Washington Redskins President and general manager Bruce Allen on Friday announced that the team will induct quarterback Mark Rypien as the 46th member of its Ring of Fame at the team's annual Homecoming game Oct. 19 vs. the Tennessee Titans.

Rypien – who was named the most valuable player in Super Bowl XXVI – becomes the first person inducted into the Redskins Ring of Fame since former player/coach Richie Petitbon's induction in December 2011.

"I would just like to say, wow, this is pretty incredible," Rypien said Friday at the team's 53rd-annual Welcome Home Luncheon, where Allen made the announcement. "I'm very excited. Thank you Bruce for the kind words, Mr. Snyder for this great honor. I'm very, very excited for this and very honored and also very humbled."

Rypien spent eight seasons in Washington from 1986 to 1993, appearing in 77 games with 72 starts for the Redskins. He completed 1,244-of-2,207 passes for 15,928 yards with 101 touchdowns and a passer rating of 80.2, while also adding eight rushing touchdowns during his time with the Redskins.

Rypien most notably led the Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXVI, securing Super Bowl MVP honors for a performance in which he completed 18-of-33 passes for 292 yards with two touchdowns. Rypien helped the Redskins to a 24-0 third quarter lead en route to a 37-24 win against the Buffalo Bills, giving Washington its fifth world championship and third Super Bowl title in franchise history.

Allen said the team's blue ribbon Ring of Fame panel made the correct decision.

"Dan Snyder has a committee that decides who goes into this ring," Allen said. "And this blue ribbon panel of alumni and people from the Washington area have to answer one question, one simple question: can you write the history of the Washington Redskins without, 'Blank?' And you inset different names into it.

"This year, we are honoring a Super Bowl MVP."

That 1991 season was historic on many levels for Rypien and the Redskins. The team outscored their 1991 regular-season opponents by a differential of 261 points, the third-largest margin in league history since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

The Redskins never trailed that postseason and outscored their three playoff opponents by an average margin of 20.3 points per game.

Rypien said he's sharing his Ring of Fame honor with the rest of his teammates and the Redskins fans, especially those who had the house rocking at RFK Stadium on a weekly basis.

"When they hoist that name up there in October, there's 52 guys that deserve to be on that name that represent who we were and what we did," he said. "There's also 55,000 and such and such a people, a lot of who here, that were at RFK stadium that gave us the intangible things to go out and play hard and really made it difficult for teams to play here."

Beyond his efforts on the field, Rypien, a native of Calgary, Alberta, founded The Mark Rypien Foundation after losing his 3-year-old son, Andrew, to cancer. In the wake of his difficult personal experiences, the Rypien Foundation was created with a commitment to provide hope for families battling childhood cancer in his home region of Spokane, Wash.

Each year the foundation raises and provides funding to support unique programs and projects that help address the needs of children with cancer and foster a powerful healing environment for child cancer patients.

Friday's announcement came on the 16th anniversary of Andrew's death, an emotional Rypien told the crowd.

"As excited as I am, it's a difficult day for me," he said. "So thank you from the bottom of my heart for picking my spirits up and I'll remember this day forever."

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