Two Buckeye greats popped up on Wednesday’s 2022 College Football Hall of Fame ballot, as James Laurinaitis and Mike Doss will both have a chance to join an inner circle of the sport’s legends.

Laurinaitis, an Ohio State linebacker and three-time All-American who claimed the Butkus Award, Nagurski Trophy and two Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors during his tenure with the Buckeyes from 2005-08, would be the first Buckeye LB to receive the honor since Tom Cousineau in 2016.

Doss, another three-time All-American for the Buckeye defense at the safety position, was both the Big Ten Co-Defensive Player of the Year and Fiesta Bowl MVP in 2002, when Ohio State won the BCS National Championship to cap a 14-0 season.

That pair was on a list of 78 FBS players with a chance to be inducted next year, headlined by the likes of Reggie Bush, Marshawn Lynch, Andrew Luck and a host of other big names, but this year’s ballot got us thinking about just how exclusive the College Football Hall of Fame club is.

Just over 1,000 players have been selected to the hall, which requires a First-Team All-American pedigree to even get a chance at induction, and only 26 Buckeyes (plus seven coaches) have made the cut over the years.

In honor of the recent nominations for Laurinaitis and Doss, we’re giving you a rundown of Ohio State’s history with the College Football Hall of Fame.

The last Buckeye to be inducted, former Ohio State running back and Dayton native Keith Byars donned the Scarlet and Gray from 1982-85, and racked up no shortage of accomplishments during that time.

Byars finished second in Heisman Trophy voting in ‘84, a season in which he set the program record with 1,764 rushing yards, and finished with 24 total touchdowns and 2,243 yards from scrimmage.

Byars went onto play 13 seasons in the NFL, but his legacy at Ohio State remains very much intact to this day, given that he still sits in the top 10 in nearly every rushing record in program history.

The aforementioned Cousineau, who holds multiple jaw-dropping tackles records at Ohio State, was the last Buckeye defender to have been inducted, as he was selected into the hall in 2016.

Cousineau is Ohio State’s second all-time leader in tackles, with 569 from 1975-78, but his senior season remains the stuff of legend for the Buckeye program. That year, Cousineau recorded 211 tackles, including a 29-tackle effort in a single performance against Penn State. Both of those marks, of course, are all-time records.

The other three names that were inducted throughout the 2010s have no less history with the Columbus program, as former head coach Jim Tressel made the hall in 2015, one-time Heisman finalist offensive tackle Orlando Pace in 2013, and Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George in 2011.

Tressel led the Buckeyes to their first national championship in 32 years in 2002, and returned to play for all the college football marbles in both 2006 and ‘07.

George is one of only two Buckeyes to win the Heisman since Archie Griffin, taking home the award in 1995 from the running back position, and Pace managed to win the Big Ten MVP in ‘96 before having a Hall of Fame NFL career as well.

With seven College Football Hall of fame inductees in the aughts, the 2000s was the second-most active decade for Buckeyes earning a spot in the hall.

Two former Buckeye head coaches were inducted during the decade, with Earle Bruce landing in the Hall of Fame with the 2002 class, and John Cooper following suit in 2008.

A pair of hard-hitting defensive legends in linebacker Chris Spielman and defensive back Jack Tatum were inducted in 2009 and 2004, respectively, and Rex Kern, who played quarterback on the Buckeye teams that won national championships in 1968 and ‘70 alongside Tatum, was elected into the hall in 2007.

Two-way player Jim Houston, who won a state title, college football national championship with the Buckeyes in ‘57 and an NFL championship with the Browns in ‘64, was inducted in the 2005 class.

Finally, 1973 Outland and Lombardi Trophy winner John Hicks, who was also second in the Heisman Trophy voting from the offensive guard position, was voted in back in 2001.

The ‘90s saw just three Buckeyes get inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, beginning with two-time national champion and Lombardi and Outland Trophy winner Jim Stillwagon in 1991.

After that, former Buckeye halfback, Ohio State All-Century team member and 1961 national champion Bob Ferguson made the hall in the class of ‘96, and Randy Gradishar –– the last Buckeye to win the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award –– was inducted two years later.

Two peerless Ohio State legends whose names remain synonymous with the program saw their College Football Hall of Fame inductions in the ‘80s.

Archie Griffin, the sport’s lone two-time Heisman Trophy-winner, became immortalized in the hall in 1986, and iconic program head coach Woody Hayes, winner of five national championships at Ohio State, got to the hall three years earlier.

Besides those two, the decade also saw guard and two-way player Aurealias Thomas, who won a national title with Hayes in 1957, get inducted in 1989, and Warren Amling, who was an All-American at both guard and tackle in the ‘40s. Get inducted in ‘84.

More Buckeyes were inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in the 1970s than in any other decade, with nine inductees that included Heisman Trophy winners Howard “Hopalong” Cassady and Vic Janowicz.

Francis Schmidt, the 14th Ohio State head coach who helped create the Gold Pants tradition, was inducted in ‘71, as was legendary ‘40s tackle Bill Willis, who inspired the Buckeyes’ new “Block O” tradition that began when Jonathon Cooper was given the No. 0 to wear last season.

Also among the long list of 1970s inductees are three-sport Ohio State athlete Gaylord Stinchcomb, Ohio State’s first Outland Trophy-winner Jim Parker, 1930s offensive linemen Gust Zarnas and Gomer Jones as well as 1941 All-American and two-way tackle “Big Jim” Daniell.

Ohio State may have won a pair of national titles during a decade in which the program had some of its most talented teams of all time, but only one Buckeye was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in the ‘60s.

That one player is Les Horvath, the first-ever Ohio State Heisman Trophy-winner, who took home the award playing quarterback and halfback for the Buckeyes during a 9-0 1944 campaign that saw Ohio State finish the year No. 2 in the AP Top 25 Poll.

Among the first Ohio State inductees in 1951 was halfback Chic Harley, who was the Buckeyes’ first three-time All-American, and helped lead the Scarlet and Gray to its first win over Michigan in 1919. Joining Harley in the ‘51 class was Howard Jones, who coached the Buckeyes for one season in 1910 among a host of other schools in his career.

Two other Ohio State head coaches joined Jones in Hall of Fame induction in the ‘50s, with 16-year Buckeye coach John Wilce and Wes Fesler, who was inducted as a player despite also having coached the Buckeyes from 1947-50, both getting into the hall in 1954.