A former GSU football player, the late Ernest “Ernie” Ladd, will be posthumously inducted into the 2015 Black College Football Hall of Fame.

Ernest “Ernie” Ladd, also nicknamed “The Big Cat”, began his career attending Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship, before playing football for the school under legendary coach Eddie G. Robinson. Ladd was a standout player for Grambling, and he was eventually drafted to the American Football League’s San Diego Chargers in 1961.

He helped the Chargers win four AFL Championships in five years by being one of the largest players in professional football history, standing at 6’9” and 315 pounds.

While he was playing football, Ladd developed an interest in professional wrestling and made this his full-time job in 1969. Ladd made a name for himself in the wrestling world by squabbling with well-liked wrestlers in the business.

Ladd was inducted into the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame in 1981, the Grambling State University Hall of Fame in 1989 and the WWF Hall of Fame in 1995.

Ladd was later diagnosed with colon cancer and died in 2007 at the age of 68.