Lots of competition for RMAC's top football honors
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
There was lots of competition for places on the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s All-Time Football Team that was announced last week.
Apparently, Danny Woodhead’s closest contender for the all-time offensive award was Byron “Whizzer” White, who was an all-around athlete at the University of Colorado in the 1930s and was a U.S. Supreme Court justice for 31 years.
White is one of three players named to the 12-man all-time offensive unit who played football in the 1920s and ’30s and has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The others are Earl ìDutchî Clark of Colorado College and Frank Chris-tensen of the University of Utah.
White set a national rushing record of 1,121 yards and a national scoring record of 122 points during his senior year at Colorado in 1937. He also earned all-conference honors in basketball and baseball, was the student body president and graduated No. 1 in his class.
After graduation, he played one year with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers) and led the National Football League in rushing, but spent the next year studying at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He then played three years with the Detroit Lions and led the NFL in rushing again in 1941.
After serving as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, White attended law school. He practiced law in Denver for 15 years before was appointed deputy attorney general by President John F. Kennedy in 1960. Two years later, White was chosen by Kennedy to serve on the Supreme Court and was confirmed in the senate by a voice vote.
Clark scored in 21 of the 22 games he played for Colorado College in the late 1920s. In 1928, he scored 105 points and averaged 9.99 yards a carry while rushing for 1,349 yards. He also was all-RMAC in basketball and baseball and was a five-time all-NFL selection. He was the head coach of both the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Rams in the NFL.
Christensen scored 100 points in 1931 and 235 points during his career for Utah. He was a two-time All-American. The Utes never lost an RMAC game when he was on the field.
In the modern era, three exceptional quarterbacks made the all-century team.
Colorado Mines’ Chad Friehauf completed 74.4 percent of his passes while throwing for 4,646 yards and 39 touchdowns his senior season in 2004. The Orediggers were 11-0 during the regular season that year and Friehauf became the RMAC’s first Harlon Hill Trophy winner.
Justin Coleman started every game at quarterback for Nebraska-Kearney and finished his career as the all-time passing leader in Division II with 11,213 yards. He was first runner-up for the Hill Trophy as a senior in 2000.
Adams State’s Bobby Saiz was a two-time NAIA All-American at quarterback and led his team to the NAIA national championship game in 1988. He threw for 9,169 yards and 87 touchdowns during his career.
Another strong contender for the all-time offensive award was Don Cockroft, who was a punter-placekicker for Adams State and then the Cleveland Browns. He set an NAIA record by averaging 48.1 yards per punt in 1966, when he was an All-American. He won NFL all-pro honors twice and scored more than 1,000 points for the Browns during his 13-year pro career. He was on 17 of 17 in game-winning kick opportunities.
Also among those who made the offensive unit’s top 12 was Bill Rhodes, a running back at Western State during the mid-1950s. He averaged 8.49 yards per carry while rushing for 4,297 yards for the Mountaineers.
The contenders for the All-Time Defensive Award that Chadron State’s Kevin Homer received included linebacker Adam McGurk of Adams State, the RMAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004. He finished his career with 32.5 quarterback sacks, 62.5 tackles for losses and 14 forced fumbles and was a three-time All-American.
Another Adams State player, defensive back Scott Wiedeman, led the NAIA with 13 interceptions in 1988 and holds the school record for most career interceptions with 27.
Western State linebacker Shane Carwin led the RMAC in tackles twice and was a two-time All-American. He also was a national champion wrestler.
Mesa State’s Daryl McKinnerny, also a linebacker, holds the Mavericks’ record of 181 tackles in a season and was chosen the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week five times as a junior in 1985 and four times as a senior in 1986. He earned All-American both seasons.
From out of the past, one of the strong contenders for the top defensive honors was Sonny Holland, a linebacker at Montana State in the 1950s when the Bobcats were in the RMAC. Holland, who also played center on offense, has been voted Montana State’s greatest player in history and was a three-time All-American.
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