As a program, the University of Wisconsin has retired six numbers in their history. The players are Ron Dayne, Alan Ameche, Pat Richter, Elroy Hirsch, Allan Shafer and Dave Schreiner. While a player has to be exceptionally special for this to happen; I believe another number is worthy of being immortalized at Camp Randall Stadium. The former player who I think is most worthy of having his number being retired is Jonathan Taylor.
Jonathan Taylor is a millennial Badgers fans answer to Ron Dayne. Like Dayne, Taylor is in a class of his own when it comes to great players to play at Wisconsin. In his career, he rushed for 6,174 yards and 50 touchdowns. He also averaged over 152.1 yards per game during his career with the Badgers. Taylor currently holds the NCAA record for most games with at least 200-rushing yards with 12. He also set the NCAA freshman record for the fewest games to reach 1,000 yards with seven.
He Never Won The Heisman Trophy
The most common argument used against Taylor’s is he never won the Heisman Trophy. The other two true running backs (“Crazy legs” played wide receiver as well) in Alan Ameche and Ron Dayne won the award. While Taylor may have never been a finalist (highest finish was fifth); he accomplished other things that Dayne or Ameche never did.
Jonathan Taylor is the only player in program history to win the Doak Walker Award and be a unanimous All-American twice. No other player in program history has ever been selected as a unanimous All-American more than once. Dayne only won the award and was selected as an All-American unanimously just once. The award didn’t exist when Ameche played, and he too was only selected as an All-American unanimously just once.
He Left Early
Another argument people tend to use against Taylor is he left after his junior year. Dayne stayed until after his senior season as did the other players. However, aside from Dayne, most of those players played when you couldn’t come out of school early for the draft. Dayne also played at a time when only players who played at major national championship contenders left school early. In today’s game, the thinking has changed and anybody who plays Division One FBS football and does great comes out early. A running backs career is very short, so its almost necessary for them to leave early.
The idea of a player having to stay all four years at a school is foolish. It should be about what they did in their career not how long they were at the school. A college football player’s number being retired even though he didn’t stay all four years isn’t uncommon. Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson had their numbers retired at Georgia and Auburn respectively and they didn’t stay all four years.
He Deserves The Honor
Since Taylor left Wisconsin, no other player has ever donned the number 23 in recent seasons. This also happened after Dayne graduated as nobody was assigned the number 33 right up to when it was retired in 2007. I expect that to be the case with Taylor.
Despite not winning the Heisman Trophy, Taylor accomplished other things that many players who came through the program didn’t. Wisconsin has had many All-Americans, but none of them were selected unanimously twice. While Dayne is forever immortalized in the Badgers football program, its time Jonathan Taylor gets the same treatment.
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