UW To Add Display For Honored Football Numbers In Husky Stadium
July 26, 2021 | Football
The concourse at Husky Stadium will include a new feature when it opens for the start of the 2021 season this September. Situated prominently on the lower-level concourse will be a display honoring three Washington football jerseys, those of George Wilson (#33), Chuck Carroll (#2) and Roland Kirkby (#44).
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Those three "honored numbers" will be on public display for the first time in program history, giving reverence to the fact that each of them had been considered "retired" during some portion of the last century.
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The new display is the first step in a series of future plans to more publicly and broadly recognize outstanding former athletes throughout UW athletic facilities.
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Wilson and Carroll were among the first Washington football superstars, each earning All-America honors as backs in the 1920s. Kirkby was a member of the storied Washington backfield of the late 1940s and 1950 that included All-Americans Don Heinrich and Hugh McElhenny.
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Those three players' numbers were retired after their college careers ended, though each has been worn from time to time over the years. Carroll's was officially re-entered into circulation in 2018 and has been worn by Husky players each year since. Numbers 33 and 44 will also now be available to be utilized by members of the Washington varsity team going forward.
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Perhaps the biggest star player at UW until McElhenny came along in '49, Wilson was UW's first consensus All-American in 1925, joining legends Red Grange and Ernie Nevers in the All-America backfield that year. A three-time All-Coast selection, Wilson led UW to its first two Rose Bowls (1924 and 1926) and earned a place in the College Football and Husky Halls of Fame. Wilson died in 1963, just days before a planned trip to see the Huskies take on Illinois in the 1964 Rose Bowl.
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Carroll was a consensus All-American in 1928, when he set scored 17 rushing touchdowns, a record that stood until 1996. An honoree in the College Football Hall of Fame and a member of the inaugural class of the Husky Hall of Fame in 1979, he died at age 97 in 2003.
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A letterman halfback in 1948, 1949 and 1950, Kirkby earned All-Coast honors as a senior in 1950, when he also won the UW's Guy Flaherty Most Inspirational Award. Considered "a forgotten man" alongside Heinrich and McElhenny, his teammates asked athletic director Harvey Cassill to retire his #44. Kirkby passed away in 1978, at the age of 48.
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Those three "honored numbers" will be on public display for the first time in program history, giving reverence to the fact that each of them had been considered "retired" during some portion of the last century.
ย
The new display is the first step in a series of future plans to more publicly and broadly recognize outstanding former athletes throughout UW athletic facilities.
ย
Wilson and Carroll were among the first Washington football superstars, each earning All-America honors as backs in the 1920s. Kirkby was a member of the storied Washington backfield of the late 1940s and 1950 that included All-Americans Don Heinrich and Hugh McElhenny.
ย
Those three players' numbers were retired after their college careers ended, though each has been worn from time to time over the years. Carroll's was officially re-entered into circulation in 2018 and has been worn by Husky players each year since. Numbers 33 and 44 will also now be available to be utilized by members of the Washington varsity team going forward.
ย
Perhaps the biggest star player at UW until McElhenny came along in '49, Wilson was UW's first consensus All-American in 1925, joining legends Red Grange and Ernie Nevers in the All-America backfield that year. A three-time All-Coast selection, Wilson led UW to its first two Rose Bowls (1924 and 1926) and earned a place in the College Football and Husky Halls of Fame. Wilson died in 1963, just days before a planned trip to see the Huskies take on Illinois in the 1964 Rose Bowl.
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Carroll was a consensus All-American in 1928, when he set scored 17 rushing touchdowns, a record that stood until 1996. An honoree in the College Football Hall of Fame and a member of the inaugural class of the Husky Hall of Fame in 1979, he died at age 97 in 2003.
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A letterman halfback in 1948, 1949 and 1950, Kirkby earned All-Coast honors as a senior in 1950, when he also won the UW's Guy Flaherty Most Inspirational Award. Considered "a forgotten man" alongside Heinrich and McElhenny, his teammates asked athletic director Harvey Cassill to retire his #44. Kirkby passed away in 1978, at the age of 48.
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