Each time Daryl Gross toured the Carrier Dome last winter, a missing link with the past nagged him.

Several retired basketball jerseys lined the Dome.

‘Where are the retired football jerseys?’ Gross remembers thinking.

At Southern California, if you won a Heisman Trophy, your number was retired. Simple. Gross knew Ernie Davis won the Heisman wearing No. 44 – not to mention SU greats Jim Brown and Floyd Little also donning the number.

Right then and there, Gross decided to intervene. He announced the retirement of No. 44 last spring. Saturday afternoon, the number most synonymous with Syracuse football will be retired at halftime of SU’s 1:30 p.m. game against South Florida.

‘It’s really a no-brainer,’ Gross said of the decision. ‘It’s so easy. These guys don’t come along every day. How do you not retire it?’

So on Homecoming weekend, Syracuse will finally retire the historic number, last worn in 1998 by Rob Konrad. Overall, 25 players have worn the jersey. Jim Brown, of course, became the first to make a significant impact wearing the number.

Brown wore 44 from 1954-56, Ernie Davis won the Heisman wearing it from 1959-1961 and Floyd Little dressed in 44 from 1964-66. All won All-America honors playing for the Orange. Brown and Little will be on hand Saturday, as will Davis’ mother Marie Fleming. Davis passed away from leukemia in 1963.

Several other former 44s will be present Saturday as well, including Konrad.

‘I think retiring the number is the right thing to do,’ Orange football coach Greg Robinson said. ‘I don’t think you can go anywhere in America and have a number represented that way.’

So why, then, did the retirement take so long? After all, no one’s worn the jersey in seven years.

Former SU running back Walter Reyes turned 44 down last year. Damien Rhodes, a Syracuse native, was also offered the jersey before his 2002 freshman year. He, too, turned the number down.

His reason? He likes the way a single number looks better.

‘It came up and it was a great honor,’ Rhodes said. ‘I definitely have a ton of respect for the number and everyone who’s worn it. I just couldn’t picture myself in it.’

Former SU Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel said he wrestled with the decision for years. He wanted to honor the number and the greats who wore it. Still, former head coach Paul Pasqualoni and his staff believed it was a strong recruiting tool.

‘You always have to look at who’s going to be the next one,’ Crouthamel said. ‘Anyone would be proud to wear it, but you’ve got to be damn good. Some people don’t want to risk it.’

But with the change of athletic director and football coach came a new line of thought. Gross’ USC background gave him perspective from one of the strongest football traditions in the country. Six Trojans have won the Heisman, including two – Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart – while Gross served as an associate athletic director.

The numbers of all six are retired. Even Leinart, who currently quarterbacks the Trojans after winning last year, has his number retired.

To Gross, the idea of not retiring the number of a Heisman winner, especially when other greats also wore the jersey, seemed foreign.

He said he called many of the former 44s personally and received a mostly enthusiastic response.

‘I have mixed emotions,’ Little said when asked about its retirement. ‘We’ve obviously had great success with it. I’d say if there’s any number that should be retired, it’s that number.’

In addition to becoming Syracuse football’s defining characteristic, No. 44 also has its place in popular culture. Like Ernie Davis, designer Tommy Hilfiger is an Elmira native. Hilfiger and Guy Vickers, president of the Tommy Hilfiger Corporate Foundation, idolized Davis growing up.

Vickers remembers watching Davis wear No. 44 in high school. In the mid-1980s, when Hilfiger started his clothing business, he incorporated orange and Davis’ 44 into several of his designs.

‘I have used the No. 44 for many years,’ Hilfiger said in a statement. ‘It always reminds me about Ernie. When I use the color orange in my designs, it’s always been special to me.’

The number is still prevalent on Syracuse apparel, as well. Gross said No. 44 jerseys and other products will still remain for sale. He added that the retirement only affects football.

Basketball greats John Wallace and Derrick Coleman also wore 44. Currently, Steven Brooks (men’s lacrosse) and Alexis Switenko (softball) are the only players to wear the number across SU athletics.

The university also incorporated 44 into its phone numbers and zip code. All campus phone numbers start with 4-4 and the university zip code ends in -44.

Neither Gross nor Robinson worries about the number’s affect on recruiting. If anything, Gross believes it will help when recruits walk into the Dome and see the number hanging. He believes most youngsters don’t want the type of responsibility that comes with wearing such a storied number.

‘I think retiring it is a recruiting tool in itself,’ Robinson said. ‘Rather than putting pressure on a kid, it’s time to retire the number.’

Gross hopes this tradition will build into something bigger, perhaps even a Syracuse University Hall of Fame.

When the number is retired, he wants people to remember more about the former players than just their football careers. Little visited the SU football team this year and delivered a speech. Brown did the same last spring.

A giant poster of Davis lines Gross’ office wall, not only as a reminder of the football player but also the person. Davis readily helped anyone in need, especially younger children in Elmira.

‘Instead of ‘I wanna be like Mike,’ it was ‘I wanna be like Ernie,” said Vickers, who was in seventh grade when Davis finished high school. ‘He wasn’t too big for anyone. He always stopped to encourage you.’

Robinson said his players definitely recognize the importance of the past greats and responded when Brown and Little came to visit the team. Rhodes even joked with the tremendous physical shape Brown maintains.

‘They’re the backbone of the program,’ punter Brendan Carney said. ‘Hopefully they’ll talk to us before the game (Saturday) and fire us up. It’s going to be exciting for us as players.’

Gross said one giant jersey will hang in the Dome, representing all the 44s. He said the jersey will be the same style Davis wore, plain white with large block letters and three stripes on each sleeve.

‘I think it’s right up there as one of the most recognizable numbers and traditions in college football,’ Gross said. ‘Other schools have their numbers, but you really have to take a close look at 44.’

Published on November 9, 2005 at 12:00 pm