Super Bowl XLI - Orangeman Style

Five former Syracuse Orangemen are part of this years Super Bowl Championship Indianapolis Colts. Marvin Harrison and Dwight Freeney are both starters, while Josh Thomas and Ryan Lacasse were reserves, and James Mungro was on the team, but on the IR all season. This is the most Syracuse football players in one Super Bowl, and bring the total to 27 former Orangemen on Super Bowl teams, 17 of which have won a Super Bowl Championship.

The list includes (alphabetically; asterisks indicate Super Bowl wins):

Dave Bavaro
Rob Burnett*
Mike Charles
Ken Clarke
Larry Csonka**
Paul Frase
Dwight Freeney*
Marvin Harrison*
Qadry Ismail*
Darryl Johnston***
Tebucky Jones*
Pat Kelly
Ryan Lacasse*
Dave Lapham
John Mackey*
Donavan McNabb
Kevin Mitchell*
Art Monk***
Keith Moody*
Joe Morris*
James Mungro*
Josh Thomas*
Stan Walters
Roland Williams*
Otis Williams*
Blaise Winters
Dave Wohlabaugh

Two of these players also played basketball for Syracuse university: Donavan McNabb and John Mackey. Also of note, the legendary Jim Brown played in three NFL Championship games (before the Super Bowl), winning one. And Brown also starred in basketball at Syracuse (along with several other sports).

As a side note, 19 former Syracuse basketball players have played in the NFL. Mike Waters had brought this up on his blog today, so I felt obliged to follow up on it.

Congratulations to all the Indianapolis Colts for their championship. Special note to Tony Dungy who was a class act in his post game interview, and to Peyton Manning for chasing away that terrible monkey that would’ve (unfairly) sat on his back.

RY