re: Who is the best college football player of all time?

After this year, Tebow

Barry Sanders

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Red Grange, period

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This.
I think Hershcel Walker is a close second

Hershal Walker

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Tim Tebow

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this

Jim Thorpe -

From Wikipedia:

Thorpe reportedly began his athletic career at Carlisle in 1907 when he walked past the track and beat the school's high jumpers with an impromptu 5-ft 9-in jump while still wearing street clothes.[9] His earliest recorded track and field results are from 1907. Track and field were not the only events in which Thorpe engaged at Carlisle. He also competed in football, baseball, lacrosse and even ballroom dancing, winning the 1912 inter-collegiate ballroom dancing championship.[10] Reportedly, Pop Warner was hesitant to allow Thorpe, his star track and field athlete, to compete in a physical game such as football.[11] Thorpe, however, convinced Warner to let him run some plays against the school's defense; Warner assumed he would be tackled easily and give up the idea of playing football.[11] Thorpe "ran around past and through them not once, but twice."[11] He then walked over to Warner and said, "Nobody is going to tackle Jim," while flipping him the ball.[11]

Thorpe gained nationwide attention for the first time in 1911.[12] As a running back, defensive back, placekicker, and punter for his school's football team, Thorpe scored all of his team's points — four field goals and a touchdown—in an 18–15 upset of Harvard.[11] His team finished the season 11–1.

The following year, he led Carlisle to the national collegiate championship, scoring 25 touchdowns and 198 points.[8] Carlisle's 1912 record included a 27–6 victory over Army.[3] In that game, Thorpe scored a 92-yard touchdown that was nullified by a penalty incurred by a teammate; Thorpe then scored a 97-yard touchdown on the next play.[13]

During that game, future President Dwight Eisenhower injured his knee while trying to tackle Thorpe. Eisenhower recalled of Thorpe in a 1961 speech, "Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw."[8] Thorpe was awarded All-American honors in both 1911 and 1912.[3]

Football was—-and would remain—-Thorpe's favorite sport.[14] He competed only sporadically in track and field. Nevertheless, track and field would become the sport in which Thorpe would gain the most fame.

Herschel

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I'll go with Jim Thorpe as well.

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+2

Chic Harley


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Chic Harley
Date of birth: September 15, 1894
Place of birth: Chicago, Illinois
Date of death: April 21, 1974 (age 79)
Place of death: Columbus, Ohio
Career information
Position(s): Halfback, Quarterback, End, Kicker, Punter, Safety
College: Ohio State
Organizations
As player:
1921 Chicago Staleys
Playing stats at DatabaseFootball.com
College Football Hall of Fame
Charles Wesley "Chic" Harley (September 15, 1894 - April 21, 1974) was one of the outstanding American football players of the first half of the 20th century and the player who first brought the Ohio State University football program to national attention. Harley was Ohio State's first consensus first-team All-America selection and first three-time All-America selection. In 1951 he became a charter inductee in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Chic Harley attended East High School in Columbus, Ohio. In Harley's career at East High School, he lost only one game - his last game. So many people wanted to see Harley play, many times games at (the now) East High "Harley Field" outdrew Ohio State games.

In 1941, James Thurber described Chic Harley's running skills for the defunct New York newspaper PM, "If you never saw him run with a football, we can't describe it to you. It wasn't like Red Grange or Tom Harmon or anybody else. It was kind of a cross between music and cannon fire, and it brought your heart up under your ears."[1]

Contents [hide]
1 College career
1.1 Career scoring statistics
1.2 All-around athlete
2 Life Ups and Downs
3 Honors
4 Notes
5 External links



[edit] College career
Harley began his career with the Ohio State Buckeyes in 1916. He led the team to a 7-0 record and their first Big Ten Conference championship. The team scored 258 points in seven games, giving up only 29. The key games of the season were a 7-6 victory over the University of Illinois and a 14-13 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teams that were at the time the conference's dominant powers. In both games the margin of victory was a point after touchdown kicked by Harley. Following the season, Harley was named as a consensus first-team All-America selection, including a spot on Walter Camp's authoritative list.


Chic Harley runs around the end in the 1916 Big Ten championship game against NorthwesternThe Buckeyes repeated as conference champion in 1917 with an 8-0-1 record, and Harley repeated as a consensus first-team All American. In 1918 Harley left school to be a pilot in the United States Army Air Service during World War I, but he returned the following year. In 1919 the Buckeyes finished 6-1. Harley's only career loss was a heartbreaker; the team lost the game and the conference title to the University of Illinois on the last play of the last game of the season. That season, however, is remembered at Ohio State for the Buckeyes' first victory over the University of Michigan. Following that senior season, Harley was again a consensus first-team All-America selection.

Throughout his Ohio State career, Harley played right halfback on offense and safety on defense, and was also the team's punter and place kicker. He scored 201 points in a 23-game career. This total was the school's individual scoring record until Harley was surpassed by Howard "Hopalong" Cassady in 1955. Harley's 8.74 points per game remains a school record. Harley also holds the team record for interceptions in a game: he picked off four passes in the 1919 game against the University of Michigan.

In 1950 Harley was voted a first-team halfback on the Associated Press college football All-Star team for the first half of the 20th century. The other first-team halfback was Jim Thorpe. Red Grange was voted to the second team. When asked to explain his vote, one writer said, "Red Grange was a great runner, but that's all he was. Chic Harley was a great runner, a great passer, a great kicker and a great defensive back. That's why he's on my first-team."[2] In 1951 Harley was one of 44 players and coaches selected as the charter members of the College Football Hall of Fame.

In Harley's era the Buckeyes had played in Ohio Field, which had a seating capacity of only a few thousand. Harley so excited the fans of Ohio State football that he inspired a $1.3 million funding drive, starting in 1920, to build the massive Ohio Stadium. For this reason Ohio Stadium, where the Buckeyes still play, is sometimes called "The House That Harley Built".[3]