This weekend marks the annual Hall Of Fame induction ceremony on the University of Illinois campus, and among the inductees this year are a pair of football greats to wear the orange and blue; David Williams and Simeon Rice.

Williams, who is the career receptions leader for the Illini, played in the NFL, but spent most of his professional career in the Canadian Football League. Williams, who is an Illini inside and out, now lives in Los Angeles, but still follows the team that made him what he is today.

“This is where I learned to be a good player and where you first heard my name. I am a member of a few other halls of fame (Canadian Football and the college hall of fame), but now that I have been inducted into the Illinois Hall of Fame, my playing career is complete,” Williams said.

Williams played for three seasons from 1983-85, and in that time frame, caught 262 passes for 3,392 yards and 24 touchdowns, numbers that will probably never be challenged in this lifetime.

Williams came from the west coast, and while he still follows the team, had some words of wisdom for the current team and their coach, Lovie Smith.

“I think they (the coaching staff) need to get back to California. You look at teams that are doing well in college football these days, and they have a lot of players from the state of California on their rosters. That’s the way that we did it when I was in school, and I think we need to revisit how to get back out there,” Williams said.

Williams went a step further to comment on the current makeup of the roster, noting that Smith and his coaching staff is going the transfer route to bring talent into the program.

“We have to win, bottom line. Are we getting the best of the transfers that are out there? I’m not sure. I’m proud to be an alumni of the University of Illinois, but the perception of the program from outside Illinois isn’t the best right now. You must start winning Big Ten games to get relevant again,” Williams said.

During Williams’ time at Illinois, his teams were 17-1 in the Big Ten and according to him, those were much different times in conference play.

“We used to be feared here at Illinois. We won the Big Ten in 1983 and went to the Rose Bowl. Then, in 1984, Ohio State won at Illinois and went to the Rose Bowl, exactly what Iowa did in 1985. For a few years there, you had to go through Illinois to get to the Rose Bowl, and we need to get back to those times again here,” Williams said.

Another former Illini standout, Simeon Rice, also goes into the Illinois Hall of Fame Class of 2019 and talked about his time at Illinois and what the current staff needs to do to keep the program relevant.

“We need to do a little bit more recruiting and the guys that they are bringing in need to be ambitious.” Rice said.

Rice had a picture of himself, Kevin Hardy, Dana Howard and John Holocek in his hands during our interview with him, and mentioned that those four guys were the epitome of what Linebacker U stood for during his playing days.

Rice holds career records in tackles for loss (69-385), including the season mark for that category as well (23-127). Rice also has the career records for quarterback sacks (44.5), as well as the record for forced fumbles in a career (13). He has the record for quarterback sacks in a single game with five, a mark that will probably stand for a number of years.

“I was obsessed to be different, and making myself different. You need to show leadership and get your teammates on the same page, which is what we did when I played at Illinois,” Rice said.

In response to Rice being named to the Hall of Fame, he considers it a great honor to be selected to this year’s class.

“To me, the truest honor is to be selected by the people that know you. That sets the tone of what you meant to them and this honor means much more to me than any statistical category that I may hold here at Illinois. No matter what podium or stage of life we stand on, we represent much more than ourselves,” Rice.

The Hall of Fame Induction ceremony took place on Friday evening at the State Farm Center. There will be a chance for fans attending the Illinois vs. Nebraska game on Saturday evening to obtain autographs of the inductees from 5-6 pm outside Grange Grove.