When the Indianapolis Colts picked Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck first overall in the NFL draft on Thursday night, it marked the fourth time a Stanford signal-caller has been taken first overall. Luck joined the illustrious club of Bobby Garrett, Jim Plunkett and John Elway as the four Cardinal first picks, and Stanford is now one of just five schools to have four or more players taken first overall.
And while Luck’s selection was a huge media event, watched by millions of football fans all over the globe, a dig through The Stanford Daily’s archives reveals that the distinction of being picked first overall in the NFL draft has changed quite a bit over the years. A look back at the days that Garrett, Plunkett and Elway were drafted first overall reveals an incredible amount about how Stanford, the NFL and the United States have changed over the last 60 years.
Bobby Garrett, Cleveland Browns, 1954 Draft
Garrett, a Los Angeles native, was an All-American quarterback and an outstanding defensive back for the Stanford Indians in the early 1950s. Garrett’s exploits earned him both the MVP of the 1954 Hula Bowl and the W.J. Voit Memorial Trophy as the most outstanding football player on the West Coast.
Back then, the NFL was still a fledgling league with just 12 teams (only two on the West Coast) and the draft was far different than it is today. Instead of seven rounds, the 1954 draft had 30 rounds, and a peculiar quirk called the “bonus pick.” Today, the team with the worst record in the NFL is guaranteed to pick first overall, but the drafts of the 1940s and 50s tossed every team’s name into a random lottery, and the winner of the lottery got to pick first overall.
