M Zone History Lesson

Recently, we posted about Braylon Edwards establishing a scholarship for the Wolverine wearing Braylon's old #1 jersey. Most Wolverine fans associate the #1 jersey with the best player to wear the number, Anthony Carter. But there have been 14 Michigan players to wear the number 1, including nine in the modern era.

Numbers weren't used on the Michigan jersey until 1915. Typically, players would change jersey numbers from year to year and there weren't any standards for numbers by position are there are now. For example, the first Wolverine to wear #1 was Sault Ste. Marie's Angus Goetz, maybe the best name for someone who wore #1. Goetz was a left tackle. In 1921
guard Robert Dunne wore #1, followed by end Paul Goebel in 1922. Halfback, and future Michigan head coach, Harry Kipke wore #1 in 1923, though he was an All-American wearing #6 in 1922.

There was then almost a 50-year period where no Wolverine donned the number 1. Finally, from 1973-75, DB Dave Whiteford wore the jersey, followed by kicker (a KICKER!) Greg Willner from 1976-78. Christopher Grieves was the first WR to wear the #1 in 1977.

Then, in 1979, a skinny freshman from Riviera Beach, Florida put on the #1 jersey and made it what it is today. Anthony Carter was a three-time All-American and the standard by which all other Michigan wide receivers will be measured by. Carter is often credited for bringing the passing game to Ann Arbor, though he suffered with mostly mediocre to poor QB play. AC also was a gifted punt and kick returner and will always be remembered for his game-winning TD catch against Indiana in 1979. He was the Big Ten MVP in 1982.

Due largely to Carter's greatness, the number 1 went into mothballs for the next three seasons until Bo Schembechler promised it to big-time recruit Greg McMurtry to help in his decision to attend Michigan. McMurtry was decent, but never lived up to the hype - or the number 1.

After wearing #40 his freshman year, Derrick Alexander was given the opportunity to be #1 in 1990. He wore the number through 1993, though he missed the '91 season with an injury. Alexander was an All-American in '92 and played nine years in the NFL.

Junior College transfer Tyrone Butterfield was inexplicably given the #1 jersey in 1994, though he sat out the season as a redshirt. Butterfield is best remembered by Michigan fans for dropping a pass short of the end zone in Lloyd Carr's first game as head coach with time running out. If Butterfield had hung on, he would have been tackled short of the goal line and the game would have been over. Instead, with one more play, Scott Dresibach hit Mercury Hayes just inbounds for a touchdown on the final play and Michigan beat Virginia, 18-17, in what was at the time the greatest comeback in Michigan football history.

David Terrell wore the jersey starting in his freshman year in 1998. Terrell only played three seasons in Ann Arbor, but was the 2000 Orange Bowl MVP, was an All-American in 2000, and held most of the school's receiving records when he left for the NFL.

Braylon Edwards played four years at Michigan, and craved the number 1 jersey, but did not wear it until Lloyd Carr felt he deserved it, which was in 2003, Edwards' junior season. By the time Edwards left for the NFL he held every receiving record in Ann Arbor, was an All-American, played in two Rose Bowls, was the 2004 Big Ten MVP, and almost single-handedly beat Michigan State in one of the greatest game ever played at Michigan Stadium.

Since Carter made the jersey the honor that it is today, there have been seven football season where no one wore #1. included in those seasons are the two worst years in the past 37 seasons ('84 and '05). There has been only one Rose Bowl season since '79 - that National Championship year of 1997.