Menu
What's new
By:
Filters
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

Top 5 RB's in Buff History?

GoldStampede

Well-Known Member
I've loved reading the threads about the QB's and WR's, so I figured I may as well start this one. I'm a relatively young fan and it took the combination of watching the buffs get their hearts broken at Folsom against Nebraska in '99 and then getting what felt like a decade's worth of revenge in 2001 to make me into a lifelong fan (and going to college in Boulder helped too, obviously.) It's been awesome to go back and learn about former greats through these threads... with the Internet making so much information and even quite a few old games available, it's sort of been like watching this fairy tale of great CU Football my dad always told me about come to life. Good stuff.

And here's my list- and I'll only be able to count guys I saw play in person, so post '99 only:

1. Chris Brown- You can't say enough about the 62-36 game, but I mostly remember how dominant he was in '02. He's gotta be a Heisman winner if he doesn't get hurt for those last couple games. It felt like all you had to do was feed him the football and you had a top 25 offense at the minimum. It's hard to even imagine what this used to feel like to watch, as no one since him has really come close.

2. Bobby Purify- That he and Brown played on a lot of the same teams is sort of crazy to me. Such a smooth, cool, and dependable runner. His great game against Nebraska in 01 gets buried thanks to Brown's gargantuan performance. He had a great year in 2004 to cement his position here.

3. Cortlen Johnson- Feel like he gets overlooked a lot because Brown and Purify were the ones to show up in 01's crucial games. He was a great buff all the same- his game where he was national player of the week (or at least nominated) against ISU was very memorable.

4. Hugh Charles- Really consistent career for the Buffs- great game against Oklahoma in 07.

5. Rodney Stewart- Speedy was one of the few exciting offensive players of the Hawk years. His breakout game against West Virginia in Folsom was great- felt like he countered the hype of the WVU running offense with ease. Were he on some better teams, I would maybe have to move him up a bit.
 
Uhhhhh... what about our only heisman winner? Doesn't the list start with Rashaan Salaam?
 
I would label this as the "Top 5 RBs in Modern Buffs History".

Obviously, Rashaan Salaam, Eric Bienemy, Biron White, Bobby Anderson, etc. belong before most, if not all these guys.
 
No no, I want everyone else to talk about all-time history. My list is just the ones I've seen.


Thanks for reading my post :rolling_eyes:
 
Good thread topic.

Whizzer White finished second in the Heisman voting, and that was in 1937 when you know that most of the voters never saw him play (but did see the winner play). In addition to being a great football player, he is probably the greatest alumni the University has ever produced. There's a reason he has a statue at Folsom.

Salaam. 2,000 yards and a Heisman against a brutal schedule.

That's my one and two. The order sometimes changes depending on how I think about them, but White is usually 1.
 
GoldStampede said:
No no, I want everyone else to talk about all-time history. My list is just the ones I've seen.


Thanks for reading my post :rolling_eyes:
Click to expand...

Don't worry, those of us that actually read posts understood where you were coming from. For the modern day Buffs, I think I would agree with your list.
 
TSchekler said:
I would label this as the "Top 5 RBs in Modern Buffs History".

Obviously, Rashaan Salaam, Eric Bienemy, Biron White, Bobby Anderson, etc. belong before most, if not all these guys.
Click to expand...

I can only rate the ones that I remember watching.

1. R. Salaam. Heisman says it all
2. Bienemy.
3. Chris Brown - NU Game alone says it all
4. B. Purify - He was the forgotten man signed with that other RB we signed. I forget his name.
5. JJ Flannigan - He could fly. And the late pitch from Hagen was a great play.
Honorable mention: Hagen. Do you classify his as a QB or RB or a Hybrid.
 
1. Salaam
2. White
3. Bienemy
4. Brown
5. Stewart

Was gonna put JJ, but then I remembered what we called him in college...JJ Fumbleagain.
 
JJ's fumble in Lincoln 1988 made me want to cry. He had open field to the end zone and just dropped the ball. We lost that game 7-0.
 
Bufffan68 said:
1. Salaam
2. White
3. Bienemy
4. Brown
5. Stewart

Was gonna put JJ, but then I remembered what we called him in college...JJ Fumbleagain.
Click to expand...

As really the lone bright spot, during an otherwise dull era, Speedy warrants a lot of praise for his contributions and is a great Buff. Just not sure if he can really be considered top 5 all time.
 
Speedy gained a lot of yards behind some brutal run blocking. Definitely deserves some praise. Possibly just out of the top 5 for me though like others have written.
 
Top 5 is tough. Whizzer White has to be near the top with Salaam. Chris Brown, EB, Bobby Anderson, Bo Matthews, Charlie Davis, all deserve discussion...I saw them all play except White (obviously).
 
The three that are easy are White, Salaam, and Bienemy. After that, it's hard to pick the remaining two from a list of about 10 guys that all had some serious talent.
 
sackman said:
JJ's fumble in Lincoln 1988 made me want to cry. He had open field to the end zone and just dropped the ball. We lost that game 7-0.
Click to expand...
Yep, Buffs recovered that one but failed to score on the drive.

Bieniemy had some huge fumbles as well, and in huge games.
 
GoldStampede said:
No no, I want everyone else to talk about all-time history. My list is just the ones I've seen.


Thanks for reading my post :rolling_eyes:
Click to expand...

This is Allbuffs, not reading the post is expected.

But you're right and I apologize
 
1. White - Legendary....just legendary.
2. Salaam - I still remember his first run his freshman year during scrub time. I knew from that one play he was special and it wasn't like it was a big play, like four or five yards maybe, but my jaw dropped.
3. Bienemy - People like to compare little backs, but no small back at CU has come close... EB was a force.
4. Anderson - Hard to compare eras.. could even be higher on this list, definitely a better over all football player than Salaam or Bienemy but not as good of a pure RB as either.
5. C. Brown - Only 'modern era' back I would even put top ten, but he is very deserving...and I loved that he would sit and support the women's basketball team in the off season.

Flannigan was really damn good, not this list good, but definitely top ten. Hagan is top ten in this list too, in fact he would be #6 if you ask me, I don't care that he played QB, he was an RB at QB. Kordell would be #10 or 11 if the list kept going.
 
CitizenKane said:
1. White - Legendary....just legendary.
2. Salaam - I still remember his first run his freshman year during scrub time. I knew from that one play he was special and it wasn't like it was a big play, like four or five yards maybe, but my jaw dropped.
3. Bienemy - People like to compare little backs, but no small back at CU has come close... EB was a force.
4. Anderson - Hard to compare eras.. could even be higher on this list, definitely a better over all football player than Salaam or Bienemy but not as good of a pure RB as either.
5. C. Brown - Only 'modern era' back I would even put top ten, but he is very deserving...and I loved that he would sit and support the women's basketball team in the off season.

Flannigan was really damn good, not this list good, but definitely top ten. Hagan is top ten in this list too, in fact he would be #6 if you ask me, I don't care that he played QB, he was an RB at QB. Kordell would be #10 or 11 if the list kept going.
Click to expand...
Shocking to agree with someone with so much red below their name, but this is my list too.

To me there's a clear separation between the first two and Bienemy, and then again a big separation between Bienemy and everyone else.

The first two guys were just other worldly good. Well, I assume Whizzer was, I obviously never saw him play, but the man held the NCAA single season rushing record until they added another game to the season, and he still owned something like 15 CU records when he died in 2002 - that's astounding. And Salaam broke 2,000 yards in 11 games, and he didn't even play in the fourth quarter in 4 or 5 of them.

Bienemy was good, but he wasn't on that level. I do think he's pretty clearly ahead of the other guys on the list though.
 
BlackNGold said:
Top 5 is tough. Whizzer White has to be near the top with Salaam. Chris Brown, EB, Bobby Anderson, Bo Matthews, Charlie Davis, all deserve discussion...I saw them all play except White (obviously).
Click to expand...
+1 and I will add that Charlie Davis literally played his way into the starting line-up for the Bengals, and the only 2 time Heisman winner Archie Griffin the OSU hero was relegated to nothing more then a kick returner.
 
skibum said:
Shocking to agree with someone with so much red below their name, but this is my list too.

To me there's a clear separation between the first two and Bienemy, and then again a big separation between Bienemy and everyone else.

The first two guys were just other worldly good. Well, I assume Whizzer was, I obviously never saw him play, but the man held the NCAA single season rushing record until they added another game to the season, and he still owned something like 15 CU records when he died in 2002 - that's astounding. And Salaam broke 2,000 yards in 11 games, and he didn't even play in the fourth quarter in 4 or 5 of them.

Bienemy was good, but he wasn't on that level. I do think he's pretty clearly ahead of the other guys on the list though.
Click to expand...


You have to keep in mind that for most of his career at CU, Bienemy shared RB duties with JJ Flannigan. It was an impressive backfield. Sometimes, they'd line up in the wishbone with Flannigan, Bienemy and George Hemingway leading the way. Talk about picking your poison. Oh, and Hagan was the QB. Sick.
 
James Mayberry was a stud and played when I was a student. I'll never forget his duel with Terry Miller against OSU in 77, Mayberry crushed them that day.
 
We got season tickets when I was young 7 or so I think in 87. I remember the JJ Flanagan chants from the crowd when he would rip one, that's how I was introduced to BuFf Football. He Hagan and EB set the precedent, that said
1. Salaam
2. Bienemy
3. Brown
4. Flanagan
5. White
HM. Purify
 
skibum said:
Good thread topic.

Whizzer White finished second in the Heisman voting, and that was in 1937 when you know that most of the voters never saw him play (but did see the winner play). In addition to being a great football player, he is probably the greatest alumni the University has ever produced. There's a reason he has a statue at Folsom.

Salaam. 2,000 yards and a Heisman against a brutal schedule.

That's my one and two. The order sometimes changes depending on how I think about them, but White is usually 1.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

Especially the comment about Whizzer as the greatest CU alum. Go to the Byron White Courthouse in Denver and see the memorabila from Whizzer.

On top of everyhting you knew, the man won a Silver Star for his work on-board a carrier in the Pacific in WWII, for his naval intelligence efforts.

Damned good-looking man as well.
 
Honorable mention: Mike Pritchard...probably could have been a top 5 back if he wanted to be.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
 
Going on the era of football I've gotten to personally watch:

1. Salaam
2. Brown
3. Bieniemy
4. Purify
5. Vickers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top