Who would be in a Michigan Football Ring of Honor?
[Ed-M: Bump'ed like Elliott]
Brian got me thinking about who deserves to be in a Michigan ring of honor, so I did the only thing I know: Dump a bunch of data into a spreadsheet and rank them arbitrarily. I gave a point for being the College Hall of Fame, Michigan's Hall of Honor, Michigan retiring their number, points equal to the number of years being an All American, being in the top four in the Heisman (another 2 for winning it), and up to a point for winning other post-season awards. One could include other considerations, such as championships, captaincy, or being President of the United States.
The table below presents the data, sorted first by points and then year.
Some comments:
I would think anyone Chappuis and above deserves to be in.
I included only some 2-point guys of interest in the table below, most of whom aren't in Michigan's Hall of Honor or the Hall of Fame.
Coaches aren't included, except Kipke who is there because of his playing, though I don't know how much of his playing versus coaching got him in the Hall of Fame.
Why is Benbrook not in Michigan's Hall of Honor?
Obviously newer guys benefit from the various awards now available. The Heisman was first awarded in 1935. I would think Heston could have won it.
In 1939 Harmon finished 2nd in the Heisman voting to Nile Kinnick before winning it in 1940.
The All of American data are a bit surprising. Gerald Ford isn't listed. I had thought Carter was a three-year All American. There may be other surprises. I used a list from the NCAA (data source below), which made it easy, but the list may be flawed.
| Player | Yrs | HoF | MHoH | # | All Am | Heisman | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tom Harmon | 37-40 | y | y | y | 2 | 2nd, 1st | Maxwell |
| Desmond Howard | 89-92 | y | y | 1 | 1st | Maxwell, Camp, Nagurski, Bednarik | |
| Bennie Oosterbaan | 24-27 | y | y | y | 3 | ||
| Alvin Wistert | 47-49 | y | y | y | 2 | ||
| Ron Kramer | 53-56 | y | y | y | 2 | ||
| Anthony Carter | 79-82 | y | y | 2 | 4th | ||
| Charles Woodson | 95-97 | 1 | 1st | Camp, Thorpe | |||
| Willie Heston | 01-04 | y | y | 2 | |||
| Benny Friedman | 23-26 | y | y | 2 | |||
| Francis Wistert | 30-33 | y | y | y | 1 | ||
| Albert Wistert | 38-42 | y | y | y | 1 | ||
| Bob Chappuis | 42, 46-47 | y | y | 1 | 2nd | ||
| Neil Snow | 1898-02 | y | y | 1 | |||
| Adolph Schulz | 04-05, 07-08 | y | y | 1 | |||
| Albert Benbrook | 08-10 | y | 2 | ||||
| Harry Kipke | 20-23 | y | y | 1 | |||
| Harry Newman | 29-32 | y | y | 1 | |||
| Robert Westfall | 38-41 | y | y | 1 | |||
| Jim Mandich | 66-69 | y | y | 1 | |||
| Tom Curtis | 67-69 | y | y | 1 | |||
| Dan Dierdorf | 67-70 | y | y | 1 | |||
| Reggie McKenzie | 68-71 | y | y | 1 | |||
| Dave Brown | 72-74 | y | 2 | ||||
| Chris Perry | 00-03 | 1 | 4th | Walker | |||
| Rob Lytle | 73-76 | 1 | 3rd | ||||
| Mark Donahue | 74-77 | 2 | |||||
| Rick Leach | 75-78 | y | 3rd | ||||
| Tripp Welbourne | 87-90 | 2 | |||||
| Braylon Edwards | 01-04 | 1 | Biletnikoff | ||||
| David Baas | 01-04 | 1 | Rimington | ||||
| LaMarr Woodley | 03-06 | 1 | Lombardi, Hendricks | ||||
| Jake Long | 04-07 | 2 |
Data Sources: All-American, Heisman and other award data, Michigan Hall of Honor, and College Football Hall of Fame
Here's a full list of Michigans football All-Americans from the Bentey Historical Library.
http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/fballam/fballam.htm
The Ring of Honor concept is completely different than retiring a number. Maybe we should have a ring of honor, retired numbers and statues.
The ring of honor should include the names of legendary contributors to the success of Michigan Football. There are a lot of them, but the stadium can display a lot of names as well.
Retired Numbers should be reserved for the Heisman Trophy recipients. Right or wrong, the Heisman Trophy is recognized as the most prestigious award in college football. If you win that, you deserve to have your number retired. Michigan has only had (3) Heisman winners in their history. Three numbers are not a lot to give up. I’m not sure Tom Harmon even had a number.
It was a dumb statement. I actually have his picture hanging on my Man Cave wall. He's hanging there with Desmond, Woodson and Bo. My bad.
This smells like a trick question, but I'll fall for it anyways...I don't think he had a number when playing for Michigan.
Retiring Numbers: Not a fan for the sole reason of people being left out/too many options. Don't retire any more and leave it how it is now.
Statues: They never turn out great and I'm just not a fan overall.
Ring of Honor: Best idea of the three in my opinion. I know that other schools have 'requirements' to been in their rings or whatever else they have. I suggest ours would be either 1) Heisman winner, 2) 3 time All-American, or 3) another requirement pertaining to coaches.
You have to leave room for others to come along and make the list as well, so I'm making the list short so there is room to do that. You could change it to only a 2 time All-American as well.
My list:
Bennie Oosterbaan, Wistert Brothers, Tom Harmon, Anthony Carter, Desmond Howard, Charles Woodson, Fritz Crisler, Bo Schembechler, Lloyd Carr.
You could also leave the coachs out because they already have buildings named after them, but the players already have their own hall of fame thing as well so they're kind of comparable. I added in the Wistert Brothers as a special addition since they all wore the same number and were All Americans. I'd also keep it just 'Wistert Brothers' and leave the first names out.
has to be in before Hutchinson. 1 penalty in 4 years.
HUtch was better than Long.
He was the starting Gaurd for the 97. as a RS FR.
Personally, I am against singling out individuals for a program which is all about the team, the team, the team. But if you really want to create an elite club of those who have truly advanced the football program, here are three criteria you should be judged on: # of Big Ten Championships (preferably no less than 2 during career, this one will be a little subjective, even Charles Woodson only won 1 and Tom Harmon won 0, yep, 0), National Championships (what it is all about), Recognized as being the best at your position in any given year (This way it is not all about the Heisman which is majorly biased towards QB's, RB's & WR's only.
Coaches should be judged on Big Ten Championships won (preferebally greater than 40% of the time during career). Bonus for having buildings/stadiums named for you.
How good was Prez Ford really? I feel like someone told me before that he was on a team that lost every game- Anyone know anything more about that era? History is not my strong suit.
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