DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - The University of Texas football program has elected to honor former running back Cedric Benson with a helmet decal that the team will wear for the entirety of the 2019 football season.
Benson, who passed away in a tragic motorcycle accident on August 17th along with his passenger, was a legend within both the Longhorn Program and the state of Texas as a whole.
The Longhorns will debut the No. 32 decal in the team's opening game of the season on Saturday night against Lousiana Tech.
The accident, which occurred in the 5600 block of Mount Bonnell Road in West Austin just after 10 p.m., also took the life 27-year-old and doctoral graduate Aamna Najam.
Benson's motorcycle reportedly collided with another vehicle, with the passengers of the other vehicle suffering only minor injuries.
Benson was just 36 years old.
“It’s an unbelievably sad day with the news of the passing of Cedric Benson,” University of Texas head coach Tom Herman said following Benson's death. “We lost a true Longhorn Legend, one of the best running backs in college football history and a really special man.”
After asserting himself as a Texas high school football legend and accumulating 8,423 rushing yards at Midland Lee, Benson became the first high school player ever to land the cover of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
Following his highly decorated high school career, Benson committed to the University of Texas, where he finished second in school history, and fourth in NCAA history, with 5,540 rushing yards. Benson finished second in school history in rushing touchdowns with 64 scores, trailing only Heisman Winner Ricky Williams in both categories.
Benson also played under legendary Longhorn and current North Carolina head coach, Mack Brown, for all four years of his career and quickly became one of Brown's favorite players to coach.
“Cedric was one of our favorites, mine and Sally’s,” Brown said in a news conference. “He was a true spirit. One of the toughest players we’ve ever coached, if not the toughest.”
Benson's career would never really take off to the level at which it was expected in the NFL, but he was able to carve out a nice career, making stops in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Green Bay, and amassing 6,017 yards and 32 touchdowns over eight seasons.