Best Dallas Cowboys player to wear No. 69 was the largest player in his draft class

Welcome back to our series covering the best Dallas Cowboys players to wear every jersey number from No. 0 to No. 99.

Well, we've come to the end of the 60s, and while we've seen a number of legends in this group, we're not even going to try to pretend that's the case here to close things out at No. 69. Truth be told, this is a winner-by-default kind of a situation, but as we still have to pick said winner, let's get things rolling by taking a look at everyone who's donned this digit for America's Team over the years.

Ajani Cornelius, OT
Jason Fabini, OT
Ben Fricke, G/C
George Hegamin, OT
Corvey Irvin, DT
Brandon Knight, OT
Henry Melton, DE
Alex Taylor-Prioleau, OT
Ross Tucker, G

As you can see, we don't have a lot of options from which to choose, and the biggest reason is because that for nearly three and a half decades, the Cowboys simply didn't have anyone wearing No. 69, as the first to sport it was offensive lineman George Hegamin in 1994.

And we'll just go ahead and tell you right here that he's our selection, and that's basically only because he wore it longer than anyone else who came after him.

We took a long look at defensive end Henry Melton, who had a five-sack season for Dallas in 2014, which turned out to be his only season with the club.

This decision was genuinely a toss-up, but we opted to reward longevity.

George Hegamin made 10 starts in four seasons with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s

A Freshman All-American and a Second-Team All-ACC selection at North Carolina State in 1992, Hegamin played just one additional season with the Gamecocks before being taken by Dallas in the third round of the 1994 NFL Draft with the 102nd overall pick.

Perhaps his biggest claim to fame, with the word "biggest" being the operative word here, is that of the 222 players selected that year, 224 if you count the two taken in the supplemental draft, Hegamin was the largest player in the entire draft class at 6-foot-7 and 330 pounds. So, there's that.

The New Jersey native appeared in just two regular-season games as a rookie, and while he dressed for a few games in 1995, he didn't see any action. Nevertheless, as he was on the roster, he got himself a ring, as that '95 campaign, of course, saw the Cowboys win their third Super Bowl in four years.

In 1996, after spending some of his offseason playing in the World League (NFL Europe) for the Frankfurt Galaxy, for whom he earned All-World honors, he suited up in every game for the Cowboys, even getting his first start in the regular-season finale, with left tackle Mark Tuinei sitting out with an injury.

And in 1997, with Tuinei going through more injury issues, Hegamin made seven more starts at left tackle and made another two starts at left guard in place of an injured Nate Newton. And that's literally the entirety of his run with the Cowboys, as he closed out his career playing the 1998 season with the Philadelphia Eagles and the 1999 and 2000 campaigns with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

We promise No. 70 will be much more entertaining, as we actually have to make one of the toughest calls in the entire series to kick off the next group.

Other Dallas Cowboys jersey honorees

This list will be updated daily until all 100 entries are complete, so please be sure to check back in with The Landry Hat for updates.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

George Hegamin made 10 starts in four seasons with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s

Other Dallas Cowboys jersey honorees

Schedule