SEC Football history: 50 best players of all time

28. Best SEC football players of all time: Charley Trippi, Georgia football

Charley Trippi played his high school ball in Pennsylvania and was considered by many schools to be too small to play collegiate football. However, that certainly proved to be a false statement, as he had an incredible career as a do-everything player for the Georgia Bulldogs.

Trippi played for the Bulldogs from 1942 through 1946, having to stop his collegiate career due to World War II. He was a huge part of the 1942 team that would win a national title, playing alongside Heisman Trophy-winner Frank Sinkwich. Trippi would later be named the MVP of the Rose Bowl, though it would be ten years later in 1953.

During the 1945 and 1946 college football seasons, Trippi was named All-SEC, capping off his career by bringing home some serious hardware after the 1946 campaign. He won the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp, and finished second to Army’s Glenn Davis in the Heisman voting. That season, he rushed for 800 yards and threw for nearly 700 more.

After his career was over, the school immediately retired his No. 62 jersey, ensuring nobody would ever wear it again. He would go on to have a Hall of Fame career in the NFL as well, and incredibly, celebrated his 99th birthday in December, 2020.