Charlotte, NC - The NJCAA has announced the inductees into the 2022 class of the NJCAA Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The honorees include three coaches and one student-athlete, all of who made significant contributions to the sport of football in the association.
Greg Croshaw | Dixie State College (UT)
Greg Croshaw is one of the most successful coaches in NJCAA Football history. As the head football coach at Dixie State College for 24 seasons, Croshaw accumulated a 214-56-1 record, ranks third all-time in coaching wins in the association, and never had a losing season in St. George. With a .810 winning percentage, Croshaw led Dixie State to claim 17 Western States Football League (WSFL) titles. Croshaw also led his squad to 20 bowl game appearances and claimed a 15-5 postseason record throughout his career. On eight occasions, Croshaw was named the WSFL Coach of the Year and earned Utah Collegiate Coach of the Year honors five times (1986, 1987, 1989, 1995, 1996).
On the field, Croshaw coached 62 All-America and 17 All-Academic honorees. Croshaw's student-athletes consistently ranked amongst the top in the NJCAA. Under his tenure, Dixie State boasted the national rushing leader nine times, the national passing leader twice, and garnered four national Player of the Year accolades. In 1996, Rodrick Johnson set an NJCAA record with 233.8 rushing yards per game across 10 contests. Croshaw was also actively involved at the national level, serving as NJCAA Football Coaches Association Vice President in 1987 before serving as President from 1988-1992.
Joe Forchtner | New Mexico Military Institute
Joe Forchtner spent nine seasons at the helm of the New Mexico Military Institute football program. After starting as the linebacker and defensive line coach in July 2006, Forchtner moved up to the head coaching position in January 2012. During the 2013 season, it was the first time since 1969 that New Mexico Military had three consecutive seasons over .500, and it also marked the third bowl game appearance for the Broncos in five years (El Toro Bowl, 2013; Heart of Texas Bowl, 2011; Salt City Bowl, 2009). Previously, New Mexico Military had not been to a bowl game since 1999. New Mexico Military finished tied for second place in the conference in 2015, tied for the highest finish in more than 50 years. The Broncos sent 41 players to four-year schools in 2015, a school record: 18 Division I, 14 Division II, six Division III/NAIA, and three to Canadian universities. In 2019, the Bronco football team made it to the championship game of the Southwestern Junior College Football Conference after only four seasons in the league. Forchtner retired from coaching in June 2021 where he moved to the position of Assitant Athletic Director.
Forchtner has coached numerous players who went on to further their careers in college and beyond, including one player drafted by the NFL and 10 players signed by the CFL, four of whom are still playing. He coached one player who played in the annual Blue-Gray All-Star Game; signed three of the school's top five recruits in 2004, as rated by Go Green Magazine. One of those players went on to become the Gulf South Conference's Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-American in 2006 and the all-time NCAA Division II sack leader in 2007. Forchtner recruited and coached the player who tied the NAIA single-season sack record with 23; coached the linebacker who was third in the NJCAA in tackles in 2007; has been the position coach for one first-team All-American, three second-team All-Americans, four honorable mention All-Americans; one second-team All-Canadian player; 19 first-team All-Conference players; and sixteen second-team All-Conference players. He coached one Russ Jackson Award Winner (Canada's scholar-athlete of the year) and has placed between 20-31 players at four-year schools every year since 2006.
Michael Bishop | Blinn College (TX)
Michael Bishop was the starting quarterback of Blinn College's football program from 1995-1996. Bishop led the Buccaneers to their first two national championships in football under head coach Willie Fritz in 1995 and 1996. With Bishop under center, Blinn went 24-0 over those two seasons and became the first two-year college to win back-to-back national football championships.
As a freshman, Bishop rushed for 387 yards for three touchdowns and passed for 1,712 yards and 18 touchdowns. As a sophomore, he earned honorable mention all-conference honors after he passed for 972 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed for 265 yards and four touchdowns. He helped lead the Buccaneers to a No. 4 national ranking in 1995 and a No. 1 national ranking in 1996.
Bishop continued his academic and playing career at Kansas State, where he set 14 conference and 34 school records. He also earned many accolades with the Wildcats, 1997 Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year, 1998 first-team All-American, two-time Big 12 selection, 1998 Heisman Trophy Runner-up, and Davey O'Brien Award winner.
Bishop was selected by the New England Patriots in the seventh round of the 1999 NFL Draft. He played two seasons for the New England Patriots, spent part of the 2001 season with the GreenBay Packers, and totaled nine seasons playing in the Arena Football League, Canadian Football League, and NFL Europe. Bishop is currently the head football coach at Legacy the School of Sport Sciences.
Steve Braet | Butler Community College (KS)
Steve Braet was an assistant coach for the Butler Community College Football team for 42 seasons. Braet's coaching career began in the fall of 1979 as an unpaid volunteer assistant and officially ended on February 1, 2022, as the Associate Head Coach/Defensive Line coach of the Butler Grizzlies. During that span, Braet was the common link to all six NJCAA National Championships for the Butler Football program - 1981, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2008.
"Through the many years he was the pillar of consistency," said former Butler Head Football Coach Troy Morrell, who worked with Braet from1996-2014."There's been a lot of different head coaches and assistant coaches that have come through here. He's been the guy who has been the rock."
Steve Braet is widely recognized as one of the top defensive line coaches in the country. Braet has won six national titles at Butler and helped guide the Grizzlies to an amazing 22 Jayhawk Conference championships. He has an overall record of 337-118-2 in his 42 seasons with the Grizzlies. Braet has coached 33 NJCAA All-Americans, including a four-year span where two of his players were named NJCAA National Defensive Player of the Year. He has coached 12 NFL defensive linemen, with two former Grizzlies who played D-line for Braet currently on NFL rosters DeMarcus Lawrence, Dallas, and Jordan Smith, Jacksonville.