Thursday, August 16, 2007
Take into consideration some of the other schools in the Big 12 Conference and the football legacy that each respective program has. If you were to guess which schools in the Big 12 have the highest number of football players enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you would surely guess football powerhouses like Nebraska, Texas and Oklahoma.
If you guessed those schools, you are partially right, but what you may not have guessed is that our beloved Kansas football team is also among the top teams in the Big 12 for individual players later enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Shocking, huh?
Kansas football is tied with Nebraska and Oklahoma for second all-time in the conference, behind Texas, for players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with three: Gale Sayers, John Riggins and Mike McCormack.
Gale Sayers was nicknamed the “The Kansas Comet” for his lightning speed and ability to run and catch the ball, as well as to return kickoffs. He remains to this day one of the greatest athletes to play the sport. ESPN ranked him 79th in its list of greatest athletes of the 20th century, and Sporting News ranked him 21st in its list of greatest football players of all-time.
A knee injury cut Sayers’ career short after seven seasons at the professional level, but he still became the youngest player, at age 34, ever to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
John Riggins, also a running back who played for Kansas, played for the New York Jets and Washington Redskins in his professional career. Riggins ranks 13th in the NFL all-time in rushing with 11,352 yards and 10th in total touchdowns with 116. In addition to this, he was the Most Valuable Player in Super Bowl XVII in 1983. In 1983, he also had a career high 1,347 rushing yards and set the record at the time for most rushing touchdowns, with 24.
Mike McCormack, an offensive tackle drafted by the New York Yanks in 1951, earned Pro Bowl honors his rookie season. After his first season, he spent the next couple of years serving in the Army. Though his career was interrupted, he returned to play for the Cleveland Browns for eight more seasons, earning Pro Bowl honors in five of them.
Not even KU’s rival Missouri, which has two players in the Hall of Fame, or Kansas State, with none, can claim individual excellence for its program’s football legacy.
Kansas’ slogan for the upcoming football season is, “This is What Saturdays Were Made For.” It’s apparent that some true legends played Kansas football on Saturdays in the past.
Maybe this news will help recruiting, and a few other future greats will begin their legacy at Kansas.
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