The end of the year always brings all kinds of all-time lists, be it the greatest teams, best players, most worthy Heisman candidates, and so on. SI.com took a little different approach: it has assembled of the greatest college football players of all time by uniform number. Here’s an article explaining the process and some of the challenges.
This list excludes a few Michigan legends at the turn of the century like Germany Schultz and Willie Heston as these guys didn’t wear numbers but we’ll just have to accept this and move on.
The list provided the name of the top player at each number, a runner-up, and then listed some names deserving honorable mention. Here’s a quick breakdown of where Michigan players landed.
Michigan Players assigned as Best to ever wear their number:
#1 – Anthony Carter
#47 – Bennie Oosterbaan
#49 – Bob Chappuis
#98 – Tom Harmon
Runners up:
#2 – Chuck Woodson (Deion Sanders)
#6 – Harry Kipke (Robbie Bosco)
#21 – Desmond Howard (Barry Sanders)
#40 – Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch (Hopalong Cassidy). Note that Hirsch is listed as playing for Wisconsin but he of course played 2 seasons for the Wolverines.
Honorable mention:
#1 – Derrick Alexander, Braylon Edwards, David Terrell (M pretty much owns the category)
#4 – Jimmy Harbaugh
#6 – Tyrone Wheatley
#7 – Ricky Leach
#9 – Dennis Franklin
#27 – Benny Friedman
#40 – Ron Johnson
#41 – Rob Lytle
#45 – Pete Elliott
#48 – Gerald Ford
#49 – Chuck Ortmann
#65 – Reggie McKenzie
#67 – Merv Pregulman
#72 – Dan Dierdorf
#76 – Steve Hutchinson
#86 – Bob Westfall
#87 – Ron Kramer
#88 – Jim Mandich
