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Message: [QUOTE="BillSU, post: 4012973, member: 6809"] Continuing 44 I didn’t see the link in Freak’s post regarding awarding #44 to Sean Tucker until I read it again today in FreakTalksAbout SU’s post. I hope everyone on this board reads it. Jeff Abramo of Inside the Loud House has written, IMO, a stellar article about #44 and the conversations about it, its place in SU football history and the people involved in seeing it’s brought back. I, an alum like some of you, want to keep this conversation consistently current to see what kind of fortitude and courage ADJW has because IMO he’s the wheel that’s going to get it back and if you take the time to read the edited article here maybe you’ll agree – what do you really think about all that’s occurring? I want it back! It’s critical for this football programs future. There’s nothing difficult about getting the number back now, just do it. I’m not so sure everyone in the Little household would understand but Floyd would. As would Ernie and I bet Jim when pressed would, but like this article says, it was never theirs to give it to anyone. It is this universities, SYRACUSE. It is only in a person’s speaking that things get accomplished or not. If JW says we’re unretiring # 44 today and it will be given to Sean Tucker at practice tomorrow it will. If a vote were taken on campus and the surrounding communities of Syracuse and counted, fan votes for #44, I know it would tabulate into yes # 44 by a large margin. But it doesn’t matter and would take too much time but might be necessary. Thousands of votes to unretire a famous football number. What would JW think? Wildhack has to get some cojones and do it. If he waffles it will not happen and that’s a shame don’t you think? This could go on forever but it should be decided today. This would be a great headline - [B]John Wildhack Un-retires Syracuse Football’s # 44. [/B]I see Daryl Gross wringing his hands in frustration and confusion. I think what JW says below is condescending and procrastinating. His speaking has no validity in this matter. Someone has to call him on this. Maybe a crowd with torches lit below Crouse and JW in the bell tower would be the way. But, this is not fun - it’s serious for us the fans to have something again to cheer and feel good about. [B]ITLH edited: [I]“It’s complicated.”[/I][/B] Current Syracuse AD John Wildhack, hearing the calls among the fan base, a fan base that has been beaten down and frustrated for decades by this football program, went on local Syracuse radio late last week and was asked about the idea of giving the Sean Tucker the 44. Maybe even…on the night of the Clemson game. What did he say to that? [CENTER][I]“It’s premature.” “It’s complicated.” “It won’t be happening this season.”[/I][/CENTER] Sigh. Syracuse University may have the best marketing and communications school in the nation (ok, it does), but this feels like a tremendous failure to capitalize on rare fan enthusiasm about something, anything, related to Syracuse football. Why now, of all times, [URL='https://247sports.com/college/syracuse/Article/Syracuse-football-44-jersey-number-Sean-Tucker-John-Wildhack-173121644/']pour such ice-cold water[/URL] over the excitement of fans who are watching a truly transcendent player in Sean Tucker (who I believe to be the best RB I have seen at Syracuse in my 25 years as a fan)? Why crush the spirits of fans for whom your football program has, frankly, given so little back over the last two decades? Why pour gasoline on the simmering embers of ineptitude first sparked by Daryl Gross? Why is it complicated to take a number down from the rafters that never should have been put up there in the first place? Why is it complicated to restore something so important back to the community it belongs to? Why is it complicated to honor the wishes of the late Floyd Little who made no bones about his desire to see the number back on the field? The 44 is not Jim Brown’s number to own forever, and it never has been. It never was supposed to be. Nor is it Ernie’s. Or Floyd’s. Or Rob’s. Or even that of the long-forgotten [URL='https://cuse.com/sports/2005/11/8/zimmermanbio.aspx?id=2593']Gifford Zimmerman[/URL], the very first person to ever adorn the 44 for Syracuse. Ownership of that number, instead, lies deep within the heart of Syracuse football. A heart which has been broken, and has been missing a core piece ever since [I]Gross’s Folly[/I]. It’s time to give it back. [/QUOTE]

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