Fitzgerald's Pitt career redefined the wide receiver
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- Larry Fitzgerald is being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame (noon ET Saturday on ESPN), and ESPN's oral history of his college career concludes it 'redefined what a wide receiver could look like.'
- Fitzgerald's recruitment to Pitt was essentially accidental — a rainstorm closed the Pennsylvania Turnpike, forcing an overnight Pittsburgh stay and a Pitt visit where he bonded with future quarterback Tyler Palko.
- After losing recruitment from several top programs due to academic issues, Fitzgerald spent a year at Valley Forge Military Academy before enrolling at Pitt in summer 2002; Pitt stayed committed when other schools backed off.
- In his second career game — a 14-12 loss to Texas A&M — Fitzgerald posted 10 catches for 103 yards and torched coverage from a first-round and third-round NFL draft pick on the same play.
- Fitzgerald scored three touchdowns to upset No. 3 Virginia Tech in 2002 and replicated the upset the following year against the No. 5 Hokies, with Virginia Tech DC Bud Foster calling him 'a nemesis to us.'
- Teammates described Fitzgerald as raw upon arrival — not yet a route runner, still growing into his body — but possessing unmatched body control, basketball-like boxing-out ability, and what he called 'innate, God-given ability' he honed through off-field drill work at home.
Why it matters: For NFL fans and Hall of Fame voters, this oral history reframes Fitzgerald's legacy through his college arc rather than his Cardinals numbers, showing how a raw recruit who needed a prep year at a military academy and nearly missed Pitt entirely because of a rainstorm became the most physically unique receiver of his generation — the foundation of the career now being canonized in Canton.
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