Jim Pyne, a standout center for the Virginia Tech Hokies from 1990 to 1993, has been nominated for the College Football Hall of Fame for the first time. At 52 years old, Pyne is among 77 candidates from the Football Bowl Subdivision listed on the 2025 ballot released by the National Football Foundation.
The voting process will occur over the summer, with the official 2025 class announcement slated for early next year. Notably, quarterback Michael Vick, who led the Hokies to the national championship game in 1999, is also up for consideration for the second consecutive year.
Pyne played a pivotal role in the early years of Frank Beamer’s coaching tenure and was a standout member of Beamer’s fourth signing class. He made history as Virginia Tech’s first unanimous All-American in football, earning first-team honors from all five major selectors in 1993. Beamer once remarked to Sally Jenkins in a 1993 Sports Illustrated profile titled “Born to Block” that Pyne’s talent was evident within just a few plays.
Standing at 6-foot-2 and weighing 285 pounds, Pyne made an immediate impact upon arriving in Blacksburg, starting 35 consecutive games and appearing in 41 out of 42 games during his time at Tech. Impressively, he surrendered only one quarterback sack in over 2,700 snaps and garnered All-Big East honors twice.
JIn his senior year, Pyne was a finalist for both the Lombardi and Outland awards and secured the Dudley Award as Virginia’s Player of the Year. Despite predating the Rimington Trophy, which recognizes the nation’s top center annually, Pyne was widely regarded as the premier center in college football during his senior season.
Pyne’s jersey number 73 is among the four football numbers retired by Virginia Tech, alongside Carroll Dale (84), Frank Loria (10), and Bruce Smith (78). Since 2002, the Hokies have retired jerseys rather than numbers, allowing them to remain in circulation. Selected in the seventh round of the 1994 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Pyne went on to play seven seasons in the NFL for various teams, including the Lions, Browns (as the first overall pick in the 1999 expansion draft), and Eagles.
Virginia Tech boasts affiliations with eight players and coaches who have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: Hunter Carpenter (inducted in 1957), Andy Gustafson (1985), Dale (1987), Loria (1999), Jerry Claiborne (1999), Smith (2006), Beamer (2018), and Corey Moore (2023).
