COLUMBIA, Mo. 鈥 Coming up with a top 25 ranking of the best Mizzou athletes from the past 25 years proved to be a tricky business.
Watching old highlights posted to YouTube of Jeremy Maclin returning kicks and Kareem Rush knocking down shots made for a fun kind of research. Pondering athletes鈥 accomplishments across sports and which would get left off the list was thornier.
It was never going to be a perfect result because there is no consensus on lists like these, so let鈥檚 talk about my thinking and some of the imperfections.
I鈥檝e been glad to receive comments and notes from some of you readers after the rankings ran here. That was my hope: I was born halfway through Rush鈥檚 time at Missouri, for reference, so it was fun for me to read memories of what was to me a research-necessary history.
Missouri鈥檚 Mitch Weber competes in the discus at the Kansas Invitational on May 1, 2021, in Lawrence, Kan.
Among the submitted omissions and feedback for this trip down memory lane were suggestions that:
- Running back Cody Schrader should鈥檝e been ranked higher than No. 21.
- Discus thrower Mitch Weber, a two-time NCAA Outdoor Championships qualifier and rare collegiate athlete to make the U.S. Olympic trials finals, should鈥檝e made the list.
- Swimmer Fabian Schwingenschlogl, who in 2016 won the national 100-meter breaststroke title and was a nine-time All-American, should鈥檝e made the list.
- Linebacker Nick Bolton, a multi-year All-Southeastern Conference pick and 2020 second-team All-American, should鈥檝e made the list.
- Defensive end Justin Smith, who notched a then-school record 11 sacks in 2000, should鈥檝e made the list.
- The list (and previous rankings of the best football and basketball games) should鈥檝e never existed in the first place.
- I must have skipped class the day the rest of Mizzou鈥檚 journalism school learned how to use Google.
As a result of the record-book reading, highlight-watching and several dozen Google searches, there were a few others who narrowly missed out on a spot in the top 25 here. Running back Henry Josey, plus volleyball stars Molly Kreklow and Lisa Henning received the closest consideration.
After coming up with the 25 athletes who made the list, ranking them became the next challenge. I set myself a ground rule that I wouldn鈥檛 factor an athlete鈥檚 professional career into their ranking 鈥 this was about what they did at MU.
It鈥檚 why Max Scherzer, a lock for the Baseball Hall of Fame, came in eighth. If the list ranked pro careers, he almost certainly would鈥檝e been No. 1. His 2005 campaign at Missouri, which saw the right-hander post a 1.86 ERA and 131 strikeouts, was fantastic, but there were other athletes whose times in Columbia produced more.
So came the next challenge: comparing athletes from different sports. Picking between Maclin (two-time All-American, 5,609 all-purpose yards in two seasons) and Sophie Cunningham (all-team leading scorer with four NCAA Tournament appearances and an All-American season) was one such example.
I put Maclin at No. 6 and Cunningham at No. 5 in part because the latter propped up a program in a way that the former just didn鈥檛 need to. But is that a fair distinction to use when any given football team has more contributors than any given basketball team?
You see the kinds of dilemmas that arise with an endeavor like this. Even with that consideration, I felt Chase Daniel was worthy of the top spot on the list.
He鈥檚 statistically the best quarterback to play for the Tigers, with the two best passing seasons in program history to his name, plus all-time marks in career passing yards and touchdowns. And most relevant to the rankings, Daniel was the face of the MU program during the 2007 season that produced its most prominent peak of the 21st century.
That stood out sharply in my mind as I ordered the top 25.
I also found myself wondering what a 鈥渢op 25 of the past 25 years鈥 list will look like in 2050. College sports changed so starkly during the final five years of the quarter-century that made up this list.
DeMarre Carroll, who came in at No. 18, was required to sit out a season when he transferred from Vanderbilt to Mizzou. Schrader, who was No. 21, didn鈥檛 when he transferred in from Truman State some 15 years later.
Otherwise, nearly every athlete on this top 25 started and finished their careers at one school: the University of Missouri. I can鈥檛 imagine that鈥檒l be true of the best athletes of the next 25 years.
The natures of time and memory make it difficult for an athlete to come into a program as a relative unknown, leave after a season or two and leave a particularly strong legacy there. Sure, Schrader and Carroll did it. Some others probably will too.
But I hope the ability to make lists like these, to have debates over great athletes like these, don鈥檛 fall by the wayside of college sports鈥 evolution. Part of the fun, the attachment of college athletics is seeing athletes grow up and go on to careers in pro sports or various industries 鈥 and then looking back fondly at their time in school colors.
This was an attempt to sort out the best of the past 25 years at Missouri, but it was mostly an appreciation 鈥 and a hope that we can do this again in another quarter-century.
In today鈥檚 10 AM 鈥淭en Hochman鈥 video, Ben Hochman discusses SLU鈥檚 Terrence Hargrove and Mizzou鈥檚 Tamar Bates, both teammates on the Nuggets鈥 summer league team! Plus, a happy birthday shoutout to So Taguchi! And as always, Hochman picks a random Cards card out of the hat!
