April 24, 2010
Complete List of Fordham Players Drafted in the NFL
Listen to Skelton's Conference Call with the Arizona Cardinals
Fulfilling NFL dreams in Cards for Fordham QB (NY Post)
NFL career is in the Cards for Fordham quarterback after being picked on day 3 of draft (NY Daily News)
Skelton Taken by Arizona in Fifth Round (El Paso Times)
Bronx, N.Y. - The last time a Fordham University football player was drafted by an NFL team Lyndon Johnson was president, gas was 34 cents a gallon and the NFL held their second ever championship game, something called the Super Bowl. That all changed today as quarterback John Skelton was drafted in the fifth round by the Arizona Cardinals. He was the 155th player drafted and sixth quarterback selected at the 75th annual NFL draft.
Skelton is 18th Ram to be drafted by an NFL team, the first since Kenny Parker (who played basketball, not football, at Rose Hill) was taken in the 16th round by the Giants in 1968. He is also the fourth Fordham player to be drafted by the Cardinals, though the first three (Al Bartbartsky in 1938, Mike Kochel in 1939 and John Kuzman in 1941) were taken by the Chicago Cardinals.
Fordham had two players selected in the first round of the draft, College Football and NFL Hall of Famer Alex Wojciechowicz by the New York Giants in 1938 and Steve Filipowicz by the Detroit Lions in 1943. The Rams also had three players chosen in the third round, one in the fourth and one previous in the fifth.
Skelton, a 2009 Second Team All-Patriot League selection, wrapped up a record-shattering career for the Rams this fall, closing out the year completing 284 of 441 passes (64.4%) for 3,708 yards and 26 touchdowns. He set new school marks for completions and passing yards, breaking Kevin Eakin's former school records of 247 completions for 3,072 yards set in 2003 as well as breaking Steve O'Hare's completion percentage record of 63.1% set in 1997. Skelton led the NCAA FCS in passing yards/game (337.09) and was ranked second in total offense (348.18 yards/game), fourth in completions per game (25.82) and total passing yards and tenth in passing efficiency (149.95).
Skelton threw for over 300 yards eight times in eleven games this year, including four 400-yard games. He completed 20 of 27 passes for 420 yards and five touchdowns against Cornell on October 17th, breaking the school record of 413 passing yards set by Joe Moorhead in 1995 and coming up one shy of the school record for scoring passes of six, set by Kevin Eakin in 2003. Skelton then broke his own record two weeks later, completing 43 of 67 passes for 427 yards, all school records, against Holy Cross on October 31st. He finished one passing attempt shy of the NCAA FCS record for most pass attempts in a game without an interception, just missing the national mark of 68 set by Marshall's Tony Petersen against Western Carolina in 1987 (Peterson completed 34). Skelton surpassed his own school record of 420 passing yards in a game while breaking Matt Georgia's 1999 records of 36 completions and 65 attempts.
Following the season, Skelton was selected to play in the prestigious East-West Shrine game in January and he received an invitation to the NFL Combine.
Over his career, Skelton completed 802 passes for 9,923 yards and 69 touchdowns, all school marks. He shattered Joe Moorhead's career completions record of 518 while also surpassing Eakin's career marks for passing yards (6,112) and touchdowns (45).
