(August 27, 2003) - Fordham senior quarterback Kevin Eakin (Coral Springs, FL/Douglass) has been selected by committee to participate in the inaugural I-AA College Football All-Star Classic. The game will be played at Lockhart Stadium on Tuesday evening, December 30th, and will be televised nationally by TFN, The Football Network, which will begin operations this fall as a 24/7, year-round cable network devoted to all forms of football programming. TFN created the game in cooperation with 13 I-AA conferences. The selected players are seniors who were chosen by a committee of coaches, administrators and media from the conferences. An additional 50 players will be named in October to complete the rosters. The teams will compete as two squads named for Eddie Robinson, the legendary coach of I-AA powerhouse Grambling State University, and the late Walter Payton, a product of I-AA Jackson State who went on to star for the Chicago Bears. The players will be divided into the two teams as the game approaches in order to form evenly competitive teams. Eakin, a team captain who was named preseason All-America by The Football Gazette, enjoyed a record-setting season in 2002. Despite not having thrown a pass in a varsity game, he completed 239 of 383 passes for 3,040 yards and 22 touchdowns. He broke Joe Moorhead’s school record of 229 completions in a season set in 1995 while shattering the school record for passing yardage in a season, breaking Carney’s record of 2,700 yards set in 2001. Eakin, the First Team All-Patriot League quarterback, led the Patriot League with an average of 233.8 passing yards/game. Eakin was also 15th in the NCAA I-AA in passing efficiency (143.3 rating), 18th in completions per game (18.38), and 20th in the NCAA I-AA in points responsible for (12.46/game). He had four 300+-passing yard games last season, breaking the Fordham record of three set by Joe Moorhead in 1995 and matched by Matt Georgia in 1999. Eakin is one of two Patriot League players to be selected, joining Lehigh defensive lineman Mike Gregorek. The Rams, the defending Patriot League champions who advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA I-AA playoffs last year, open the 2003 season on Saturday, August 30th, when they host C.W. Post College on Jack Coffey Field at 1:00 p.m.