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[Honyocker]

No question it should be Paul Giel who earned All-America honors in football and baseball multiple years. He played for a crappy football team but still capped his illustrious Gopher football career with a very close second in the Heisman Trophy competition. Both the NFL and MLB were in a bidding war for his sevices. He ended up signing with the New York baseball Giants for the biggest bonus in the history of sports at the time. He probably should have picked football because he needed to go to the minors to work on a few things to be ready for the majors (his fastball and slider were good, but his curve ball was very weak), but the MLB rules stated that he had to spend at least his first two years on a MLB roster before he could go to the minors because he was a "bonus baby." Giel said he never really cleaned up his pitching because he just did not pitch enough to work out his weaknesses.

Paul Giel was the U's greatest athlete ever. Then Winfield. Then Nagurski.

 

[50PoundHead]

Good points on Giel Honyocker. Had NFL football been as big in the US in the 1950s as it is today, he probably would have played football. Great athlete and a great guy. I always had the impression that he let the boosters run the athletic program a bit too much, but that was happening all over the country.