President Ford's No. Retired

The University retired the jersey number 48 of former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford '35 of Grand Rapids, Michigan, at a halftime ceremony of the Michigan State game on Oct. 8.

President Ford at jersey-retirement ceremony.	Photo by Bob Kalmbach

"Other honors that have been bestowed on me were because of my work or my efforts," Ford said of his number retirement. "But in this case I am being honored by a school where I learned skills and discipline that I used for the rest of my life"

Ford was an All-American center for the Wolverines, playing on the undefeated 1932 and '33 national championship teams. The team selected him as its most valuable player in his senior year, and he played in the College All Star and East-West Shrine games after his senior season

After graduation from Yale Law School and four years in the U.S. Navy, Ford entered politics, first serving as a Republican member of the House of Representatives and eventually rising to the nation's highest office in 1974.

Ford said that "you had to have a thick skin" to compete in football and politics, because "in both arenas, you have arm-chair quarterbacks who will criticize you whatever you do, so you have to just do what you think is right "