It's an impressive list of college football luminaries, but the single most important figure in Stanford Football history is Andrew Luck.

There have been many important figures throughout the rich history of Stanford Football, players and coaches who have carved their names into Pac-12 and NCAA record books while establishing the program on a national level. Recent names like Bryce Love, Christian McCaffrey, and David Shaw spring to mind easily, but people of my generation will quickly mention Troy Walters or Steve Stenstrom or Bill Walsh; older fans will include John Elway, Jim Plunkett, and John Brodie; and historians will remind us of Pop Warner.

I've written many times that Jim Harbaugh's arrival was the moment when everything changed for the Stanford football program, but Harbaugh only represented the possibility of change. His maniacal belief and single-minded drive to win opened the door to what would come, but it was Andrew Luck who made things more kinetic than potential. It was Luck who made Stanford Football what it is today.

I met Andrew at Pac-12 Media Day back in 2011. He had been the Heisman runner-up the year before, and had shocked the football world by turning away from the possibility of being the top pick in the NFL draft and returning to Stanford for his senior season. (In typical Andrew Luck fashion he had announced this decision with a simple press release, and I still remember where I was standing when the news popped up on my phone; my knees actually buckled.)

Heading into his senior season, he was the consensus favorite to win the Heisman, and the Cardinal was in the national championship conversation. But as he sat and talked to me, you never would've known it. When I asked him what he wanted to work on personally during the upcoming season, he immediately mentioned improving his completion percentage, even though he had set a school record in that category the year before.

But there are a few things that really stick out when I think back to that afternoon. We sat together for about twenty minutes as Andrew ate his lunch in front of five or ten reporters, each asking different versions of the same questions. He was already being heralded as the greatest quarterback prospect in a generation, but he really seemed no different than the Stanford kids I had gone to school with two decades earlier. He was focused on his goals, he was polite and thoughtful, and he had interesting things to say, even when a question about reading defenses was followed by one about the length of his beard.

He also gave us some unique insight into the changing culture of the program and its rising importance on campus. He recalled a road trip from early in his sophomore year and related a conversation he had had with a dorm mate who crossed his path when he got back to his room late that Saturday night.

Hey, Andrew. Where have you been all day?

We had a football game.

Really, how did it go?

We lost.

Oh, that's too bad. Do you have another one soon?

Next Saturday.

Oh, maybe you'll win that one!

Imagine a starting quarterback at Alabama having a conversation like that. Or, imagine K.J. Costello having a conversation like that this fall. Andrew Luck made Stanford Football relevant, not just on a national level but even on his own campus.

Eight years later, Luck's presence is still felt in every aspect of the program. There is no offensive coordinator, after all, there is the Andrew Luck Director of Offense. (Some have already suggested that position should be Luck's one day, if only so he can be introduced as the Andrew Luck Director of Offense Andrew Luck.)

So deep is Andrew's influence that he's still a topic of conversation at media day every summer. Last month Costello talked about wanting to emulate Luck, but he wasn't talking about statistics. Coach Shaw told one of his favorite stories, recounting the Washington game from Andrew's senior year and how Andrew dismissed his apology after not calling many passing plays. I've heard the story several times, but I still love hearing how excited Andrew was to read defenses, check into the best play, and then hand the ball of to a teammate rather than pad his own statistics in the middle of a Heisman campaign.

But then Shaw shared a new story about Andrew's recruitment. As part of the process, he had spoken to the head coach of one of Andrew's rival high schools and asked his opinion. The coach told a story about their game against Andrew the previous season. His players had a tradition of singling out the opposing team's best player and coming up with a derogative nickname to use as they prepared throughout the week leading up to the game. When the coach asked the players what they had settled on for Luck, they explained that they respected him too much to do that. After Luck torched the team that Friday night, the coach was out to dinner with his family, crying in his beer, when Andrew and his family happened to walk into the same restaurant. Andrew noticed him and walked across to say hello. They talked only briefly about the game, but mainly Andrew asked about the coach's family and how they were doing.

I'm not sure there's any story that sums up Andrew Luck as well as that one, and that was when he was seventeen years old.

This weekend we learned that Andrew has retired from football. Instead of sifting through the various opinions that have come from either end of the spectrum over the past 48 hours, I'll instead focus on my own thoughts.

I was a Cowboy fan for all of my life, a love born as I watched Super Bowl XII when I was only eight years old. But as Andrew's senior year progressed, I eventually realized that I would never be able to root against him. He had been my guy for so many Saturdays that I couldn't imagine it changing when he started playing on Sundays. And so I turned my back on the Cowboys in favor of the Colts, and I watched his NFL career with equal parts pride and disappointment as Andrew excelled while Colts management failed.

But through all the success and failure, the comeback wins and crushing defeats, the joyous celebrations and devastating injuries, Andrew was always the perfect ambassador for Stanford University. He deflected praise meant for him and redirected it towards his teammates. He bounced up from ferocious hits and complimented the linebackers who had just delivered them. He returned to campus during every off-season to work out and connect with the latest group of Stanford players. And what other Pro Bowl quarterback would ever think to start a book club? Because I'm an English teacher devoted to the idea of encouraging kids to read, maybe nothing Andrew ever did meant more to me.

Andrew made it cool to be a nerd.

And so as Andrew walks away from football, choosing a healthy future rather than gambling with the fragility of his knees and back and brain, I salute him.

Thank you, Andrew, for running over Sean Cattouse.

Thank you, Andrew, for tackling Shareece Wright.

Thank you, Andrew, for using a flip phone.

Thank you, Andrew, for being 6-0 against USC and Notre Dame.

Thank you, Andrew, for starting a Big Game winning streak that's still alive.

Thank you, Andrew, for making a one-handed catch against UCLA.

Thank you, Andrew, for orchestrating the triple-overtime victory over USC.

Thank you, Andrew, for throwing a 50-yard pass as you were falling down against Arizona State.

Thank you, Andrew, for being a nerd.

Thank you, Andrew, for your gallant fight in the 2012 Fiesta Bowl.

But more than all of that, thank you for representing the University so well for all this time. I can't wait to see what you do next.