Tom Gatewood was an All-American at Notre Dame, a Dean’s List worthy student and the first African American to be a captain on the Fighting Irish football team. The former New York Giant can now also call himself a Cotton Bowl Hall of Famer.
What is the strangest Hall of Fame that you’re aware of?
Maybe it’s the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Perhaps its the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas – which sounds awesome, by the way.
Or it could be the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting in Phoenix.
Whatever your big interest may be there is probably a hall of fame out there for it somewhere.
Maybe your big interest is the Cotton Bowl. No, not the stadium but the actual game that’s held each winter in Dallas. I became aware there is a Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame earlier today. Later I found out that Notre Dame is understandably well-represented in this specific hall of fame.
I found it out because Notre Dame legend and College Football Hall of Fame (that one is in Atlanta now, FYI) Tom Gatewood has been elected to the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame as a member of the 2020 class.
Gatewood was an All-American at Notre Dame, a Dean’s List worthy student and the first African American to be a captain on the Fighting Irish football team. The former New York Giant can now also call himself a Cotton Bowl Hall of Famer.
For those unaware of how good of a player Gatewood was at Notre Dame, he was pretty much the best receiver the school had until Derrick Mayes showed up in the mid-ninties. He totaled 157 receptions in his career for 2283 yards and 19 touchdowns and his 77 receptions in 1970 remained a school record until Jeff Samardzija pulled down 78 catches in 2006.
Gatewood also held the Notre Dame all-time receptions record until 2006 when both Samardzija and Rhema McKnight passed his 157.
Gatewood was on two Notre Dame teams to appear in the Cotton Bowl and played Texas in both – losing the contest to the No.1 Longhorns in the 1970 classic before getting revenge and ending Texas’s 30 game winning streak a year later. He totaled eight receptions for 155 yards in the two games, scoring a touchdown in each.
Gatewood joins former Kansas State quarterback Jonathan Beasley and head coach Bill Snyder, Arkansas Guard and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Ole Miss running back Dexter McCluster, Texas defensive end Cory Redding and Boston College linebacker (and remarkable jerk) Bill Romanowski as 2020 Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame inductees.
Gatewood joins Joe Theismann, Ara Parseghian, Kris Haines, Joe Montana, Lou Holtz and Bob Golic as Notre Dame representitives in the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.
