Devin Gardner, the quarterback for the University of Michigan, has changed his uniform number to No. 98 for the 2013 season.
Gardner will wear the number to honor 1940 Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon.
“My father would be only proud,” actor Mark Harmon prior to Saturday’s game, via the Detroit Free Press. “He’d be embarrassed, but he’d be proud. Embarrassed because he was a humble man and he thought no one did it alone…. For Michigan, it’s an important day in recognizing my dad, both deserved. There wasn’t anything my dad did in his life that didn’t have the word Michigan attached to it.”
Gardner was humbled by Harmon’s words.
“It’s difficult to say how honored I am to wear No. 98,” Gardner said in a team released statement. “You see Tom Harmon photos and prints all over our building, knowing all of the things he accomplished on the field for this program and then representing our country, and to have the opportunity to speak to his family today, it’s kind of surreal.”
It is the second time Gardner has changed his number. He began as No. 7 and later switched to No. 12 before the decision to wear Harmon’s No. 98.
