Former Hopewell Great Paul Posluszny Elected to College Football Hall of Fame

A huge honor for a former great at Hopewell High School.

Former Vikings linebacker Paul Posluszny was elected and named as a member of the 2024 College Football Hall of Fame Class.

Posluszny attended Hopewell High School from 1999 from 2002 and during his senior season, he helped lead Hopewell to the WPIAL AAA Championship along with the AAA State Championship.

After graduating from Hopewell, Posluszny went on to star at Penn State from 2003-06.

The 6’2″, 235-pound linebacker played during his freshman season, recording 36 tackles and an interception, but started to make his mark during his sophomore season.

In 2004, he was named as a second-team All-Big Ten player, starting in all 11 games and led Penn State with 104 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and 3 sacks. That Penn State defense was ranked as a Top 10 defense in the country and didn’t allow an opponent to reach over 21 points in a game all season.

During his junior season, he was named the first junior captain for Penn State since Mike Reid and Steve Smear in 1968. Posluszny statistically improved his stats from the previous year as he recorded 116 tackles, 14 tackles for loss and 4 sacks. The highlight game of the year came against Northwestern when he recorded an incredible 22 tackles in that game. His performance that season was recognized as he joined LaVar Arrington as the second Penn State player to win both the Bednarik and Butkus Awards as the College Defensive Player and Linebacker of the Year in college football. Posluszny then went on to be named as a member of the 2005 All-American Team.

Posluszny made the decision to return to Penn State to play his senior season rather than enter the 2006 NFL Draft and that decision further cemented his status as one of the best linebackers in the history of Penn State football.

During his senior season, Posluszny went on to register 116 tackles, which gave him 372 career tackles, a school high at Penn State. Posluszny repeated as the Bednarik Award winner, joining former Northwestern great Pat Fitzgerald as the second player to win that award twice. He also was named to the 2006 All-America Team, becoming the first Penn State linebacker to be named an AP All-American twice.

Along with his on-field accomplishments, Posluszny got it done in the classroom as well, graduating with a 3.57 GPA with a Bachelor of Science in finance, being named to the Academic All-American team twice.

Posluszny went on to get drafted in the second round by the Buffalo Bills and had an 11-year NFL career.