Ultimate Buffalo Tournament: Sweet 16

This is the brass ring, guys and gals. We’re getting down to it in the Ultimate Buffalo Tournament, so we’re combining the voting posts to make sure every bracket gets a say. We need maximum effort to advance these tight matchups. Without further ado, the Sweet Sixteen.

Football Region

#1 Whizzer White vs. #4 Alfred Williams

Boy, this is a tough matchup. Get used to me saying that about the football bracket, because it’s getting real close now. Whizzer was the first mega-star for CU, an unbelievable player and ambassador for the university. Alfred Williams checks the same boxes, in one of the greatest eras of CU football history. Whizzer was also a Supreme Court justice, but that didn’t technically happen on the football field.

#2 Darian Hagan vs. #3 Rashaan Salaam

Oh, boy. Two offensive dynamos from California and some of the most exciting Buffs of all time. Hagan was the perfect option quarterback and electricity every time he touched the ball. He is the reason that CU was playing for the national championship two years straight. Salaam, on the other hand, was a singular rushing talent. 2,000 yards in a season and a Heisman. I mean, you guys know all this stuff, that’s why you’re voting.

Basketball Region

#1 Chauncey Billups vs. #4 Spencer Dinwiddie

A battle of the two best guards in Colorado history — a matchup perhaps better settled by a one-on-one game. Billups was probably the most dominant player to ever play in Coors Events Center and was beloved as such. Dinwiddie was never as dominant as Billups, but he was certainly amazing in his own right.

#2 Cliff Meely vs. #3 Josh Scott

We just had the best guards in CU history and now we have the best big men. Cliff Meely obliterated his competition in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He averaged over 24 points and 12 rebounds in his career. He was also a three-time All-Big 8 selection and First Team All-American. Josh Scott saved his ridiculous statlines for must-win games against the best of the best. Here, we can flashback to Colorado’s upset over Arizona in which Scott posted 26 points and 9 rebounds and won Player of the Week in arguably the most important game of his career.

Coaches Region

#5 Dal Ward vs. #8 Fred Folsom

Once again, two football stalwarts face off. Folsom is one of the first great football coaches in football history. He established Colorado as a top program in the country and won a conference title in three different decades. Dal Ward ushered in a new national era for the Buffs, guiding them into the Big 8. His punishing, powerful teams established the identity for the Buffs and his career as an athletics administrator further contributed to CU’s success. Folsom has his name on the stadium, Ward has his on the athletics facilities. Take your pick.

#2 Bill McCartney vs. #11 Tad Boyle

sigh We don’t like to second guess the will of the public, but Tad Boyle over Ceal Barry? Boyle is great, but Barry is a legendary athletic figure in the annals of Buffalo history. Anyways, here we are. #2 vs. #11. The Cinderella run of Tad Boyle continues. McCartney presided over the best run in Colorado football history. Coach Mac won a national championship for the Buffs and put his team in the hunt consistently. Boyle hasn’t ascended to that level yet [Editor’s note: yet], but he has brought unprecedented success to the Buffs. He won the Pac-12 in its first year and has been to the NCAA tournament 4 times.

Other Region

#4 Hale Irwin vs. #9 Emma Coburn

Hale Irwin, a golf and football star, was one the best all-around athletes in CU history and an all-time great in PGA history. Irwin was on the All-Century Buffaloes team and won the 1967 NCAA Championship in golf, just to name two of his many, many accomplishments. Emma Coburn is another legend. Coburn used to break NCAA records with every run, but now competing on the grandest of stages, she sets world and country records on the regular. She was also named one of four 2016 Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Athletes of the Year.

#2 Lisa Van Goor vs. #3 Jenny Simpson

This matchup is another battle of GOATs. In one corner, you have Lisa Van Goor, the most accomplishment basketball in CU history and invaluable figure for the legitimization of women’s basketball. In the other corner, you have Jenny Simpson, the most decorated runner in CU’s ultra-rich track history who now spends her time winning medals in the Olympics.