No. 21: George Barclay

*Publisher's note: THI is ranking the top 25 football players in UNC history, gauging each player solely on their careers as Tar Heels. NFL accomplishments do not factor into these rankings.

No. 21

Name: George Barclay

Position: OG, LB

Jersey #: 99

Years: 1932-34

Honors: Consensus All-America in 1934; All-America in 1933; All-Southern Conference 1933 & 1934; Jersey number has been retired; Barclay Road in Chapel Hill is named after him.

Notable Stats: NA

In Closing: Carolina’s first All-America, Barclay started both ways for three seasons. Described as a “tremendous blocker and ferocious tackler,” Barclay was literally all over the field every time Carolina played a game. A captain as a senior, Barclay led UNC to the first season in one of UNC’s best stretches ever, a six-year run that saw it go 44-8-4. The Tar Heels were 7-1-1 that final season of Barclay’s.

This period, ignited in large part by Barclay and the teams he played on, are very important in Carolina’s football history. College football was a fast-growing sport, but just 10 years earlier, UNC adopted the Ram mascot nicknamed “Rameses,” so it was still a bit behind certain other parts of the country. But the six-year run during Barclay’s career, and a decade later with the Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice era, firmly put UNC football on the national map for most of more than a decade. Barclay was later UNC’s head coach from 1953-55.