Herschel
Posted: March 3rd, 2010 | Filed under: Essays | 52 Comments »
I had no idea … but Herschel Walker was born one day after Wilt scored 100 points in a game. Of course, there’s actually no reason WHY I should have known this. But there’s something right about it, something fitting, as if the sports gods said: “Oh, you think that 100-point game was something? Well, take a look at THIS guy.”
Here is the Herschel story I wrote for this blog about 2 1/2 years ago … it’s long, and it’s reverential, and its premise remains: Even as Tim Tebow leaves school, I think Herschel is the greatest college football player I ever saw.
* * *
The legend goes like this: There was a young boy in Wrightsville, Ga. (“The Friendliest Town in Georgia!) who didn’t like to do anything at all. He would just lie there on the couch all summer, dreaming his life away, until one day his father said that this just wouldn’t do.
“What do you like to do?” the father asked.
The boy thought on this for a long while. What did he like to do? Heck, he was in Wrightsville. What WAS there to do? Watch the pulpwood truck drive by? Stand outside the textile mills and wait for life to disappear? The boy would later say the largest dream he could imagine then was that one day he might go to Atlanta. To see it. Still, he knew that his father wanted an answer, a real answer, so he thought and thought and when his father came back, he knew what to say.
“What do you like to do?” the father asked.
“Watch TV,” the boy said.
Not much of an answer, is it? But this was a wise father, and he said: “OK, if that’s what you like doing, fine. You can watch as much television as you want. But during the commercials, you must exercise. That’s the deal.”
The boy agreed. He would watch television. But during commercials, he would do pushups, sit-ups, chin-ups, he would go outside and run sprints. After a little while, he could feel his body changing. His arms bulked, his legs moved faster. He did more sit-ups, more pushups, more chin-ups. He would race his older sister, Christine, and she would beat him, and he would get mad, and he would do more sit-ups, more pushups, run more sprints.
The boy would later say that he never really had a goal for all this work, never really had an idea where it might take him. He was just working out through the commercials. Most boys in Wrightsville knew they were going to the Army someday, so he knew that, if nothing else, he would be ready for basic training.
And then one day, someone gave him a football, told him “Run.” He started running with it. Nobody could tackle him. One day he went to Johnson County High, and they gave him the football, told him “Run.’ His senior year he ran for 3,167 yards and he scored 45 touchdowns, and that very year a football coach, a Georgia legend named Vince Dooley, dropped out of the sky in a helicopter, and walked into to the school, asked this young man if he wanted to go to the University of Georgia. The young man said he was not sure — other coaches wanted him to go to their schools.
And then, the legend says, he put the names of three schools into a paper bag, shook it up, reached down and pulled out a slip of paper. It said GEORGIA. And so Herschel Walker went to the University of Georgia.
* * *
The legend goes like this: First practice in full pads at Georgia, and one of the upper-classmen told his mates that he would take it upon himself to introduce this new recruit, this Herschel, to the ways of big-time college football. The others coaxed him on; they too had grown tired of hearing about this freshman, this Achilles in Cleats. Or maybe they had not grown tired — maybe they just wanted to know if he was real. Herschel did not talk much. He did not talk at all. He also had this bored look on his face, and it drove them mad.
Herschel took a handoff, the defender of the upper class charged at him full speed, launched himself head first, drove his helmet into Herschel’s helmet. The collision sounded like a car hitting a stone wall, it echoed through the shrieks. Then there was silence.
When the defender woke up, he was told by his mates that he had, perhaps, slowed Herschel down for an instant, though they did have to concede that he kept running for a touchdown after the crash.
“You showed him,” they assured the defender, as little Herschel Walkers circled his head.
* * *
The legend goes like this: Herschel did not lift weights. He had an aversion to weights — they seemed, to him, counterfeit, unreal. And yet his body was rock. Stone. The first time he ran the 40-yard dash at a Georgia practice, the coaches clocked him at 4.35. He had not even warmed up.
He was a freak of nature — everyone could see this. He could run 100 yards in 9.3 seconds (and 100 meters in a world class 10.22). And, he stood 6-foot-2 and weighed 220 pounds, and no single person could knock him off his feet.
His coach, Vince Dooley, could see that Herschel was something new, something he had never quite seen before, and he was not quite sure what he was supposed to do with this gift. Vince was conservative by nature, all them Dooley boys were conservative. The Dooleys — Vince and Bill — had grown up in Mobile, and had their ears bent and pulled at the McGill Institute, where they learned about football and that we are put on this earth to build the kingdom of God. The Dooleys were famous for never underestimating an opponent — for in fact, making every opponent sound like a combination of Lombardi’s Packers, Noll’s Steelers and the army of the undead. It was one of them — probably the younger brother, Bill — who uttered the classic when he could think of anything especially scary about that week’s opponent: “William & Mary has the finest long snapper I have ever seen.”
Vince Dooley’s conservative football nature told him that you could not build the kingdom of God with freshmen, not even unstoppable freshmen like Herschel Walker. And so, Herschel did not start that first game against Tennessee. He was, in fact, not expected to play very much if at all.
And then it came to pass that Tennessee led the game 15-2, and the Bulldogs were very much in danger of losing the season opener, and desperate times can turn even the most conservative of men inside out. “Get in there Herschel,” Dooley said, four words, and Herschel obliged, took the first handoff of his career, broke four tackles, ran over future NFL pro bowler Bill Bates and scored. He then calmly flipped the ball to the referee.
“My God!” Georgia’s radio announcer Larry Munson shouted in the booth. “A freshman!”
* * *
The legend goes like this: Three South Carolina men had an angle to tackle Herschel. If you could choose only one moment in that unbelievable freshman season — the greatest season any college football player has ever had — it would have to be that one. Three players had him dead to rights as he ran the sideline.
Up to then, Vince Dooley had been playing a fun little game — when he needed Herschel, he used him liberally. In the Tennessee game, with the Bulldogs in a tough spot, Herschel carried the ball 24 times in a little bit more than a half. Against those tough Aggies of Texas A&M, he carried it 21 times (one of those a 76-yard burst, and he covered those yards so quickly that one Aggie, after the game, would say he could not have caught Herschel in a cab) and against those relentless Clemson Tigers he carried it 23 more times (for 121 yards).
But then, the schedule dipped, and suddenly Herschel found himself on the bench. He carried the ball only nine times against TCU and 11 against Ole Miss.
“He’s still just a freshman,” Dooley told his coaches, and they nodded and tried hard to keep straight faces. Herschel could afford to be “just a freshman” in a 34-3 victory over them Horned Frogs. But the rest of the time — he was the entire Georgia offense.
Against Vanderbilt, Herschel got the ball 23 times. He ran for 283 yards and scored three touchdowns. It was the 60-yard touchdown that left people breathless; a few yards into the run a little guy wearing a No. 26 jersey tried to tackle Herschel — he bravely jumped in front of the moving train and was quite literally sent flying five yards in the air. It looked like something out of the cartoons or The Matrix.
“I don’t look to break tackles,” Herschel said. “People just keep getting in my way.”
Then came the South Carolina game, and it was on national television, and there was a subplot. South Carolina had a senior running back, George Rogers, who everyone was pumping for the Heisman, in large part because he was a senior. He had paid his dues. He represented the establishment.
And then there was this freshman from a little town in Georgia who people were whispering about. He was the new thing. Rogers was Pat Boone. Herschel was James Brown.
The game was close, but the fight between generations was no contest. Rogers had a critical fumble, and Herschel ran for 219 yards. And the biggest play happened when Herschel got the ball, headed for the right sideline and those three South Carolina players had their angles. Herschel, when remembering the run, would say, “I know at least one of those guys had a good angle to tackle me. But then I remember thinking to myself, ‘Hey, I can run a little bit.’”
He could run. He blew by all three — and it wasn’t close. None of the three even got close enough to attempt a dive. The speed was electrifying — it was like watching a football game jump out of the screen, like a pop-up book. The only thing that matches it in my memory was Bo Jackson’s Monday Night run against Seattle. But this happened first. No one had ever seen something that big move that fast.
There were more amazing runs — the next week he went 72 yards against Florida. The week after that he ran left against Auburn, stopped, turned around, and ran across the field for an 18 yard touchdown. The next week, against hated Georgia Tech, he broke the NCAA freshman rushing record in style, a 65-yard touchdown run.
He had done it all. Georgia was one-dimensional team. The Dawgs could not throw at all. Their offensive line was just OK. The defense was good, but not legendary. And still Georgia won all 11 games. Herschel ran for 1,616 yards, 15 touchdowns, he had four 200-yard rushing games, he knocked out George Rogers man-to-man (though Rogers still ended up winning the Heisman — you can’t fight the establishment). He broke long, breathtaking runs week after week. Defenses lined up every available man to stuff Herschel — half the time they did not even COVER Georgia receivers — and still he had his way. There’s a lot more to the Herschel story, but it would never be quite like this again, not for Herschel, and not for anyone else either.
“That freshman year,” Larry Munson would tell me years later, “if I had seen him fly away, I would have just said, “OK folks, Herschel Walker has flown off so he could be with his own kind.”
* * *
The legend goes like this: In the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame, in the first quarter, Herschel got hit and was knocked on his shoulder and he heard a popping sound. He felt a different kind of pain. He wobbled to the sideline.
There a trainer said Herschel had dislocated his shoulder. The trainer said several other things, but Herschel stopped listening. He could only hear the quotes from Notre Dame players who said that they would stop this freshman, keep him from getting 100 yards. “Nobody gets 100 against us,” one of them had said. Herschel did hear the trainer say, “Hold still.” And then he heard another pop. His shoulder was back in.
There really never was any question about him going back into the game. “Sometimes,” Herschel would say, “pain is sort of in your mind.” But when he went back into the game, he was no longer the same man, he could no longer run behind his shoulders. He had to adjust, run more straight up and deal with the pain every time he got hit.
And he got hit. Do you know how many passes Georgia completed in the game? One. Quarterback Buck Belue completed one pass. The gameplan, like always, was give it to Herschel, pitch it to Herschel, fake it to Herschel and then give it to him again. Even with a dislocated shoulder.
Herschel ran for 150 yards. Georgia beat Notre Dame and was named national champion. It was one of the most courageous performances in the history of college football, there with the Gipper and other stuff from the movies. But something very definitely changed that day.
* * *
The legend goes like this: Georgia had a third down and one yard to go, and every time Georgia had one yard to go they gave the ball to Herschel. Well, that’s not descriptive enough because pretty much every time Georgia had the ball in ANY situation, they gave the ball to Herschel.
That’s how it went his sophomore season. Great? Of course he was great. He ran for 1,891 yards, scored 20 touchdowns, carried a significantly younger Georgia team to a 10-1 record (the Dawgs only loss during the season was to eventual champion Clemson). He was incredible.
But he wasn’t the same. There was no mistaking that. The long runs — those impossible bursts of speed and power that made him explode out of your TV screen when he was a freshman — were gone. His longest run as a sophomore was 32 yards. He was hitting the line again and again, battering for 8 yards, 6 yards, 9 yards. The Herschel music, which as a freshman had been all horns and strings, sweeping symphonies, was now the music of drums and electric guitars. Bam. Ba ba. Bam.
Why? One theory is that teams had figured out how to tackle Herschel in the open field — defenders would dive at his knees and take out his feet. Nobody ever took Herschel Walker straight up. Another theory is that the Georgia gameplan had changed — the conservative nature of Dooley was coming out; he now wanted to take advantage of Herschel’s power running, grind out first downs, eat up clock. And so the coordinators sent Herschel crashing into the line again and again and again, 35 times per game. There was no time for artistry.
And then, some say that Herschel himself changed after the separated shoulder; he no longer ran with quite the same abandon. It is hard to say. There is a strangely touching scene from an awful Burt Reynolds movie called “Paternity” that I think about now and then. In the scene, the hot young Beverly D’Angelo asks Burt Reynolds why he wants kids (the plot of the movie is so convoluted and bizarre that I can’t even remember it precisely — I just remember that Burt Reynolds had hired Beverly D’Angelo to have his kid).
Burt explains that he once saw a little boy riding his bicycle on top of a fence. The boy would ride the bike over and over again on the fence. And then someone saw the boy and shouted, “That’s impossible. You can’t ride a bike on top of a fence.” The boy immediately fell and could never ride on a fence again.
Was that Herschel Walker? Maybe. The thing that’s so amazing about him as a freshman is that even looking back now, on grainy video tape, you can see that every single time Herschel gets the ball he believes he’s going to run 75 yards for a touchdown. He expects to go 75 yards for a touchdown. He runs like there is nothing in the world that can stop him.
“When you look up, you go up,” Herschel would say.
As a sophomore, there’s something more realistic about his running style. It is like someone went up to him and said, “You know, those 75 yard runs are impossible.’ It was as if, after Notre Dame, Herschel realized that a 12-yard run is really good. I don’t think he knew that as a freshman. I think as a freshman, he was like the first time golfer who hits an approach shot to within a few feet of the hole — and when his partner claps, he says, “What are you clapping for? The ball didn’t go in.” I think as a freshman, he thought 12-yard runs were failures.
As a sophomore, he had an almost unbelievable 72 runs for 10 yards or more. He was still the best running back around. But, I don’t know, he was just different. It’s hard to explain what it is to grow up. Maybe he wasn’t going for the storybooks anymore. Maybe he was going for first downs.
Of course he still did miraculous things. There was that third down and 1 against Ole Miss, and Georgia called for him go get the ball and do what they called, “the patented Herschel Walker leap.” It seems unlikely that he ever patented it (undoubtedly Walter Payton would have beaten him to the U.S. Patent Office), but he did it about as well anybody ever. His vertical jump was supposedly measured at 40 inches.
So Herschel went up, and some Ole Miss guy went up with him (well not quite as high) and the two collided in mid-air. They both fell to the ground, only Herschel fell on his feet. He then walked into the end zone for a touchdown.
“Rest of my life,” Walker would say, “people asked me to do that again.”
* * *
The legend goes like this: Herschel Walker was mad. This was against Florida. He had tried to catch a kickoff in the air only it went through his arms and bounced into the end zone. Herschel then did something he never did — he panicked. He tried to bring the ball out of the end zone, and he got tackled at the 1 yard line.
The next play, Georgia fumbled and Florida scored.
Herschel was an an even tempered young man. He did not talk much. He never celebrated his touchdowns. Georgia offensive linemen, when asked what Herschel was really like, would shrug.
“Get me the ball,” Herschel muttered in the huddle that day, and he never spoke in the huddle. They had never seen him so angry. Florida was lining up every available man and a few professors on the line to stop Herschel, but if Herschel wanted the ball …
“I never saw a player so determined,” Vince Dooley would say. Herschel ran the ball 47 times that day. Yes. Forty-seven. He gained 192 yards that that day. He caught two touchdown passes — both stunning runs where he ran through tacklers like the old freshman days.
And when Georgia trailed late, they gave him the ball 11 times on the game-winning drive. Georgia won.
The next day, Herschel asked Georgia’s kicker to come out to the field and kick 50 kickoffs to him.
* * *
The legend goes on and and on. There was the time as a junior when he ran for 143 yards against South Carolina with a broken thumb. There was the time he ran for 219 yards against Florida, after telling a friend before the game, “One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida.”
There was the time he ran for 177 yards against Auburn, two touchdown, carried the team to another unbeaten season, another Sugar Bowl (in his three years at Georgia, the Bulldogs lost one regular season game — to national champion Clemson — and two bowl games, to national champion Penn State and Dan Marino’s Pitt).
By now though, it hardly seemed that anything Herschel did was surprising. He had the Heisman Trophy wrapped up before the season even began, and so he won it when he put his his usual numbers — he ran for 1,752 yards, scored 17 touchdowns, had three more 200-plus yard rushing days.
But at this point, strangely, it all seemed almost ordinary. He was still getting almost all of his yards on those short, hard runs that gain first downs and win games but don’t get the heart racing. I don’t know, but when I look back at Herschel highlights from his junior year, he seems almost bored. Wilt Chamberlain left Kansas after his junior year because he was tired of dealing with four men covering him. I wonder how Herschel felt during his junior year, after he had done everything, when there were no miracles left to perform.
He did have one more moment, though, one more run which left them all gasping. That was in the last game, Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, and it has become my favorite Herschel run. I don’t know the names of the Georgia Tech players involved, but there’s no doubt in my mind that they are in bars telling the story.
Herschel took a typical handoff and ran hard into the line. The first man to get to him jumped in from the right side and grabbed Herschel’s right leg. A split second later, another guy came in and hit Herschel high on his left shoulder. Together they spun Herschel around and had him about toppled over — I would say Herschel’s body was at about a 60 degree angle to the ground. He was practically down. And right then, just as he was about to fall, a THIRD guy came in and grabbed Herschel’s other leg.
I have watched this run 50 or more times in my life. I just watched it again a few moments ago. I have no idea how Herschel did not fall. I don’t know if he realized that it would be his last game at Georgia (he still had a bowl game, but those are different). I don’t know if he had it in his mind to leave everyone with a memory. I know this: He did not fall. He spun around, threw off the first tackler, twisted away from the second, jumped out of the grasp of the third. And just then a fourth tackler came in, someone wearing a No. 8 jersey, and I love this young man because he completed the picture. He dove at Herschel, and that’s when Herschel just stopped, sidestepped, let No. 8 go by.
And then, Herschel lifted his right leg and he actually reared — the way horses do in the movies — and he was off, 59 yards, the last touchdown, everyone else left in the dust.
“He had NO business not falling down,” a crazed Larry Munson shouted up in the radio booth. “No business at all!”
No business. He was Herschel one more time, the kid who trained during commercial and believed, deep down, that nobody could tackle him.
“How did you do it?” I asked him once at a banquet.
“I don’t know,” he said, and he smiled. “It seemed like the thing to do.”
* * *
The legend ends there. Herschel went pro. It was, looking back, a better pro career than most remember. He went to the USFL for some obscene amount of money (something like $16 million guaranteed), and he rushed for more than 5,000 yards in three years, and one of those seasons he ran for 2,411 yards. Nobody really knew what that meant though — being the USFL and all — and nobody knows now.
He then went to the NFL — and he gained 1,500 yards for Dallas one season, and he still had enough status that Minnesota traded five players and six draft choices to get him. Think about that. Eleven players. Unfortunately for Minnesota, a couple of those draft picks turned out to be Emmitt Smith and Darren Woodson, and so Herschel was not too appreciated in Minnesota. The fans booed him relentlessly and then the team got rid of him, and he played a few more years for Philadelphia, a little time with the Giants, and he finished again in Dallas.
By then he was a very different type of athlete — still fast, still strong, but his instinctiveness as a runner seemed gone and he hardly ever seemed to break a tackle. There are a million theories, and I suspect the truth is probably in all of them. He was a pretty decent pass catcher and kick returner. And all in all, hey, he did rush for more than 8,000 yards, and he caught more than 500 passes, and he made a couple of Pro Bowls.
But that’s not the Herschel Walker that this is about. No, the Herschel I’m talking about here was the greatest college football player who ever lived. At least that’s how the legend goes in my mind.
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“The Dooleys were famous for never underestimating an opponent — for in fact, making every opponent sound like a combination of Lombardi’s Packers, Noll’s Steelers and the army of the undead.”
That’s a fine, fine sentence there, and to be congratulated.
Loath as I am to ask for more, and how ungrateful it must seem to do so, given how long this was already, I’m still curious about one of the last things in this post: namely, what IS the truth in the theories about why HW fell down in those later years? And what DO you make of his USFL numbers?
I expect no reply. It’s just a testament to how much I enjoyed this post that I still wanted even further details.
The 80s had Jackson & Walker, I am trying to think of other Freaks of Nature type Athletes. Physically I think of Calvin Johnson, but athletically I think about Lebron James and Reggie Bush.
Another brilliant piece, Joe. Thanks.
So let me tell you about watching Barry Sanders play high school football.
My wife was a teacher and cheerleader sponsor at Wichita North. Barry was a so-so student in her Spanish class. But she said, “He’s such a *nice* kid.” That was Barry’s Junior year.
Barry’s big brother Byron was a power fullback for the North High Redskins. He was playing high school ball for a college education and got a scholarship to Northwestern. The North High offense was built around Byron and his little brother Barry was about as useless at tits on a python as the team’s wide-receiver.
Funniest thing, though. Every time the North High quarterback threw a pass (about twice that season, as I recall), Barry ran 63 yards for a touchdown. (Actually, he ran about 230 yards for a touchdown; zigging and zagging around and past hapless teenaged defenders.)
Then came Barry’s Senior year. Same offense for the Redskins. Barry started the first two or three games as wide receiver. Got a pass or two and ran 63 (by 230) yards for a touchdown every time he touched the ball.
So, a couple of games into the season my wife, the cheerleader sponsor, and I held a cookout for the girls and their boyfriends (mostly football players). The guys said, basically, “Barry is good.”
And one Saturday night, as I was dragged into chaperoning a dance in the Wichita North cafeteria, I happened to talk to the Redskins’ Head Coach Dale Burkholter. “Why,” I asked, “doesn’t Barry Sanders get the ball more?”
Burkholter is a fireplug of a guy and I was a long-haired advertising copywriter. “Barry will never be the football player Byron is,” said the coach. “Barry’s afraid to get hit. And hitting’s what the game’s all about.”
I said, “Seems to me, when you’re carrying the football, *not* getting hit might be part of the game.” Coach Burkholter didn’t seem impressed.
But the next Friday night, three or four games into the season, Barry Sanders set up behind the quarterback and it was like watching Picasso paint.
Barry was 5’8″, the smallest kid (including the girls) on his block, who’d grown up with Wichita’s Recreation League flag football program. That’s where he learned to watch football. Look at any photo, any tape, of Barry Sanders running for the Lions, for Oklahoma State, for Wichita North High School and the thing that’ll bowl you over is his eyes, wide open, seeing everything the defense has to throw at him unfolding before, or after him.
Barry would scat, stop, jig, zag, let tacklers attack the place he should be or used to be or was gonna be but wasn’t.
Maybe he was afraid to get hit. At any rate, it rarely happened.
During the first half of his last regular season game somebody in the press box discovered that Barry was five yards away from setting a new Wichita City League rushing record. He’d been pulled from the game early in the second half after North had built a commanding lead. Coach Burkholter offered to but Sanders back in the game for one more play, to get the record. Barry said, “Let some of the younger kids play, coach. They’ve earned it.”
He was such a *nice* kid.
Okay, with a couple of beers and a boring game in the background, I can turn this story into how *I* am the guy who made Barry Sanders a running back.
But ya shoulda been there.
I don’t know anything about football. I’m a baseball fan, through and through, and have no context to determine if 2411 yards is good or bad or meaningless. Still, this was one of the most captivating examples of sports writing I’ve ever read, and I’m thankful that you posted it here. You’re a heck of a talent.
Haven’t had a chance to finish reading this post yet (it is excessively (excessively) long after all), but I’m liking what I’ve read so far.
However, wanted to share a link to this other story here as well. Not sure if you’ve read it or not (you are mentioned in it, however), but figured you’d want to know about it. The story is about Bo Jackson, and it’s a great read.
Check it on ESPN.com here
Thanks for the link, “Steve” –
I was sitting behind the Roylz dugout the day Bo climbed up the left field fence and caught that ball.
The slo-mo replays — all ten thousand of ‘em — don’t do it credit.
I was one of gobs of people who heard Buck O’Neill talk about that special crack of the bat… that he heard it when Ruth hit the ball, that he heard it when Josh Gibson hit the ball, and he heard it when Bo hit the ball.
And then Buck kinda shrugged. I’ve always thought that Buck wanted Bo to concentrate on baseball and not be distracted by football.
As a Kansas City fan, I’ve always resented that Bo played for the Raiders. And I’ve always thought if Bo had concentrated on baseball, it wouldn’t be just George Brett in our Roylz memories.
Bo was singularly blessed with talents we fans can only dream about. And, mostly, he handled them well. In retirement, he seems to be graceful with what was, what is, and what became.
See, that’s why I’m a sports fan. I was a fair-to-midlin’ 3rd baseman until they started throwing curve balls. However George Brett or Tony Gwynn or Stan Musial ever figured *that* out still astounds me. I was never big enough or fast enough or talented enough to play much football (although I practiced a lot), but I understand what it takes — that I never had — to succeed at that game.
We go to games because the guys on the field can do it.
And that’s the thing about Bo Jackson. It wasn’t just that Bo *knew.* Bo *could.*
I like the long posts.
Great stories, Joe.
You forgot to mention the part where he turned his attention to bobsledding with Willie Gault and company.
Since you’re from Cleveland and all, didn’t you see Jim Brown play? He wasn’t too bad either.
Awesome, awesome post. I used to love watching Herschel play for my Eagles, even though he was older and of course not quite the same… but he was just fun to watch. I remember he was the first 1000 yard back the Eagles had in many years.
For those of us who don’t consider football an art along the lines of, you know-painting or writing or throwing baseballs-the greatest part of the Herschel Walker legend has to be after he…he signed somewhere but said he didn’t and then admitted he had before he said he didn’t…
Eddie Murphy in full Herschel mode on Saturday Night Live shrugged some monster padded shoulders and goes “Oftentimes…thoughts get stuck in mah neck!”
Monkeyhawk, those were great comments on another absolutely fine piece of journalism by Joe. Thanks to you both.
-greg
My #1 undoubtedly goes to Bo Jackson. If Bo had as many attempts as Herschel he would have had over 1300 more yards and 16 more TD’s. However Bo split carries with two other great running backs, Brent Fullwood and Tommy Agee, who both went on to play in the NFL. The final college stats for Bo and Herschel assuming the same number of carries would read:
Herschel Walker: 5259 yards, 49 TD’s
Bo Jackson: 6580 yards, 65 TD’s
The legends of Bo and Herschel are nearly identical though. RB’s with nearly unimaginable combinations of speed and power.
When I was in school at Kentucky, I got to see Herschel play in person twice, and Bo once.
I’m with Ian in that I thought Bo was better.
But I can also say that there has never been a bigger legend in SEC Football in my lifetime than Herschel. I got to travel to all of the campuses except Oxford, and the aura around Herschel was unbelievable.
Watch out for Tim Tebow.
Amen, and I’m a native of Tallahassee and a died in the wool FSU fan, but that Freshman year was unbelievable. Closest thing to it was Marcus’ Dupree’s first half in the bowl game after his freshman year at OU, though the tearaway jerseys did help a little.
Once chatted with Willie Morris over bourbon in columbus, MS about Herschel for nigh on an hour.
Thanks for the memories.
Holy crap that was good.
I grew up less than a mile from Sanford Stadium. I was 7 years old when Herschel was a freshman — 28 years later, I’ve never enjoyed a college football season more than I did that one.
I used to see Herschel out running on his own on Sundays. One time, late in the season, I actually worked up the nerve to go out and run alongside him for a while. He didn’t seem to mind.
He was jogging, I was sprinting. I lasted about three blocks. He said “Nice running with you,” and kept on going. It surely meant nothing to him, but it meant the world to me, a little kid running side by side with his hero.
John pardon my response, but that was truly beautiful in a way that only childhood memories can be. Don’t ask me about Neon Deion, Chris Weinke, Peter Warrick, Warrick Dunn, Leroy Butler, Sammy Smith, Charlie Ward, Ron Sellers, or even Larry Key, but I could give you chapter and verse about Gary Huff, starting QB at FSU (1970-72) as I was born at the nag’s end of the baby boom in April 1964 and thus 8 for Huff’s wonder 1972 season . . . it took Charlie Ward and the spread option to break his career passing record (he’s now 3rd behind Ward and Danny Kanell in 2nd place)
Superb piece on Herschel. I was one of the first reporters to cover Herschel at Johnson County High School. I was the prep editor at the Macon Telegraph at the time. A friend of mine, Gary Phillips, an assistant coach at a high school in Macon, had gotten the head football job at Johnson County. He called me in the spring before Herschel’s junior year with an incredible story I could not believe. Said he had just come from a physical education class in which some kid, about 6-1 and 220 pounds, had run a 9.6 100-yard dash in street clothes and loafers. Said the kid’s name was Herschel Walker. Said I should look for his name the next fall when he started calling in Johnson County results. I thought he was exaggerating and just looking for publicity. But I did look that fall, saw the incredible numbers he was putting up and went down to Wrightsville for a game. He was number 43 in high school and never came off the field. As impressive as he was as a running back, he was even more impressive as a linebacker. He would put a perfect form tackle on the undersized opposing ball carriers, then politely help them get back on their feet. He returned punts and kickoffs and played on the punt and kickoff teams. He was a man among boys. Thanks for remembering him.
This brought a tear to my eye. As a lifelong Georgia fan (and alumni), I was raised on Herschel Walker. I naively thought that 200 yards per game was the measuring stick for college running backs because he so routinely surpassed that mark. I love hearing all of the Paul Bunyan-esque stories about him, like how he didn’t touch weights until he came to UGA, about how he did someithing like 500 situps and pushups per day…just an amazing athlete.
Great stuff, Joe. Does anyone know what became of Herschel?
Great piece of writing. Somewhat off topic question in response to all the Bo Jackson comparisons. I clearly remember the walk on the outfield wall and have been searching for video of it online. Does anybody know where to find it?
Noticed Herschel was not in attendance at the Heisman ceremony this past weekend when he was recognized for 25th anniversary of winning the award…
I read the Herschel Walker Story back in the day. Was impressed by that story, and was a huge fan of the man. But, I love the “legend” as it has just been told … nicely done.
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia football legend Herschel Walker is expected to reveal in an upcoming book that he has multiple personalities — a revelation that surprises the man who coached the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner.
“That’s all news to me,” former Georgia coach Vince Dooley said. “All I know is whatever personality he had when he had the football was the one I liked.”
“Breaking Free” will chronicle Walker’s life with multiple personality disorder, according to Shida Carr, the book’s publicist at Simon & Schuster.
Carr said the book will be published in August, but gave no other details and declined to provide excerpts.
“There’s some buzz out there and we’re letting people know we have this book coming out,” Carr told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In three seasons at Georgia, Walker led the Bulldogs to a 33-3-1 record, three straight Southeastern Conference championships and the 1980 national title. He won the Heisman as a junior, then left school a year early to sign with the now-defunct U.S. Football League.
Walker went onto play in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He has lived in Dallas since his playing career ended.
A former Georgia teammate also was caught off guard by Walker’s revelation.
“I’m probably one of his closest friends and that’s news to me,” said Frank Ros, who was captain of Georgia’s 1980 national championship team. “I knew he was working on a book but I just thought it was about football. He does 100 things at once and always has projects going on, but that blows me away.”
The newspaper said Walker could not be reached for comment.
Multiple personality disorder, also known as dissociative identity disorder, is a rare mental condition in which one person has two or more distinct personalities, according to the Merck Manual of Medical Information.
Once Herschel was jogging around Athens, and came upon a car accident. A woman was trapped inside. He ripped the door open, helped the lady out, and jogged off into the sunset.
True.
A sorority put up a banner: “Miracle From 34′s Feet”
And, everyone’s favorite quote:
“Herschel, don’t you get tired from carrying the ball so much?”
“That ball ain’t heavy.”
I once heard Vince building up UVA – “Their punter is one of the best in the country.”
Hershel is the all time greatest college football player. I still don’t know how Penn State beat you guys in ’82.
I like this story. I never watch Herschel Walker play in college, so I have no ideas. I watched Herschel Walker run for 2000+ yards with NJ Generals in the USFL and in the NFL. He was amazing early in his pro career as a halfback in a fullback body with great catching ability. I always thought his pro career should had been better. But if the details of your story is corrected, then it make sense why his production dropped in his later years. If he touched the balls that often in college, then he was probably half done with his career when he hit the pro. If anyone doubt this fact, just look at the careers of any 220+ lb running backs in the NFL. Running backs, especially large running backs, tend to have short careers. I am curious to hear about Herschel Walker’s multiple personalities disorder. He have always appeared to be a nice person away from the field. Wish him well.
Great piece of writing. Just amazing.
Well said, Joe.
I used to read you in the Augusta newspaper (sic). Congratulations on getting out.
I remember Herschel saying, long after his career ended, that he still did 1000 push-ups and 1500 sit-ups every day.
The most impressive image of Herschel I recall is watching him run track for UGA. Back then they wore tank-tops and skimpy little nylon shorts. In the starting blocks for the 50 or 100, it looked like Adonis versus the Stick Men.
They would invariably beat him badly out of the blocks, but he had a breath-taking burst down the stretch that often reeled them in at the tape.
He won the 100 yard dash in the Superstars at age 36.
[...] recently came across this captivating essay by Joe Posnanski on Herschel Walker. It’s a must read for any Georgia fan and especially entertaining for someone like me who was [...]
Impressive piece that had me captivated.
There are two things I preach to my girls. 1) No one will ever tell you you are not beautiful 2) No ONE will ever tell you that Herschel Walker is not the greatest to ever play the game.
Ian, Herschel only played 3 seasons to Bo’s 4. And you’re right – everybody knew Herschel was all Georgia had… and they still couldn’t stop him. So I don’t know if you’re an Auburn fan or just a fan of Bo the Pro, but when it comes to collegiate legends, #34 starts and stops with Herschel Walker, Goalline Stalker. Speaking of hypotheticals, had HW come back for his Senior season he would have set records that would likely still be standing today, like being the only D-1 rusher to even come close to sniffing, and perhaps surpassing, the 7,000 career yard mark. Hey, they were both Legends, and I realize Bo was injured in his Junior season as well. But when ya boil down the numbers, Herschel did/won more, in less time. Think of this – Herschel never lost an SEC game. Not one… that’s quite the accomplishment in and of itself. And the aforementioned National Championship title / game in which his QB completed ONE pass, lol. With the dislocated shoulder to boot… just insane. I would say ‘maybe it’s just me,’ but it’s not… several lists and publications agree. Herschel Walker is the Greatest College Football Running Back Of All Time. And in the rare instance he isn’t listed #1, he’s top three. Bo had the Pro’s, but Herschel straight OWNED the SEC, and should have won multiple Heisman trophies sans politics.
Great piece, Joe.
Great article – I enjoyed it very much. I was at the Tennessee game in which Hershcel debuted. I could not see anything because our seats were so low and in the opposite endzone from the historic first touchdown. But, after that I watched him play for three years and did not miss much.
Herschel’s first year was the last year of the tear-away jerseys. That MAY have helped him break a few long runs that he did not get his next two years. For the most part, I do not think his best runs were the long touchdowns. Instead, his runs for 10-20 yards were often unbelievable but never made the highlight reels! Also, in years two and three Herscel was such a know commodity, the defenses were completely stacked to stop him and they couldn’t.
I was at the Georgia-Florida game in 1981 and late in the fourth quarter, UGA got the ball on its own five yard line as you mentioned. We ran Herschel on almost every play and they simply could not stop us and we won 26-20, the same score as 1980. I was a student then and we were delerious. We KNEW we were going to win and none of the students sat down the entire fourth quarter!
Now, as far as Bo Jackson was concerned, who’s the better college running back? Bo? Herschel? There are a few ways you can look at this one.
1. Freshman impact. No contest here. Herschel set the freshman rushing record at 1,616 yards – and he did that in the equivalent of 9 games (he missed the bulk of the Ole Miss game, and a half against both UT and TCU). Bo? 829 yards. Ho hum. Or let me put it this way: Bo rushed for fewer yards as a freshman than Jasper Sanks did as a sophomore. Herschel should have won the Heisman as a freshman. Bo? Bo wasn’t diddly as a freshman.Advantage: Herschel, and Bo doesn’t really deserve to be mentioned in his company here.
2. Season rushing stats. Let’s take a look at their seasons in terms of yards gained per season and put them in order.
1. 1,891 yards. Herschel, 1981.
2. 1,786 yards. Bo, 1985.
3. 1,752 yards. Herschel, 1982.
4. 1,616 yards. Herschel, 1980.
5. 1,213 yards. Bo, 1983.
6. 829 yards. Bo, 1982.
7. 475 yards. Bo, 1984.
Auburn fans will quickly remind you that Bo’s 1984 season was shortened by injury. I will remind Auburn fans that Herschel missed a game and a half his freshman year and a game his junior year based on injury. OK, so let’s go ahead and play the “what if” game. What if Bo and Herschel hadn’t missed any time due to injury? To let you know how I came up with these numbers, I did it like this. Herschel missed 1.5 games in 1980 due to injury. Take 1,616, divide by 9.5, multiply by 11 for the revised total. Here are the “no injuries” numbers:
1. 1,936 yards. Herschel, 1982.
2. 1,891 yards. Herschel, 1981.
3. 1,871 yards. Herschel, 1980.
4. 1,786 yards. Bo, 1985.
5. 1,213 yards. Bo, 1983.
6. 1,045 yards. Bo, 1984.
7. 829 yards. Bo, 1982.
Bo don’t know Herschel’s yards. Put another way, Herschel’s 3 years are 3 of the top 5 rushing totals in SEC history. Bo’s second best year doesn’t even make the top 20.
Advantage: Herschel, and it’s not close.
3. Career rushing stats.
Herschel: 5,259 yards in 3 years
Bo: 4,303 yards in 4 years.
Some Auburn fans will tell you that a healthy Bo Jackson would have outrushed Herschel over 4 years. Fine. Let’s play that game, too. I’ll even give Bo a 1984 equivalent to his best season, 1985. Don’t forget, though, that Herschel had another full year to play when he left. Giving Herschel the equivalent of his best year, you get these numbers:
Herschel: 7,150 yards
Bo: 5,614 yards
Sorry, Aubies. Advantage: Herschel, and again, it’s not even close.
Ian forgot one thing, Herschel only played 3 years to Bo’s 4. If Herschel plays 4 he widens the gap even more. Herschel in a landslide.
That name brings up two memories for me:
Walker the great college and USFL running back that could not be stopped. A man of legend.
Walker, the guy that did NOT fit the Vikings’ offensive scheme at all (they should have traded for the SD running back instead), that they gave up too much for, that was caught from behind in his first run…..
Such conflicting memories for us MN fans.
re Herschel vs. Bo
I’m a UGA grad and lived in Athens for 10 years afterward, so I’m obviously a Herschel guy. But Auburn came to town one day for a baseball game, and Bo hit three HRs — the last one into the lights over the left-center field fence. Not the light pole — the lights. With some smoke still behind it. Still the hardest ball I’ve ever seen hit.
@22
He did show up to the Heisman ceremony a couple years back, though, and gave this killer speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJAbJCR4Mpk
I’ve watched it probably a dozen times, and it never fails.
I grew up the next county over from Herschel’s Wrightsville. Our school played his once–not his senior year, well before that, it may have even been JV. Talk about a man among boys. To do what he did surrounded with virtually no talent…all these years later my mind remains convinced it must have been some sort of illusion, it couldn’t have been real.
Steve @5
Check out:
http://thesoulofbaseball.blogspot.com/2007/06/bo-directors-cut.html
nothing for nothing, but i think this is an fantastic piece. what’s so amazing to me is that it seems to have come almost from nowhere. joe writes a story on wilt, somehow finds out walker was born the next day, and suddenly we get this gem. joe, it was a poll question at one point: if you ever ask for a small donation for the food bank in exchange for your longest entry ever, count me IN!
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Thanks, Joe, for an excellent account of Herschel’s career at UGA. My family moved to Athens, GA in 1980. I was fortunate to witness the three-year career of the best college football player ever…along with the early years of the best alternative rock band ever, R.E.M. I concur with everything you wrote about Herschel. Fantastic job, as always.
And sansho1, I was also @ that Auburn-UGA baseball game. It was the first ever night game at Foley Field. Bo’s clout was the longest HR I ever saw in person…and I saw McGwire take BP in 1998. Bo’s blast cleared the light tower in left center field and I swear it was still rising.
Spiff, you missed the spot at the top, Joe wrote this piece 2 1/2 years ago. just reposted it after the Wilt piece.
Joe I read this when you originally ran it on the site. I liked it so much the first time i read it through again.
I remember watching the Notre Dame game. Think the Georgia QB was 1-5 for minus 5 yards. Herschel ran about 150 yards and had both scores in a close game.
Great piece, and I would likely concede that Herschel is the greatest RB to play college football.
But the best player ever is likely Tommie Frazier. Jesus H. Tebow chose #15 so he could be more like Tommie.
A couple of other items to add to the legend. Larry Munson’s home run call of Herschel’s breakaway touchdown runs in that freshman year became a mantra all over town. Just say “There Goes Herschel” to any UGA alum over 40, and a recollection of his run against South Carolina or Florida or Texas A&M immediately appear in their mind. Oh, and that 72 yard run against Florida in 1980 came on the second or third play of the game. It quieted Florida fans in a way I’ve never seen since. That game featured the greatest play in Georgia football history by the way, and Herschel was not involved.
In his junior year, Herschel rescued a woman from an on-campus car accident. He ripped the door off her car, pulled her from the wreckage, and carried her to safety. Seriously. As Annie Savoy said, “you can look it up.”
NC State coach was recruiting a touted running back from a small North Carolina School. Press conference and reporter asks if coach is afraid player will be all clippings and no results because he comes from small school. Coach:”Bo Jackson went to a small high school. Herschel Walker went to a small school.” Room is deathly quiet.
A few highlights of Georgia/ND Sugar Bowl. Check out the guy Walker barrels into on the sideline at about 1:45. I bet the guy thought he got hit by a locomotive. Or maybe wishes he only got hit by a locomotive.
Oops, here’s the link, I had only linked via my name above but it isn’t obvious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku5KHpLs2jA
Fantastic job, Joe. Really, really well done.
Of course Herschel Walker was a better college football player than Tim Tebow.
But FOX News analyst-nee Senator-nee Reverend Tebow has the Bible and the 501(3) lobbying organizations to back him up.
That’s why Dixie will consider Preacher Tebow the better college football player.
It’s the Amerikin’ (sic) and the South’s gonna rise agin’ (sic).
[...] great stories, you should read these. Musial is about Stan Musial, and the type of guy he was. Herschel is about the best college football player of all time, Herschel [...]
In the debate of Bo vs Herchel, Walker by a hair. Only because Bo spent two seasons in the wishbone sharing caries with Brent and Tommie. If Bo starts out as a freshman seven yards deep, Bo wins by a hair.