Quentin Sickels

Sickels played at the guard position as a 17-year-old freshman in 1944.[6] He started all ten games for the 1944 Michigan team that was ranked #8 in the final AP Poll.[7] After the 1944 season, Sickels was selected as a second-team All-Big Ten Conference player.[2][8]

On December 21, 1944, the day before his eighteenth birthday, Sickels joined the United States Coast Guard. On leaving Ann Arbor, Sickels told reporters he hoped to return to the university after the war: "Michigan is a great school. Crisler, [Biggie] Munn and the other coaches were a great[9] bunch of fellows, and I hope to come back and help beat the tar out of those guys at Ohio State."[10] In February 1945, Sickels was assigned for training to the Coast Guard School in Groton, Connecticut.[11] He served in the Coast Guard for a year-and-a-half and missed the 1945 season.[2] He was discharged in the spring of 1946 after tours in Europe and the far east.[12]

Sickels returned to the University of Michigan in time for summer football training in August 1946.[13] He played for the 1946 Michigan Wolverines football team that finished the season ranked #6 in the final Associated Press poll.[14][15]

In February 1947, Sickels underwent knee surgery at the University of Michigan Hospital. The surgery revealed that a bone chip suffered several years earlier had torn ligaments.[16] Despite missing spring practice following the knee surgery,[17] Sickels was able to play at the defensive guard position for the undefeated 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team.[18] In November 1947, Sickels was selected by the Associated Press as "the outstanding guard of the nation" for two consecutive weeks.[19] He was also recognized as an "honorable mention" on the United Press All-American team for 1947.[20]

Sickels led the Michigan defense in its 49–0 victory over USC in the 1948 Rose Bowl. He played every minute on defense until he was knocked unconscious by a kick to the head late in the second quarter. The kick reportedly left "a dent in his headgear as large as a man's fist."[21] Despite the injury, he returned to the game and played the second half. After the game, a newspaper account noted:

"Everyone agreed following the Jan. 1 game that Quentin was the outstanding defensive lineman on the field and that seldom had such an excellent performance been given by a guard in the bowl encounter. That well did Quentin perform. ... Sickels played like a 'mad man,' and indeed he was, for he remembers nothing of the fray from his injury until midway through the last quarter. Quentin was rushing passers unmercifully, making innumerable tackles in the Southern California backfield ..."[21]

As a senior, Sickels helped lead the 1948 Michigan Wolverines football team to its second consecutive undefeated, untied season and an undisputed national championship.[22] After a 35–0 victory over Navy in November 1948, The Michigan Daily selected Sickels as the lineman of the week. The paper noted: "Navy's game was just another contest for Sickels. He carried out his assignments with the same adeptness and fervor as in previous games. The Middies couldn't even trickle through his side of the line."[23] After concluding his football career at Michigan, Sickels was honored at a banquet in his hometown attended by several of his Michigan teammates.[24] Coach Oosterbaan wrote of Sickels, "No coach could ever ask for a finer gentleman or a better player."[25]