in 1992, the University of Texas Athletics Hall of Honor in 1999, and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.