Fresno State adds special event to homecoming: 8th Bulldog to have number retired

Fresno State will not play its next home football game until Oct. 23, but it will be an event, another hot ticket.

Former Bulldogs running back Lorenzo Neal will be honored that day, becoming the eighth player in program history to have his jersey retired, joining wideout Henry Ellard, running back Dale Messer, kicker Vince Petrucci and quarterbacks Trent Dilfer, Kevin Sweeney, David Carr and Derek Carr.

It’s also homecoming. And, the Bulldogs will be playing Nevada, which was picked to win the West Division of the Mountain West Conference in a preseason media poll.

“We are going to honor Lorenzo and he is going to be in the Ring of Honor,” athletics director Terry Tumey said Friday night after the Bulldogs’ 38-30 victory over UNLV. “Coach (Jim) Sweeney said at one point that, in all his years, he was the best football player he had ever seen. When the Papa Dog is saying that, you have to get this guy in there.”

Neal, who wore No. 22 at Fresno State, played three seasons for the Bulldogs, rushing for 2,405 yards and 27 touchdowns from 1990 to ‘92 before a 16-year career in the NFL. The Lemoore High grad was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the fourth round of the 1993 NFL Draft and became a four-time Pro Bowl selection.

He is regarded as perhaps the best fullback to ever play the game, paving the way for running backs who gained 1,000 or more yards for 11 seasons in a row including LaDainian Tomlinson with the Chargers from 2003 to ‘07.

Neal presented Tomlinson when the former Chargers running back was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

At Fresno State, Neal also was an All-American heavyweight wrestler and when he ended his Bulldogs career he was the second-leading rusher in school history.

In 1992, he was one of the stars on a team that beat USC in the Freedom Bowl and the MVP in that 24-7 win, one of the Bulldogs’ first chances to take on and take down one of the heavyweights from the Pac-10, now Pac-12.

This story was originally published September 25, 2021 at 11:52 AM.