SOUTH BEND, IND. ? Joe Theismann was headed to North Carolina State before he changed his mind and chose Notre Dame.

“I just felt like this is where I belong,” the former Fighting Irish quarterback said after being selected to the College Football Hall of Fame on Monday.

Running backs Barry Sanders and Ricky Bell also made the hall, along with eight other former college standouts and former coaches Hayden Fry and Doug Dickey.

The other players chosen Monday were Murry Bowden, a defensive back at Dartmouth from 1967-70; Tom Brown, a guard at Minnesota, from 1958-60; Jimbo Covert, offensive tackle at Pittsburgh from 1980-83; Jerry LeVias, an end at SMU from 1965-68 and the first black to receive an athletic scholarship at the school; Billy Neighbors, a tackle at Alabama, 1959-61; Ron Pritchard, a linebacker at Arizona State, 1966-68; John Rauch, a quarterback at Georgia, 1945-48; and Roger Wehrli, a defensive back at Missouri, 1966-68.

The new class will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Dec. 9 in New York. The new hall members will be enshrined in August 2004.

Theismann, who played at Notre Dame from 1968-70, was second to Jim Plunkett in the 1970 Heisman voting.

Sanders, a Wichita native, won the 1988 Heisman Trophy while playing for Oklahoma State.