Colorado retires Travis Hunter, Shedeur Sanders’ jerseys, plans statue of Bill McCartney

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Colorado retired Buffs stars Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders’ jerseys and memorialized their numbers at Folsom Field during Saturday’s spring game.

The Buffaloes also announced plans for a statue of former coach Bill McCartney, who coached Colorado to the 1990 national title. McCartney died from complications of dementia in January. Plans for McCartney’s statue have been in development for over a year.

“Why are we waiting, man? Wouldn’t we have wanted him to see it? To be involved in it? To feel it? To feel the love, the respect, the appreciation? Why are we waiting?” coach Deion Sanders said about the statue’s timing. “I’m sad because I wanted him to see that. He can’t see that. Same thing with Rashaan Salaam. How long did we wait? I say we because I’m a part of CU now. How long did we wait?”

Salaam, who won the Heisman Trophy and Doak Walker Award in 1994, died in 2016. Colorado retired his jersey in 2017.

“So we gotta die to get recognized?” Sanders said. “Give people their flowers while they can enjoy them and they can smell ‘em. That’s how I get down.

“I don’t wait. I’m not built like that.”

Sanders said he plans to don a tribute to McCartney’s signature jacket and hat for Colorado’s season opener at home against Georgia Tech on Aug. 29.

Sanders’ comments come amid a torrent of criticism among former Colorado stars — many of whom played under McCartney and won the program’s lone national title — of the decision to retire Sanders and Hunter’s numbers just months after their careers in Boulder ended.

“The past matters. Legacy matters. If we’re going to ignore the legacy of the greatest era ever of Colorado football and act like it was invented three years ago, it’s dismissing, disrespecting and in some ways trying to erase the greatness of past players,” former linebacker and national champion Chad Brown told The Athletic this week.

Other former players and coaches like Darrin Chiaverini, Tyler Polumbus and Darian Hagan criticized Brown’s comments.

“Recognizing the accomplishments of a Heisman Trophy winner and record-setting quarterback who ushered in this new era of CU Football now does not detract from accomplishments of the past,” athletic director Rick George said in a statement. “Rather, it adds to the rich legacy of CU Football that has been passed down over the years by everyone who has worn a CU uniform.”

Colorado had retired only four jerseys in its history before Saturday and just one (Salaam) since 1969. Coach Sanders said the decision to retire Hunter and Sanders’ jerseys is a reflection of the current culture at large.

“This is a new generation, everything y’all want, you go and get it right now. You don’t wait for nothing anymore. You wanna go, you call an Uber. You want to eat, you call Uber Eats. Everything we get is right now. We want something, we order it off Amazon. Right now,” Sanders said. “We ain’t a waiting generation anymore. That’s over. That’s a wrap on that.”

Colorado sold out its first spring game under Sanders, which the team played the afternoon after a snowstorm dumped several inches of snow on Folsom Field; workers were clearing the field until just before kickoff. The Buffaloes announced an attendance of 20,430, the lowest of the Sanders era but the third largest in program history.

Sanders said the sport-wide trend of canceling spring games and the NCAA declining to grant a waiver that would have allowed Colorado to play Syracuse this spring affected attendance. Instead, the Buffs hosted an intrasquad scrimmage for the ESPN broadcast.

“It was beautiful today. I just wish we had a little more support, fan-wise. I know it’s tough when they announce multiple schools are canceling spring games. It damages you. Didn’t get the green light to play Syracuse,” Sanders said. “That stuff, it damages things. We do have a tremendous fan base, but we need a little more support when it comes to whatever we do inside the stadium. We should be packing it out like it’s a game.”

(Photo of Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders: Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)

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