Big Sky Hall of Fame class highlights football legacy, Erickson, Hawkins

Dennis Erickson and Frank Hawkins gave the Big Sky’s 2026 Hall of Fame class national weight the moment it was announced. The eight-member group, drawn from seven institutions, pushed the Hall of Fame to 54 total members and underscored how much of the conference’s football identity still rests on names with reach far beyond the subdivision.

The Big Sky announced the class on May 21, and the induction is scheduled for Saturday, July 25 at 6:30 p.m. PT at Northern Quest Resort & Casino near Spokane, Washington, as part of Football Kickoff Weekend. That setting matters. The conference is not treating the Hall of Fame as a side note to the season, but as part of the way it sells its history, its present brand, and the level of football it expects to play every fall.

Erickson and Hawkins sit at the center of that message. Erickson’s College Football Hall of Fame resume includes national championships at Miami in 1989 and 1991, plus conference titles with four different programs. Hawkins, whom Nevada identifies as the only Wolf Pack player in the College Football Hall of Fame, finished his college career with 5,333 rushing yards, earned three Division I-AA All-America honors, led Division I-AA in rushing in 1979 and 1980, and stringed together 21 straight 100-yard games.

The rest of the class reflects the broader footprint the Big Sky has built over time. Eric Heins of Northern Arizona, Amber Henry and Willie Sojourner of Weber State, Pam Parks of Eastern Washington, Michael Ray Richardson of Montana, and Jackie Ross Mattox of Idaho join the two headline football names in a class that reaches across the conference’s full-time membership base. The selection committee had 14 members, including representatives from all 10 full-time Big Sky institutions, an additional athletic director, a senior women’s administrator, a conference office representative, and an at-large member.

The Hall of Fame itself was established in 2020 to honor those who made outstanding contributions to Big Sky athletics as student-athletes, coaches, and administrators. The first class was honored in 2022 during Football Kickoff Weekend in Spokane, and the 2025 class included 10 members. This year’s eight-member group is smaller, but it carries the same signal: the Big Sky still leans on a championship-era lineage to reinforce its place in the FCS hierarchy, and it keeps turning that legacy into present-day brand strength.