Hall of Fame members and All-Americans dominated the 75th Anniversary TaxSlayer Gator Bowl team, released on Tuesday.

Six members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Ten members of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Eleven All-Americans.

Those are just some of the honors shared by the 22 members of the 75th Anniversary TaxSlayer Gator Bowl Hall of Fame team, which was announced on Tuesday during a news conference at the DoubleTree Hotel in Jacksonville.

The team is led by three offensive players and two on defense who received the highest honors in football by being both the Pro and College Halls of Fame and being consensus All-Americans: running backs Floyd Little and Larry Csonka of Syracuse, wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff of Florida State, defensive end Jack Youngblood of Florida and safety Ed Reed of Miami.

Little and Csonka combined for one of the most impressive displays of power running in Gator Bowl history in a losing effort to Tennessee in 1966. Little gained 216 yards and Csonka had 114 as the Orange piled up 348 yards in all.

Little's game and Syracuse's team total stood as the Gator Bowl records until last year, when Texas A&M rushed for 401 yards, 236 by Traveon Williams.

Biletnikoff caught 13 passes for 192 yards and four touchdowns in the 1965 game, a 36-19 victory over Oklahoma for the Seminoles.

Youngblood had nine tackles and forced a fumble in the 1969 Gator Bowl to help UF beat Tennessee 14-13.


Reed had seven unassisted tackles, two for losses, and one sack in Miami's 28-13 victory over Georgia Tech in the 2000 game.

None of the five Heisman Trophy winners to play in the game made the 75th anniversary team. But game chairman Rich Thompson said that was reflective of the depth of talent that has competed over the eight-decade history of the game.

"You look at the history of this game and there's a remarkable consistency in the quality of the teams and players in the game," Thompson said. "It would have been easy to just pick the Heisman winners and the All-Americans but not all of them actually played well in the games. The media panel clearly took this seriously."

Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett also said going on to NFL fame wasn't necessarily a final consideration.

"The voters made their decisions on what happened in the Gator Bowl games," he said. "They really did their homework."

The quarterback on the all-time Gator Bowl team is Archie Manning, who threw for 180 yards and one touchdown, and gained 95 yards rushing and scored once in a 35-28 loss to Auburn and Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan in 1971. Joining Biletnokoff at wide receiver is Michigan's Andre Rison, who set a Gator Bowl record that still stands with 252 receiving yards on nine catches in Michigan State's 34-27 loss to Georgia in 1987.

Also on the team is one of the most feared defensive players in football history, linebacker Lawrence Taylor of North Carolina.


Two other former Gators joined Youngblood on defense, linebacker Wilber Marshall and safety Tony Lilly.

Two members of the All-time Gator Bowl team went on to play for the Jaguars, safety Donovin Darius of Syracuse and Rison.

Nine of the players were Gator Bowl MVPs. Based on the current makeup of Power 5 conferences, players were represented by 16 teams in the ACC, SEC and Big Ten, plus Notre Dame.

The 75th Anniversary team was selected by a media panel. The team will be recognized during the week of the 75th Gator Bowl on Jan. 2, 2020, at TIAA Bank Field (7 p.m., ESPN), which will match an SEC team against a Big Ten or ACC team.

75th Anniversary Gator Bowl Team

Offense

QB Archie Manning, Ole Miss (1971)

RB Floyd Little, Syracuse (1966)

FB Larry Csonka, Syracuse (1966)

WR Fred Biletnokoff, Florida State (1965)

WR Andre Rison, Michigan State (1989)

TE Ken McAfee, Notre Dame (1976)

OT Mark May, Pittsburgh (1980)

OT Greg Skrepenak, Michigan (1991)

C Maxie Baughn, Georgia Tech (1960)

OG Dean Dingman, Michigan (1991)

OG Zeke Smith, Auburn (1955)

Defense

DE Hugh Green, Pittsburgh (1980)

DE Jack Youngblood, Florida (1969)

DT Matt Millen, Penn State (1976)

DT Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska (2009)

LB Lawrence Taylor, North Carolina (1979)

LB Wilber Marshall, Florida (1983)

LB Ryan Shazier, Ohio State (2012)

DB Donovin Darius, Syracuse (1996)

DB Mark McLaurin, Mississippi State (2017)

DB Tony Lilly, Florida (1983)

DB Ed Reed, Miami (2000)

Media voters: Pat Dooley, Frank Frangie, Gene Frenette, Dan Hicken, Junior Skepple, Sam Kouvaris, David Lamm, Brent Martineau, Cole Pepper, Chris Porter, Garry Smits.