Five years ago, two of football’s ground-breaking quarterbacks began tossing around the idea to establish a hall of fame honoring the greatest football players and coaches that ever hit the gridiron for historically black colleges and universities.

In February, the dream of former Grambling State University quarterbacks and National Football League pioneers James “Shack” Harris and Doug Williams will be realized with the inaugural enshrinement ceremony for the Black College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.

Harris and Williams, two of the first African-American quarterbacks to find success in the NFL, announced the creation of the Black College Football Hall of Fame during an Oct. 9 press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta.

Williams, the only African-American quarterback to win a Super Bowl and become Super Bowl MVP, said players and coaches from HBCUs have played a very significant role in college football.

“We want to make sure we preserve the history and legacy of the game at historically black colleges,” said Williams, currently the coordinator of pro scouting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “We all know the game, but I think historically black colleges get overlooked every now and then. There are so many guys that have contributed to college football as a whole and we just want to make sure that we educate not only the HBCUs, but also the country as a whole about historically black college football.”

The Shack Harris & Doug Williams Foundation, a Louisiana-based nonprofit, is sponsoring the hall of fame. Williams said they chose to place it in Atlanta because of the city’s proximity to many HBCUs across the Southeast.

The former quarterback of the Washington Redskins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers said the hall of fame won’t have a fixed site in the Atlanta area, but will instead float around to different locations.

“I think it’s important that we mobilize it, so everyone will get a chance to see what it is all about,” Williams said.

He said that he couldn’t put a price tag on the start-up costs for the hall, but added that they are seeking donors and sponsorships.

King & Spalding attorney Chris Prince, the legal counsel of the Shack Harris & Doug Williams Foundation, said the Four Seasons is the hall of fame’s first platinum-level sponsor.

On Feb. 20, seven players and/or coaches, plus one contributor will be named to the hall of fame’s inaugural class and be inducted during a ceremony at the Four Seasons. Former Atlanta Mayor and U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young will serve as the honorary chairman for the Enshrinement Ceremony, and ESPN Monday Night Football analyst and Super Bowl winning coach John Gruden will be the master of ceremonies.

An 11-member Hall of Fame Selection Committee, comprising prominent journalists and football executives, will pick the hall of fame’s first, eight-member class.

Gary Stokan, president of the Atlanta Sports Council and the Chick-fil-A Bowl, said the greatest players from HBCUs honored by the Black College Football Hall of Fame also will be memorialized in the College Football Hall of Fame when it completes its move to Atlanta from South Bend, Ind., in the fall of 2012.

“We’ll have a certain section in the actual College Football Hall of Fame we will be building,” he said. “We hope to continue to work together with the committee and James and Doug to make this flourish here in Atlanta.”

Harris, the first African-American quarterback to be named MVP of an NFL Pro Bowl and Grambling State’s quarterback from 1965-68, said he just wants to preserve history.

“There are so many outstanding players and this is something that should have been done a long time ago,” said Harris, now the senior personnel executive with the Detroit Lions. “Before blacks started going to major colleges there were so many outstanding players, who may have been the best players in the country, and some of those guys will be considered this year. Every player who has ever played at a black college is a candidate.”

Williams said a lot of youth are not educated about football at HBCUs and that the hall of fame would make schools and their great players more recognizable.

“Last year I was up in Oxford, Miss., scouting some players at Ole Miss. Well, in order to get to the complex I had to drive down Manning Way,” he said. “Driving down Manning Way you think about [former Ole Miss quarterbacks] Archie Manning and Eli Manning. I’m hoping one day I can drive down Buck Buckhannon Drive at Grambling. Those are the things HBCUs missed on. To me that is the best way to make our schools recognizable.”

Harris said the hall of fame would show the history of how the players achieved greatness.

“There were sacrifices; for example, we had to sleep in the ‘gym-hotels,’ we had to ride buses across country,” he said. “It wasn’t just a game for us, it was a way of life. A lot of the guys weren’t getting arrested, did graduate from college and they were role models.”

Hall of Fame nominations can be made at www.BlackCollegeFootballHOF.org until Nov. 23.