ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference has announced its 2009 Hall of Fame inductees, and former Southwest Minnesota State quarterback Jeff Loots has earned a place in this year's class. Loots, along with six other honorees, will be inducted on July 31 at the Best Western Kelly Inn in St. Cloud Minn., at the NSIC's ninth annual Summer Kickoff. A social hour begins at 6 p.m., while the induction ceremony is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Loots joins Lee Ahlbrecht from Bemidji State, Linda Larson from Minnesota Duluth, Dean Bowyer from Minnesota State, Frank Mosier from Minnesota State Moorhead, Henry Schneider from Northern State and David Ludy from Winona State in this year's class.
Loots, a native of St. Paul, Minn., was a three-year letterwinner for SMSU and finished his career completing 703 of 1,224 pass attempts for 10,116 yards and 102 touchdowns, all of which are school career records following his career. Loots was a first team NAIA All-America in 1992, a second team NAIA All-America in 1991 and an honorable mention NAIA All-America in 1990, while also earning second team AP Little All-America honors in 1992.
A three-time first team all-conference quarterback, Loots was named conference most valuable player in both 1990 and 1992, becoming the first player in conference history to earn the award twice. The Mustangs were 22-5 with Loots starting at quarterback.
Loots, who currently holds over 20 school records, had one of the best seasons a quarterback could have during the 1991 season. He led SMSU to a 9-1 record, the best in school history, completing 272 of 464 passes for 4,111 yards, 50 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions. He threw five or more touchdowns in six games that season while also passing for more than 330 yards in eight games.
In 1990, he helped lead SMSU to the program's only conference championship while also leading the squad to the NAIA national playoffs before losing in the first round to Carson-Newman (Tenn.).
During his senior season in 1992, Loots passed for 2,927 yards and 29 touchdowns in the first seven games before suffering a career-ending injury in week eight.
Following his collegiate career, Loots was ranked the nation's 11th best passer headed into the 1993 NFL draft and ended up signing with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League before playing in the Arena Football League for eight seasons, including being part of two AFL championship teams.
Founded in 1986, the Northern Intercollegiate Conference (NIC, former men's conference) Hall of Fame was established to recognize and honor those who made significant contributions to the conference, to create favorable publicity and public relations for the league and to help preserve the history of the NIC, its member institutions, student-athletes, and other significant individuals affiliated with the league. For the first two inductions (1986 and 1990) each selection hailed from the NIC. In 1992-93, the Northern Sun Conference (NSC, former women's conference) and the NIC merged, creating the current Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). After annual inductions since 2000, today's NSIC Hall of Fame now boasts 134 members and one team.
Each NSIC school (who has been a member for at least ten years or more) is asked to submit one candidate per institution for induction into the Hall. Each of the selectees are derived from individuals who have been affiliated with the NSIC, NIC, NSC and their member institutions.
In order to be eligible for the NSIC Hall of Fame, candidates must be a former student-athlete, administrator, coach, official, supervisor, coordinator, contributor, supporter or team. Other worthy candidates that do not fall into the above categories are also considered. The conference provides two plaques, one of which will go to the inductee and one to the institution represented. A history of each inductee will be kept in the league office and each institution will prominently display the plaques of their respective NSIC Hall of Fame inductees.
