Michael Stonebreaker latest Notre Dame player selected for College Football Hall of Fame

More than three decades have passed since Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, asked about his two-time All-America linebacker with the name and the game right out of “The Flintstones,” famously paused a beat and smiled.

“There’s nothing normal,” Holtz said on the eve of the 1990 football season, “about Michael Stonebreaker.”

Monday brought the latest validation of that long-ago assessment as Stonebreaker, five days shy of his 56^th birthday, was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame. One of 18 players and four coaches in this year’s class, Stonebreaker will be inducted on Dec. 5 in Las Vegas.

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Stonebreaker, who made 220 tackles and five interceptions in three college seasons, joins defensive tackle Chris Zorich (2007 inductee) and wide receiver Raghib “Rocket” Ismail (2019) as members of Notre Dame’s last national championship team in 1988 to be voted into the hall.

Holtz and former Wisconsin coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez, Stonebreaker’s defensive coordinator, are the other ’88 Irish representatives in the hall.

Stonebreaker gives Notre Dame 55 former players or coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame, most of any institution.

A River Ridge, La., native whose late father Steve played seven seasons in the NFL at linebacker, Stonebreaker was a ninth-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears in 1991. The younger Stonebreaker played three seasons in the NFL and finished up in 1995 with the Frankfurt Galaxy of the World League of American Football.

Stonebreaker missed two full seasons due to suspension while at Notre Dame. He sat out the 1987 season for academic reasons and missed the 1989 season after pleading guilty to a charge of driving while intoxicated.

Follow Notre Dame football writer Mike Berardino on Twitter @MikeBerardino.

Notre Dame players and coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame