First baseman Todd Helton graduated from Knoxville’s Central High School in 1992 and received a scholarship to play baseball and football at UT. In football he served as backup quarterback to Heath Shuler in his freshman and sophomore years and behind Jerry Colquitt (ahead of Peyton Manning) in his junior year. When Colquitt was injured, Helton took the reins but sustained an injury as well, leaving the quarterbacking to Peyton Manning.
In baseball Helton became the UT program leader in home runs, RBIs, and saves, and in his junior year was awarded the Dick Howser Trophy as the National Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year. He was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the first round (5th overall) following his junior year (1995). He played for two years on Rockies’ minor league teams and made his debut with the Rockies on August 2, 1997. He set Colorado records for hits, home runs, doubles, walks, runs scored, RBIs, on base percentage, and more, and won three Gold Glove awards (2001, 2002, 2004). He got his one-thousandth career hit at Coors Field on June 20, 2007. For the Rockies, he wears Number 17 in tribute to Mark Grace of the Cubs. At UT he wore Number 3. On January 30, 2008, UT retired Helton’s number—the first number retired in baseball.