Courtesy photo, UNLV
Talance Sawyer, seen making a tackle for the UNLV football team against Tulsa in the 1990s at Sam Boyd Stadium, was selected to the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame.
Thursday, March 7, 2024 | 1 p.m.
Talance Sawyer arrived in Las Vegas for a recruiting trip with the UNLV football team in the mid-1990s, saw the bright lights of the Strip and knew he had found a home.
The self-proclaimed country boy from Bastrop, La., immediately fell in love with big-city life. His hometown, after all, only had about 14,000 residents.
“I remember getting all caught up staring at those lights and thinking how beautiful it was,” Sawyer said. “I called home to my mom and told her I was going to UNLV.”
Sawyer proceeded to become one of the best Rebels in program history — a fact, he says, is finally official. Sawyer was selected for induction into the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame, the UNLV Athletic Department announced today. He'll be joined by co-inductee and Rebel football great Hunkie Cooper, among a class of other UNLV notables.
“I’m very appreciative,” Sawyer said. “It’s part of my legacy. The school respected my contributions so much that they put me in the Hall of Fame.”
Sawyer was initially a tight end at UNLV but switched to defensive end after his freshman season and became a force. He led the Western Athletic Conference in tackles for a loss in 1997 with 18 and again the following season with 22.
For his career, Sawyer logged 221 tackles and 15.5 sacks.
Then defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill, in a 1997 interview with the Sun, said Sawyer “puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback. He should be explosive on the run as well. Talance can be a special player, run or pass. He will be a stalwart of our defense.”
McNeill was right: Sawyer was a special player.
Sawyer was picked by the Minnesota Vikings in the sixth round of the 1999 NFL Draft. He recorded 94 tackles and 11 sacks in four seasons with the Vikings.
When he arrived in Minnesota, he was greeted by a familiar face: Quarterback Randall Cunningham, the best player in UNLV history, was the Vikings’ quarterback and helped Sawyer's transition to the professional ranks.
Now, he’s alongside Cunningham in the athletic department’s Hall of Fame.
“UNLV was such an important part of my life,” Sawyer said. “I met so many great people, from so many ethnic groups. In Louisiana, it was either Black or white. At UNLV, it was so multicultural, and I made friends from all walks of life.”
Sawyer said if it weren’t for UNLV developing his skill set, he would never have reached the NFL. The program moved from being headquartered in the McDermott Physical Education Complex to the Lied Athletic Complex during his tenure, which gave then-strength coach Mark Philippi a fitting space to work his magic in developing the physical strength of players.
Hunkie Cooper, former UNLV football player and current Director of Player Development attends practice at UNLV Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023.
“I dominated because of (Philippi),” Sawyer said. “He was a hell of a strength and conditioning coach. If you bought into the things he implemented, he would change your body and get you ready to compete.”
Sawyer returned to campus last summer to visit with the team and was greeted by a familiar face: Cooper, the program’s director of player development and community engagement.
Cooper was a three-time all-conference selection in the 1980s. He played six positions on both sides of the ball. He went on to be one of the best players in the history of the Arena Football League, where he was a two-time league champion and part of its Hall of Fame.
And now, like Sawyer, he’ll be part of the UNLV hall.
“I respect those guys a lot,” Sawyer said. “Guys like Randall and Hunkie set the bar for UNLV and made it attractive (to the recruits). I feel like I’m doing the same. If you want to get to the NFL, you can do that playing at UNLV.”
The UNLV class will be inducted at 6 p.m. May 17 at the Strip View Pavilion at the Thomas & Mack Center. The ceremony is open to the public, and table sponsorships are available by emailing Mike Ketcham at [email protected]. A limited number of individual tickets are available for purchase ($150) at UNLVTickets.com.
“We received a record-number of nominations again this time around and came away with another stellar class after voting by the executive board,” UNLV Athletic Director Erick Harper said in a statement. ”We look forward to welcoming them back to campus and celebrating these outstanding Rebel Hall of Famers in May.”
Legendary UNLV coach Dwaine Knight turned the golf program into one of the nation’s best over his 34-year tenure.
The rest of the Hall of Fame class of 2024 includes:
- The 1991 softball team, which won a program-best 49 games and set 67 school records in advancing to the Women’s College World Series. They lost 1-0 in 13 innings to eventual national champion Arizona.
- Contributor Bruce Bayne, a past president of the UNLV Football Foundation who spearheaded the transformation of UNLV football’s Rebel Park.
- Dwaine Knight, a two-time national coach of the year in golf who is widely considered this sport’s top all-time collegiate coach. Knight led UNLV to 22 trips to the national finals and 11 top-eight finishes, including the 1998 national championship.
- Kevin Lofthus, a first-team All-American in baseball who led the nation with 26 home runs in 1989. He still holds the UNLV record with a 34-game hitting streak.
- Christine Parris, a two-time All-American in softball who in 1990 helped the program earn its first national ranking. She also played basketball at UNLV.
- Paul Pucciarelli, who spent 31 years in the equipment department and coordinated purchasing for all 17 UNLV sports.
- Steve Stallworth, a former UNLV football quarterback, will receive the hall’s Silver Rebel Award, which “honors former members of the school’s athletics family, such as student-athletes, coaches or staff members, whose primary accomplishments took place after leaving campus but have brought positive recognition to the university.” Stallworth, general manager of the South Point Arena, was a driving force in helping bring college basketball tournaments to Las Vegas in the early 2000s. He previously worked in sports entertainment as the general manager for the Orleans Arena and associate director of the Thomas & Mack Center.
Ray Brewer is a media representative on the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame selection committee. He voted for Sawyer to be inducted.
