There already was a US college football player born in China

Jackson He has made it to the College Football Hall of Fame.

No, it isn't for the Arizona State University (ASU) running back's on-field accomplishments, but it's something he would be equally proud of — being the first player born on the Chinese mainland to play major college football in the US.

He, a backup running back, scored a touchdown in the Sun Devils' 70-7 victory over rival Arizona on Dec 11. After scoring, he pointed to his name in Chinese characters on the back of his No. 32 jersey.

It was a scene reminiscent of the legendary 1993 American sports film Rudy, about a determined player who walked on to play for football powerhouse Notre Dame in the 1970s.

Like Rudy in the film, He, born He Peizhang, was a walk-on player, a non-scholarship athlete. His touchdown raised interest in college football in China, with the ASU game on Dec 19 streamed on Tencent.

"We just received the uniform of @ASUFootball's Peizhang 'Jackson' He; the 1st Chinese-born player to score a touchdown in FBS history! He came to Arizona state after moving thousands of miles from his hometown of Shaoguan, China," the hall tweeted on Thursday.

The uniform will be on display until September.

Well now it turns out there was another player who surpassed He's groundbreaking gridiron exploits — in 1969.

Herman Lam, born in Hong Kong, scored two touchdowns for Georgia Tech that year. Perhaps it was the absence of an internet then that made Lam's story less widely known. Ironically, both the College Football Hall of Fame and Georgia Tech are located in Atlanta.

Lam's family emigrated from Hong Kong to Augusta, Georgia, when he was 9. His parents owned a Chinese restaurant and grocery store in the city. Lam was one of five of the family's six children to graduate from Georgia Tech.

Lam's first touchdown that season came in a 20-7 win over Duke on Nov 1, and the second in a 38-20 loss to Notre Dame on Nov 5, in a game nationally televised on ABC. Lam led the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in 1969 with 273 receiving yards and 17 receptions as a starting wide receiver.

"Yes, I would think that in the last 50 years, another Chinese player would have done it," Lam told the South China Morning Post from his home in Florida. "In fact, there may be others; it's difficult to know unless someone really researches it."

Here is where the internet comes in.

A Twitter user, seeing a flurry of tweets by Arizona State and ESPN about He's history-making season, chimed in.

"While proud of another Chinese born football player in the FBS, this honor of 1st Chinese born player to score a TD goes to Herman Lam who played for Georgia Tech and scored two TDs in 1969 (Notre Dame and Duke)," Twitter user Kevin Lam wrote on Dec 14.

"I really have not thought much about it," Lam told the newspaper of his football days. "But the internet did not exist back then, so the only people that knew about me were Georgia Tech fans of that generation. Sure, it was mentioned from time to time in the local newspapers, but they did not make a big deal," said Lam, who called his gridiron heroics his "15 minutes of fame".

Lam, now 71, is an associate professor in electrical and computing engineering at the University of Florida.

"At my age, I'm just happy to jog a few steps," he told scmp.com.

Perhaps he is being modest. A photo of Lam on the university website shows a fit, youthful-looking man.