Mike Fanning (American football)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mount Clemens, Michigan, U.S.
| No. 79, 74 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Defensive tackle | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | February 2, 1953 Mount Clemens, Michigan, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died | October 30, 2022 (aged 69) | ||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) | ||||||||
| Listed weight | 255 lb (116 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | Thomas Edison (OK) | ||||||||
| College | Notre Dame | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1975: 1st round, 9th overall pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Michael LaVern Fanning (February 2, 1953 – October 30, 2022) was an American professional football player who was a defensive tackle for ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, earning first-team All-American honors in 1974. He started in Super Bowl XIV for the Los Angeles Rams.[1]
Fanning was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan.[2] At the University of Notre Dame, he accounted for 164 tackles. He was a starter for the Fighting Irish at defensive tackle in 1973 and 1974, and was a 1974 first-team All-America selection by the Walter Camp Foundation, The Sporting News,[3] Newspaper Enterprise Association, and Time. He was a second-team selection by the Associated Press.[4] In his years at Notre Dame, he shared the practice field with Rudy Ruettiger, whose saga was made into a Hollywood film, Rudy.
Notre Dame ranked second in the nation in total defense in 1973 and the Irish claimed the national championship with an 11–0 record. In 1974, the defense ranked first in the nation, allowing only 195.2 yards per game and were ranked sixth in the nation in the final AP poll.