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1977 All-America college football team

Official list of the best college football players of 1977

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 26, 2025
Entity authorityQ4577615 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 1977 All-America college football team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1977. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recognizes four selectors as "official" for the 1977 season. They are: (1) the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA); (2) the Associated Press (AP) selected based on the votes of sports writers at AP newspapers; (3) the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) selected by the nation's football writers; and (4) the United Press International (UPI) selected based on the votes of sports writers at UPI newspapers. Other selectors included Football News (FN), the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), The Sporting News (TSN), and the Walter Camp Football Foundation (WC).

Eight players were unanimously selected by all four official selectors and all four unofficial selectors. They were Ken MacAfee of Notre Dame, offensive tackle Chris Ward of Ohio State, offensive guard Mark Donahue of Michigan, running backs Earl Campbell of Texas and Terry Miller of Oklahoma State, defensive ends Art Still of Kentucky and Ross Browner of Notre Dame, defensive tackle Brad Shearer of Texas.

Consensus All-Americans

The following charts identify the NCAA-recognized consensus All-Americans for the year 1977 and displays which first-team designations they received.

Offense

Defense

Offense

Receivers

Ozzie Newsome, Alabama (AFCA [split end], AP-1, FWAA, UPI-2, FN [end], NEA-1, TSN, WC)

John Jefferson, Arizona State (AFCA [flanker], AP-1, FWAA, NEA-2)

Wes Chandler, Florida (AP-2, UPI-1, FN [running back], NEA-1, TSN)

James Lofton, Stanford (AP-2, NEA-2)

Gordon Jones, Pittsburgh (AP-3)

Mike Renfro, TCU (AP-3)

Tight ends

Ken MacAfee, Notre Dame (AFCA, AP-1, FWAA, UPI-1, FN [end], NEA-1, TSN, WC)

Mickey Shuler, Penn State (AP-2, NEA-2)

Clennie Brundidge, Army (UPI-2)

Mike Moore, Grambling (AP-3)

Tackles

Chris Ward, Ohio State (AFCA, AP-1, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1, TSN, WC)

Dan Irons, Texas Tech (AFCA, UPI-1, FN, WC)

Keith Dorney Penn State (AP-3, FWAA)

Gordon King, Stanford (UPI-2, NEA-1, TSN)

Dennis Baker, Wyoming (AP-1)

William Fifer, West Texas State (AP-2)

Mike Kenn, Michigan (AP-2)

J. T. Taylor, Missouri (AP-3, UPI-2)

Frank Myers, Texas A&M (NEA-2)

Jeff Morrow, Minnesota (NEA-2)

Guards

Mark Donahue, Michigan (AFCA, AP-1, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1, TSN, WC)

Leotis Harris, Arkansas (AFCA, AP-1, UPI-1, NEA-1, WC)

Joe Bostic, Clemson (AP-3, FWAA, NEA-2)

Greg Roberts, Oklahoma (AP-3, FN)

George Collins, Georgia (TSN)

Jim Hough, Utah State (AP-2)

Ernie Hughes, Notre Dame (AP-2, UPI-2)

Leon White, Colorado (UPI-2)

Bob Cryder, Alabama (NEA-2)

Centers

Tom Brzoza, Pittsburgh (AP-1, UPI-1, WC)

Walt Downing, Michigan (AFCA, AP-3, FN, NEA-2, TSN)

Tom Davis, Nebraska (FWAA, UPI-2)

Blair Bush, Washington (AP-2, NEA-1)

Quarterbacks

Guy Benjamin, Stanford (AP-2, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1)

Doug Williams, Grambling State (AP-1, UPI-2, NEA-2, TSN, WC)

Matt Cavanaugh, Pittsburgh (AFCA)

Derrick Ramsey, Kentucky (AP-3)

Running backs

Earl Campbell, Texas (AFCA, AP-1, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1, TSN, WC)

Terry Miller, Oklahoma State (AFCA, AP-1, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1, TSN, WC)

Charles Alexander, LSU (AFCA, AP-2, FWAA, UPI-1, NEA-2, WC)

John Pagliaro, Yale (AP-3, WC)

Jerome Persell, Western Michigan (AP-2)

I. M. Hipp, Nebraska (UPI-2, NEA-2)

Johnny Davis, Alabama (UPI-2)

Ben Cowins, Arkansas (UPI-2)

Bo Robinson, West Texas State (AP-3)

Defense

Defensive ends

Art Still, Kentucky (AFCA, AP-1, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1, TSN, WC)

Ross Browner, Notre Dame (AFCA, AP-1, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1, TSN, WC)

John Anderson, Michigan (UPI-2)

Kelton Dansler, Ohio State (AP-2)

Willie Fry, Notre Dame (UPI-2)

Hugh Green, Pittsburgh (AP-2)

Al Harris, Arizona State (NEA-2)

Jerry DeLoach, California (AP-3)

Chuck Schott, Army (AP-3)

Defensive tackles

Brad Shearer, Texas (AFCA, AP-1, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1, TSN, WC)

Randy Holloway, Pittsburgh (AFCA, AP-2, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1, TSN, WC)

Dee Hardison, North Carolina (AP-1, FWAA, UPI-2, FN, NEA-2)

Mike Bell, Colorado State (AP-2)

Manu Tuiasosopo, UCLA (UPI-2)

Mekeli Ieremia, Brigham Young (NEA-2)

Larry Bethea, Michigan State (AP-3, NEA-2 [DE])

Jimmy Walker, Arkansas (AP-3)

Middle guards

Aaron Brown, Ohio St. (AFCA, UPI-2, WC)

Reggie Kinlaw, Oklahoma (AP-3, UPI-1)

Randy Sidler, Penn State (AP-1)

Don Latimer, Pittsburgh (AP-2)

Linebackers

Jerry Robinson, UCLA (AFCA, AP-1, FWAA, UPI-1, FN, NEA-1, WC)

Tom Cousineau, Ohio State (AP-2, FWAA, UPI-1, NEA-2, WC)

Gary Spani, Kansas St.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “1977 All-America college football team” is official list of the best college football players of 1977. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through All-America, college and football, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1977—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, All-America, college and football is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “official list of the best college football players of 1977” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4577615. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1977.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “1977 All-America college football team” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.