Michigan will allow the retired No. 48 belonging to former President Gerald Ford to be worn this season.
Coach Brady Hoke, speaking on a Birmingham, AL, radio station Tuesday, said that the school also might bring out its storied No. 1 jersey but let on that the No. 48 would be on the field this season.
“I think (the No. 1 will be brought out) in the near future, but I can’t tell you it will be this season,” Hoke said in the interview, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“That’s something that we’re doing a lot of thinking about. We’re honoring Desmond Howard now with one of our players who really deserves it, and that’s (receiver) Roy Roundtree wearing No. 21. We’re going to do the same with Gerald Ford’s jersey this year. We’re looking at doing it.”
A Grand Rapids, MI, native, Ford was Michigan’s MVP during the 1934 season as a center and linebacker. His number was retired in 1994 – 20 years after he was sworn in as president when Richard Nixon resigned in August of 1974.
That number will be unretired as the Wolverines tap into their history with Ford. It is an election year after all. Gerald Ford profile
