The Ultimate Buffalo Tournament

No matter the sport they played or the era they thrived, the Colorado Buffaloes have always been incredible. The Buffaloes have so much to celebrate that it’s impossible to give their storied history the respect and reverence they deserve, but we can certainly try.

This March, the Ralphie Report will host a 64-seed single-elimination tournament for you, the fan, to determine the Ultimate Buffalo. From Whizzer White to Derrick White, those in the tournament are the greatest players and coaches of the University of Colorado’s proud history. Our selections and seeding takes into account on- and off-the-field contributions, team success and overall legacy.

How it works

This tournament will be divided into four 16-seed regions: Football, Basketball, Coaches and Other. The Football and Basketball regions — which include players only — will be broken down and discussed at length on Wednesday The Coaches region includes coaches from almost every sport Colorado has (or had) and will be broken down on Thursday. The Other region celebrates the finest Buffaloes from sports other than football and (men’s) basketball, and that will also be examined on Friday.

This bracket will be lined up with the 2017 NCAA Tournament and will run from March 16 to April 3. Winners of each round will be decided by fan voting that will be conducted on polls both embedded into our region breakdown articles and on our Twitter account (@RalphieReport).

Both polling formats will be live at publication of each region breakdown. First Round voting will run through Thursday night for Football and Basketball, and through Friday night for Coaches and Other. On Saturday morning, we’ll provide updates with the voting results and begin the Second Round in all four regions. Second Round voting will run from that morning through Sunday night.

Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight voting will be conducted exactly the same and will take place that Thursday/Friday (March 23-24) and Saturday/Sunday. Final Four voting will run from the following Friday (March 31) through Saturday night. Championship voting will commence that Sunday morning and end that night. The Ultimate Buffalo will be named the subsequent Monday morning.

And now, to look at each of the four regions of the tournament:

Football

1. Whizzer White
2. Darian Hagan
3. Rashaan Salaam
4. Alfred Williams
5. Sal Aunese
6. Kordell Stewart
7. Chris Brown
8. Joe Romig
9. Bobby Anderson
10. Deon Figures
11. John Wooten
12. Eric Bienemy
13. Herb Orvis
14. Michael Westbrook
15. Nate Solder
16. Michael Lewis

Basketball

1. Chauncey Billups
2. Cliff Meely
3. Josh Scott
4. Spencer Dinwiddie
5. Shaun Vandiver
6. Andre Roberson
7. Alec Burks
8. Jay Humphries
9. Cory Higgins
10. Richard Roby
11. Burdette Haldorson
12. Derrick White
13. Donnie Boyce
14. Ken Charlton
15. David Harrison
16. Stephane Pelle

Coaches

1. Mark Wetmore
2. Bill McCartney
3. Ceal Barry
4. Richard Rokos
5. Dal Ward
6. Frank Potts
7. Bill Marolt
8. Fred Folsom
9. Frosty Cox
10. Frank Prentup
11. Tad Boyle
12. Harry Carlson
13. Eddie Crowder
14. Sox Walseth
15. Bob Beattie
16. Linn Long

Other

1. Cliff Branch
2. Lisa Van Goor
3. Jenny Simpson
4. Hale Irwin
5. Claude Walton
6. Shelly Sheetz
7. Kelly Campbell
8. Emma Coburn
9. Bill Toomey
10. Gil Cruter
11. Brittany Spears
12. Kara Goucher
13. Buddy Werner
14. Ozell Williams
15. Kate Russell
16. Taylor Simpson