Editor's Note: London Fletcher will be honored this Saturday, Sept. 28, with an NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute, presented by Fidelity Investments, during John Carroll's game against Mount Union in University Heights, Ohio. He will be officially inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame during the 62nd NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 10 in New York City.

London Fletcher
John Carroll University (OH)
Linebacker, 1995-97

• Two-time First Team All-American in 1996 and 1997.
• Holds school records for tackles in a single season (202) and single-game (29).
• Two-time First Team All-OAC selection and 1997 OAC Linebacker of the Year.
• Played for coach Tony DeCarlo.
• Becomes the first Blue Streak player or coach to be inducted into the Hall.

Few have taken the kind of path to the heights of the game the way that London Fletcher has. And that's just taking into account the number of NFL dignitaries from John Carroll University.

The Division III Jesuit school in Northeast Ohio has served as a pipeline of sorts for off-the-field NFL roles, producing everyone from Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell. Then there is Fletcher, who not only became the first NFL player from John Carroll in 36 years, but thrived across a 16-year, three-team career that saw him make four Pro Bowls.

All of that began in college, where Fletcher produced John Carroll's first College Football Hall of Fame career after tearing up the Ohio Athletic Conference as an undergraduate.

"It definitely shows high school players that regardless of where you play in college, it's not just all about the Division I schools and Power 5 conferences," Fletcher said. "If you can play football, they'll recognize you, and the cream always rises to the top.

"I think it says a lot for me to be able to be going into a class with Heisman Trophy winners and just some esteemed guys that played in a lot of the Power 5 conferences or Notre Dame. Here I am playing at a D-III school, but at the end of the day we're all the same because we're all going to be College Football Hall of Famers."

Fletcher was a two-time First Team All-America performer with the Blue Streaks, serving as a team captain in 1997 and leading the program to its first Division III playoff victory. He recorded a single-season best 202 tackles that season, and he finished his career with 386 tackles, 37 tackles for loss, 14 sacks, three interceptions and two touchdowns. He graduated in 1998 and had his No. 3 jersey retired in 2017, as well.

"London Fletcher is single-handily responsible for my career path as a special teams coordinator," joked Notre Dame special teams coordinator Brian Polian, a 1997 John Carroll graduate. "The moment he stepped on campus I realized I better get very interested in the kicking game because it was the only way I was going to play."

Crazy enough, Fletcher didn't even start playing tackle football until his junior year of high school. He figured he was destined for a basketball career, so he went to Saint Francis (Pennsylvania) initially to star on the hardwood. But the Cleveland native eventually made his way back home to the region, and to the gridiron.

Perplexingly, he went undrafted, finding a spot with the Rams as a free agent and, and by his second year, he became a starter for the Super Bowl XXXIV champions.

In 2003, he established the London Bridge Foundation as a means for serving underprivileged youth. Today, he does some broadcast work while joking that he enjoys being an Uber driver for his three children, shuffling them between extracurricular activities.

"When you play at the Division III level, you're not on scholarship, so there's a tremendous amount of love that you have for the game," Fletcher said. "[JCU grads] have worked their way up to those positions, and you have to love it. Especially starting out, it's low pay and a ton of hours and not many accolades. It says a lot about their love of the game of football, how hard they work and how smart they are and the impressions that these guys have left on a lot of people."