Six Nebraska football standouts are set to join the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame this fall, and the 2026 class is loaded with familiar names from multiple eras of Husker history.
The group includes defensive back Charles Fryar, offensive lineman Jim Scott, fullback Cory Schlesinger, I-back Cory Ross, linebacker Lavonte David and late punter Sam Foltz. The Nebraska Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame will also recognize Chadron State tight end Joe Planansky as the state college inductee, while Frank Solich will get the second annual Nebraska Football Hall of Fame Legend Award and Kent Pavelka will be honored with the Lyell Bremser Special Merit Award.
The class will be inducted on Friday, Sept. 4, then honored again the next day at Memorial Stadium when Nebraska opens the 2026 season against Ohio.
David enters the Hall after announcing his retirement from the NFL earlier this year. In two seasons with Nebraska, he piled up 285 tackles, including a school-record 152 in 2010.
That season earned him second-team All-America and first-team All-Big 12 honors. In his final year, he had 133 tackles, was a first-team All-America pick and was named Big Ten Linebacker of the Year.
He spent all 14 of his NFL seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, made three All-Pro teams and was part of the Bucs’ Super Bowl LV title team. His pro career finished with more than 1,700 tackles.
Schlesinger’s Nebraska legacy still starts with the 1995 Orange Bowl. He scored twice to finish off the Huskers’ 24-17 comeback win over Miami, securing Nebraska’s first national title since 1971.
As a senior, he rushed for 456 yards at 7.2 yards per carry and ended his college career with more than 700 rushing yards. Detroit took him in the sixth round, and he went on to play 12 seasons with the Lions.
Schlesinger was a three-time Pro Bowler and made Detroit’s 75th Anniversary Team, closing his NFL career with 473 rushing yards and 1,445 receiving yards.
Fryar was a steady force in the Nebraska secondary in the late 1980s, earning two All-Big Eight selections. Over three seasons as a starting corner, he recorded 121 tackles, with 90 of them solo, and intercepted seven passes.
One of those picks went 86 yards for a touchdown against Oklahoma State in 1988. He also added 19 pass breakups, two tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.
His senior season helped push Nebraska into the national top 10 in pass defense and total defense as the Huskers claimed the Big Eight title.
Scott anchored the middle of an offensive line that helped Nebraska win back-to-back NCAA rushing titles and Big Eight crowns in 1991 and 1992. A native of Ansley, Neb., who started his college career at UNK, he was the starting center on the 1992 team that averaged 328 rushing yards per game and ranked second nationally in scoring.
He shared time at center in 1991, when Nebraska was rolling for more than 350 rushing yards per game. As a senior co-captain, Scott earned first-team All-Big Eight honors and Academic All-District recognition.
Ross made his mark as one of Nebraska’s most complete backs, dangerous both running and catching the ball. The Denver native finished with 2,743 rushing yards from 2002 to 2005, which places him in the top 15 in school history.
He was the team’s Offensive MVP as both a junior and senior and earned All-Big 12 honors in each of his final two seasons. Ross went over 1,000 yards rushing in 2004 with 1,102 and added 71 catches for 729 yards during his career, including 43 receptions as a senior.
Foltz, who was lost before his senior season, was one of the best punters Nebraska has ever had. He won Big Ten Punter of the Year and made first-team all-conference in 2015 after averaging more than 44 yards per punt.
The Greeley, Neb., native was an honorable-mention All-Big Ten pick as a sophomore in 2014 and finished his three-year career with a 42.6-yard average. He also stood out in the classroom and in the community.
Planansky was a four-year starter and three-time unanimous all-conference tight end at Chadron State in the 1990s. He caught 154 passes for 1,879 yards and earned second-team All-America honors as a junior before being named a first-team All-American as a senior.
He became the first Chadron State player chosen for the Snow Bowl in Fargo, N.D., later signed with the Dolphins and played in two games in 1995. He was inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in 2005.
Solich’s Hall of Fame recognition comes with the Legend Award, adding to a Nebraska career already honored twice by the Hall, as a player in 1992 and as a coach in 2012. He arrived as part of Bob Devaney’s first recruiting class and became an all-conference fullback in the mid-1960s.
Later, he spent 1979 to 1997 on the Nebraska staff before taking over as head coach in 1998. In six seasons, he led the Huskers to 58 wins and was twice named conference coach of the year.
He then coached at Ohio University for 16 seasons, where he won 115 games and reached 11 bowl appearances.
Pavelka will be recognized for a broadcasting career that stretches back to 1974, when he joined the KFAB football crew as a color commentator alongside Lyell Bremser. After Bremser retired, Pavelka handled Nebraska football play-by-play from 1984 to 1995 and called the Huskers’ national championship seasons in 1994 and 1995. He has also been Nebraska basketball’s play-by-play voice for more than 40 seasons and has called more than 1,000 Husker hoops games.
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