This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.
A couple of years ago I did an article for "Home Game" Magazine in which I picked the Top 25 Huskers of the past 25 years. Tommie Frazier is at the top of that list, but I wonder - how many of you would pick Tommie Frazier as your favorite All-Time Husker? All Frazier did was win but is he a favorite or is he just the best player in the past 25 years?
It's a pretty safe bet that most of our favorite players are also the same guys that made the biggest impact on the best teams - Tommie Frazier, Eric Crouch, Mike Rozier, Turner Gill, or Ndamukong Suh, to name a few. It's also a safe bet that many of those guys also made an impact on us as fans. Perhaps it was the impact of a favorite player that solidified your standing as a Husker fan, much in the same way that Suh will make us want to watch more of the Detroit Lions this coming fall.
Jeff Kinney, Rich Glover, and Johnny Rodgers had that impact on Husker fans who came of age in the early 70s. The same was true for me in watching Turner Gill in the early 80s, and Husker fans who came of age in the 90s have a plethora of players to pick from.
I hate picking a favorite of anything, honestly. It doesn't make sense to me. What's my favorite food? What's my favorite music? The answer to both probably has more to do with my mood at the time than anything to do with what's favorite. If you'd have asked me who my favorite Husker player was right after last year's Big 12 Championship game, I'd have said it was Suh. If you asked in June, it might be Dave Rimington.
Earlier this week, community member rzor mentioned Kenny Walker as a player with whom he had a connection and developed his fanhood. Rather than worry about favorites - who's your Husker player with which you felt a connection, because of the impact they had on your fandom?