Fort Collins' all-time greatest athletes: Where does Sophia Smith rank?

It's been a long time since The Coloradoan's previous list of the top Fort Collins athletes of all-time.

The last list was published in 2014, and plenty has changed since then.

The candidates are limited to those who grew up in Fort Collins and its surrounding communities.

Here's a look at the Coloradoan's Elite 11.

1. Byron 'Whizzer' White

Runner-up for the 1937 Heisman Trophy as college football's most outstanding player and a two-time NFL rushing champion, White was born in Fort Collins and grew up in Wellington. The Wellington High School graduate went on to become an All-American running back for the University of Colorado and played three seasons in the NFL, leading the league in rushing as a rookie in 1938 and again in 1940 (he was named All-Pro twice) before joining the Navy to fight in World War II. White was also a .400 hitter on the CU baseball team and a standout on CU's basketball squad that made the NIT in 1938. He went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice. White was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954. While his pro football career didn't last long, his college and pro accolades can still put him on top (for now), especially considering why his sports career was short.

2. Sophia Smith

The soccer star already has a strong argument for No. 1. If she has a strong World Cup (which begins Friday) and helps lead the U.S. Women's National Team to victory, she would quickly surge to the top. Smith is the defending NWSL MVP and frontrunner to repeat. She was a No. 1 draft pick out of college, where she won a national title with Stanford.

3. Gary Glick

The former LaPorte High School and CSU standout was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1956 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He went on to play seven seasons in the NFL. Glick was a two-time All-Skyline Conference selection as a defensive back at Colorado State University (Colorado A&M at the time) and earned second-team All-American honors his senior year while also earning a spot on the college all-star team that faced the NFL champions in a postseason game.

4. Jaelin Howell

Another fast-riser on the list. Howell spent most of her childhood growing up in Fort Collins and was at Fossil Ridge her first two high school years. The soccer midfielder was a two-time winner of the Hermann Trophy (college soccer's Heisman equivalent) at Florida State, where she helped the Seminoles win two national titles. Howell became the No. 2 pick in the 2022 NWSL draft, and the 23-year-old has already been named the Racing Louisville FC club captain. Howell has made five appearances for the senior U.S. Women's National Team.

5. Greg Myers

The former Windsor High standout won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's outstanding defensive back his senior year at CSU in 1995. He was the only player ever named to the All-Western Athletic Conference first team four times and was a two-time All-American. Myers was selected in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL draft by the Cincinnati Bengals and played 64 games in the NFL with both the Bengals and Dallas Cowboys.

6. Jeremy Bloom

A two-time U.S. Olympian and three-time world champion in freestyle moguls skiing, Bloom split time growing up between his father's home in Fort Collins and his mother's home in Loveland. He graduated from Loveland High and became a freshman All-American football player at CU before an NCAA ruling forced him to give up that sport in order to accept money from sponsors for his skiing career. He still was selected in the fifth round of the NFL draft in 2006, just two months after competing in his first Olympics, and played in preseason games that year with the Philadelphia Eagles and the following summer with the Pittsburgh Steelers, though he never made a regular-season roster.

7. Katie Follett

Follett was a seven-time All-American at Washington. She was a high school All-American in cross-country at Fort Collins High, where she won 23 of the 34 races she entered in cross-country, and set school records in the 3,200-meter run and at 5 kilometers. She won back-to-back Pac-12 Conference titles in the 1,500 at Washington and was the runner-up in the mile at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships. She also ran on the Huskies' national championship cross-country team in 2008 and set school records at Washington in the 1,500 and mile. Follett has won a USATF National Club Cross Country Championships race, won a 2017 U.S. Road Mile championship, was second in the 3,000-meter run at the 2018 USA Indoor championships, and was sixth in the U.S. Olympic trials (5,000 meters) in 2016, to name a few of her top accomplishments.

8. Marco Gonzales

The lefty was the winning pitcher in four straight Class 5A state championship games at Rocky Mountain from 2007 to 2010. He was a first-team All-American and the West Coast Conference pitcher of the year as a sophomore at Gonzaga in 2012 after sharing conference player of the year honors as a freshman. Gonzales was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals with the No. 19 pick in the 2012 draft. Now a Seattle Mariner, Gonzales has pitched in more than 160 career MLB games, including three straight opening-day starts for Seattle.

9. Lauren Gregory

Gregory is another Fort Collins running star. She was a seven-time state champion at Fort Collins High School (three in cross-country and four in track). Gregory was a three-time All-American in indoor track and field at Arkansas and has finished second in the NCAA in the indoor mile, 3,000-meter run and distance medley relay in her college career, which ended this spring. She won the the inaugural USATF Mountain Running Championships last July.

10. Nancy Roe

Roe won three NCAA Division II tennis titles for the University of Northern Colorado and two Class 5A state titles at No. 1 singles (1983 and 1984) for Fort Collins High. She also was an all-conference player on Fort Collins' 1983 state championship basketball team. She won NCAA titles at No. 2 singles in 1986 and teamed with Sandra Elliott for national championships in doubles in 1985 and 1986.

11. Evan Unrau

The Fort Collins native and Rocky Mountain High graduate was a star basketball player at Missouri and a WNBA draft selection in 2004. Unrau starred in basketball and volleyball at Rocky Mountain and also was the goalkeeper as a freshman on a Lobos girls soccer team that played for the Class 5A state title. Unrau was a two-time All-Big 12 selection and received honorable mention in All-American voting her senior year at Missouri, where she finished her career No. 2 on the school's all-time rebounds list. She was a captain on a Big 12 all-star team that represented the U.S. at 2003 World University games and was selected by the Washington Mystics in the third round of the 2004 WNBA draft. She played professionally for two years in Luxembourg.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Elite 11: The greatest Fort Collins athletes of all time