By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

CANTON, Ohio — Some called it the greatest class ever enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That can be debated, but there is no question that the group that was honored yesterday — seven men, including the all-time rushing and receiving leaders — was outstanding.

The class was led by Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys, who ran for 18,355 yards, and Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers, who caught 1,549 passes. Also enshrined were Russ Grimm, Rickey Jackson, Dick LeBeau, John Randle and Floyd Little.

Grimm, a guard, was part of The Hogs, the Redskins’ offensive line of the 1980s. Jackson, a linebacker for New Orleans, was a sack master. LeBeau, now 72, played defensive back for Detroit and now is the Steelers’ defensive coordinator. Randle, an undrafted free agent, was an All-Pro defensive tackle. Little, 68, while a member of the Denver Broncos of the late 1960s and early ’70s, led the league in rushing three times with a last-place team.

“If I stopped to think about it,” Grimm said, “my eyes started to tear up. I just tried to blame it on the humidity. I say to myself, am I sitting here, a grown man, 51, with the emotions coming over me?”

Those previously inducted and sitting around the stage, individuals such as Franco Harris, Deacon Jones, Bob Lilly and Harry Carson, had bets among themselves about which inductee would be the first to break down during his scheduled 10-minute speech.

“Everyone was pointing to me as the one,” Rice said. “I already cried when they called me to tell me I was going in.”

LeBeau, who like Little was chosen by the veterans committee, said, “This means everything in the world to me. What could you ever ask for? I’m trying to comprehend what this means.”

Little knew what it meant: recognition of what he achieved.

“I knew when they were calling me,” he said when notified by the Hall, “it wasn’t to let me know they overlooked me again. I didn’t want to go in posthumously. As I sat there and hugged my wife, I said, ‘It’s our time. It’s the minute we’ve been waiting for, and I’m still standing.’ ”

Jackson had said he deserved to enter the Hall at an earlier date, having retired from the game 10 years ago.

“I think it’s because the Saints weren’t very good for all those years,” Jackson said. “But I set all kinds of records. Nobody had my combination of hitting and speed. I hit quarterbacks. I made interceptions.”

The majority of spectators at a packed Fawcett Stadium, adjacent to the Hall itself, were Cowboys and 49ers fans, lured respectively by Smith and Rice. One T-shirt on sale had the word “Triplets” and images of Smith, Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman, all former Cowboys now in the Hall of Fame.

Would Smith have had big yardage in the current two-back offense? “I did what I did,” he responded, “and I’m not going back on it.”

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