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Events this past week brought orange and white jersey No. 27 front and center, as two former players who wore that number for national championship Tennessee football teams, 47 years apart, made news. Both are on the short list of the "great players" in Tennessee history.

They might not describe themselves as "great," but Al Wilson (1995-88) and Hank Lauricella (1949-51) richly deserve the accolades of Vol fans.

Wilson, sidelined by a neck injury since the end of the 2006 season, retired from the Denver Broncos, still in one piece at age 31.

Lauricella and his wife, Betty, were honored with the naming of the Lauricella Center for Letter Winners in Neyland Stadium.

There is a legitimate case to be made for retiring jersey No. 27, but that probably isn't in the cards.

It should be.

Lauricella, a 1951 All-America and two-time All-SEC selection, was a do-everything tailback in Gen. Neyland's last great coaching era at Tennessee, handling the single-wing offense with aplomb, except when the Vols got inside an opponents' 10. Herky Payne then came in, helped do the heavy lifting, and got the Vols into the end zone. Herky led the SEC in scoring that season with 84 points. The Vols were 28-4-1 during Lauricella's time on campus. He was the Birmingham Touchdown Club's Most Outstanding Back in 1951. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

His school-record 881 yards rushing in 1951 lasted until 1972. Vol fans who saw him play, and even those who didn't, believe he got hosed in the Heisman balloting, much as Peyton Manning did in 1997.

Lauricella earned his way into the hearts of Tennessee fans in the 1951 Cotton Bowl, making one of the most famous runs in Vol history in the first quarter against a favored Texas team. It started first-and-10 on the Vol 20.

Bill Stern had the call for NBC Radio and kept up with Lauricella nearly step-by-step on a 75-yard run that went from sideline to sideline and back again. In describing the run, Stern showed the acumen that made him one of radio's best play-by-play announcers.

"Wait 'til you see that run on the newsreels. They hit him from behind on about the 40, and somehow he managed to elude the grasp of four Texans. He completely reversed his field, spun on a dime, handed them eight cents in change, cut toward the center of the field, and again burst into the clear at the 25. He eluded three more men and got down to the five."

Wilson made the Tennessee history books as the "spiritual leader" of the 1998 national champions. He was a team captain, an All-America, and a two-time All-SEC selection. Vol fans speak of his playing career and influence in measured and reverential tones. At Denver, he was a five-time Pro Bowler, the 31st NFL selection overall in 1999. Wilson finished his career with 21.5 career sacks and five interceptions.

Like Manning, he had spurned NFL gold to return for his senior year. There were no dramatics, Marvin West wrote, just Wilson "mentioning in passing that the NFL could wait."

West also called him a "fierce hitter with an overflow of intensity," and that is a definite understatement. When he talked, his teammates listened, enough so that the 1997 SEC title game against Auburn turned from a 20-10 halftime deficit into a 30-29 win.

Nobody outside the team and coaching staff heard it, but those who were there termed it a "real stemwinder," a tirade directed at star and scrub alike. No one escaped his wrath. It was, in truth, the winning edge.

In 1998, Wilson dominated the Florida game as no linebacker had since Steve Kiner's vintage performance in the 1969 Alabama game. It's not really a stretch to speak of Kiner and Wilson in the same breath.

All Wilson did was compile nine hits, three assists, a tackle for loss, a broken-up pass, and three caused fumbles. The Gators were held to minus-13 yards rushing, and Wilson was SEC Defensive Player of the Week. He had nine tackles against Florida State, when every stop was crucial.

"As one of the team captains that year, I took it on myself to assume the leadership role that had been vacated when Peyton Manning and Leonard Little graduated," he said. "Nobody knew for sure who would step up and take over. I decided I was going to lead the team to be the best we could be."

He did that … and more.

"The coaches treated me as a leader. We trusted one another. That season and that team gave me so many great memories that Tennessee will always be a special place for me."

A number is merely a number, right? In this case, a number becomes special because of the players who wore it.

That became abundantly clear this week, as two Volunteer "greats" who wore No. 27 still stand front and center, bringing great credit and honor to their university.

Tom Mattingly is the author of "The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006" (2006), to be published in second edition in 2009, and "Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years" (1998). He may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.