USD Football 1994

AT&T

1994 AT&J LONG DISTANCE AWARDS AT&..T presents a series of articles saluting great long distance moments in college football history

returns to qualify), he still led the nation. Highlighting his season were Davis' touchdown returns of 97 and 96 yards in his famous six-TD day against Notre Dame in 1972. Since 1941, when the NCAA began keeping track, 166 players have returned kickoffs I00 yards for touch- downs. The prolific Davis did it six times and is one of five players in NCAA history who returned three kick- offs I 00 yards for touchdowns in a sin- gle season. The others were Forrest Hall, Tennessee's Willie Gault. New M exico's Terance Mathis and Purdue's Stanley Brown. But Barry Sanders had a unique Rair for the spectacular. In 1987, he fielded the opening kickoff in Oklahoma State's season opener against Tulsa and tore I 00 yards for a touchdown. A year later, he again fielded the first kick- off of the season against Miami of Ohio and raced I 00 yards for a touchdown. Sanders proceeded to blister Miami by rushing for 182 yards and another touchdown to kick off his phenomenal senior season at Oklahoma State. Although Sanders was nosed out by Rocket Ismail for the kickoff return championship, he set the NCAA's all- time single-season record for all-pur- pose yards per game with an average of 295.5 yards on combined totals of rushing, receiving, and return yards. Sanders· astounding average obliterat- ed the previous single-season record of 246.3 yards, w hich Byron "Whizzer" White had set way back in 1937. Sanders' record may never be broken. proving that he is a true champion from long distance.

here is no more exhilarating play in football, and few in any

sport, than a long-distance kickoff return- for both the players and the fans. The anticipation and energy Row is more dramatic on a kickoff return than on any other play in football. Aside from the kickoffs that begin each half, they always follow a score by one team. The team that surrendered the score has an immediate chance to strike back with one of its own. Kickoff returners call on a variety of talents. Drawn from the ranks of run- ning backs, receivers, and defensive backs, the best kickoff returners display a combination of speed, daring, and open field imagination. In fact, some of the best kickoff returners ever have been names very familiar to football fans. Iowa's Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick ( 1939), SMU's great Doak Walker ( 1947), USC's Anthony Davis ( 19 74), Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders ( 1987) and Notre Dame·s Raghib (Rocket) Ismail (1988) are among the prominent players that have led the nation in kickoff returns. Until 1970, the annual kickoff return champion was decided on the basis of total yards. Since then the champion has been based on average yards per return. If the average per return had been utilized in 1955 and 1956, two other prominent players would have been crowned kickoff return champi-

S...rry Sanders' long dlstAncc runs and returns -1,ddcd up to his All-purpose ya.rd.-..ge record.

ons: Syracuse's Jim Brown in 1955 and Notre Dame's Paul Hornung in 1956. San Francisco's Forrest Hall, the 1946 kickoff return champion, is the all-time career leader with an average of 36.2 yard per return. Hall"s 1946 average of 38.2 yards per return is the all-time sin- gle-season best for a m inimum of I .5 returns per game: Brigham Young's Paul Allen's average of 40.1 yards is the record for a minimum of I .2 returns per game. In 1974. USC's Anthony Davis actu- ally topped both those figures, but his name is followed in the NCAA record book by an asterisk. That season Davis returned I I kickoffs for a total of 467 yards and an eye-popping average of 42.5 yards per return. He was declared the NCAA kickoff return champion because even after the NCAA added three more returns for zero yards (to give him the minimum number of

The AT&.TLong Dlst.u,ce Aw.uds Program honors student-dthletes ed