Air Force's Fisher DeBerry Is Inducted Into The 2011 College Football Hall Of Fame

The 2011 College Football Hall of Fame was announced on Tuesday, and legendary Air Force head coach Fisher DeBerry was one of two coaches to make the list. The other is former Michigan Wolverine head coach Lloyd Carr. DeBerry was at Air Force from 1984-2006 and finished with a record of 169-109-1, and his best season was his first in 1985.

That year, DeBerry had the Falcons on the cusp of competing for a national title. The Falcons were 10-0 and ranked No. 4 in the AP poll, but they ultimately fell to BYU 28-21 which knocked them out of national title contention. The Falcons ended up going 12-1 by defeating the Texas Longhorns in the Blue Bonnet Bowl 24-16 to finish the season ranked No. 5 in the coaches poll and No. 8 in the AP poll. That year DeBerry also won the Bear Bryant award which is awarded to the best coach in college football.

DeBerry was also associated with running the vaunted triple-option offense which always kept his team competitive against opponents. This offense was used to off set the size of the athletes that the Academy went up against, because at the Academy there was a size restriction on students.

During DeBerry's career he won three conference titles, (two shared in the WAC one outright in the Mountain West), went 6-5 in bowl games and had only six losing seasons in 22 years as head coach at Air Force.