Herschel Walker

Herschel Walker
Walker in May 2004
Position (s): running back	Jersey number (s): 34
born March 3, 1962 in Wrightsville , Georgia
Career information
Active : 1983 - 1997
NFL Draft : 1985 / Round: 5 / Pick: 114
College : University of Georgia
Teams
New Jersey Generals (1983–1985) Dallas Cowboys ( 1986 - 1988 ) Minnesota Vikings ( 1989 - 1991 ) Philadelphia Eagles ( 1992 - 1994 ) New York Giants ( 1995 ) Dallas Cowboys ( 1996 - 1997 )
Career statistics
spilled yards	8,225
average	4.2 yards
run touchdowns	61
Stats at NFL.com
Stats at pro-football-reference.com
Career highlights and awards
Heisman Trophy (1982) Walter Camp Award (1982) 2 × Pro Bowl election (1987, 1988) 2 × USFL All-Star (1983, 1985) 2 × most yards run in the USFL (1983, 1985) USFL All-Time Team
College Football Hall of Fame

Herschel Junior Walker (born March 3, 1962 in Wrightsville , Georgia ) is an American retired American football player and bobsledder . Walker played in the United States Football League (USFL) for the New Jersey Generals and in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys , Minnesota Vikings , Philadelphia Eagles , and the New York Giants as running back .

Childhood and high school

Walker was born one of seven children to Willis and Christine Walker. He played for the Johnson County High School Trojans in Wrightsville from 1975 to 1979. In 1979 he ran 3,167 yards which earned the Trojans their only state championship.

college

Herschel Walker played for the University of Georgia , where he won the 1982 Heisman Trophy for best college player. Walker drew attention to himself in his first season (1980) as a freshman . He broke a new NCAA Freshman record and finished third in the Heisman Trophy vote. The Georgia Bulldogs ended the season unbeaten and won the college championship with a Sugar Bowl win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish . In 1999, Walker was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame .

professional

United States Football League

In the newly formed United States Football League (USFL), Walker saw the opportunity to start a professional career after his junior year - something that at the time in the NFL only came after the senior year (four years after high school). Degree) was possible. Furthermore, it was attractive to him to be able to choose where to play. Walker promised himself the opportunity to earn a lot of additional money with advertising. Walker then signed a contract with the New Jersey Generals in 1983 , which was owned by J. Walter Duncan . After the season, he sold the team to Donald Trump .

In 1983 and 1985 Walker ran the most yards in the league - the second time he reached over 4,000 total yards. In his USFL career, he completed 5,562 yards in 1,143 attempts, with an average of 4.87 yards per run.

National Football League

The Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) suspected that the USFL would no longer exist and secured Walker's rights by selecting him in the fifth round of the 1985 NFL Draft . After the USFL stopped playing in 1986, Walker played for the Cowboys in the NFL. In 1987 and 1988 he was elected to the Pro Bowl there. At the height of his NFL career (1989), the Cowboys traded Walker in a high- profile swap to the Minnesota Vikings for five players and six draft picks . This trade laid the foundation for the Dallas Cowboys' success in the 1990s and is considered very bad for the Vikings as the players who drafted Dallas became largely the mainstay of the team that subsequently won three Super Bowls . In addition, Walker wasn't nearly as successful with the Vikings as in previous years. He played for the Vikings for two and a half years and never made 1,000 yards in one season. After the time with the Vikings, he then moved to the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants . After the Giants, he even played again for the Cowboys, where he was used as a running back, but also as a wide receiver .

In twelve years in the NFL reached Walker 8,225 yards in the running game , 4,859 yards to pass catches and 5,084 yards to returns , for a total of 18,168 yards. At the time of his retirement, he was second in NFL history, although he played the first three years of his professional career in the USFL. He also scored 84 touchdowns : 61 in the running game, 21 as a pass catcher and two on kickoff returns . Walker is the only player to have scored over 4,000 yards in all three individual areas. He is one of only six players to have scored more than 60 touchdowns in the running game and caught 20 as a pass taker ( Jim Brown , Lenny Moore , Marcus Allen , Marshall Faulk , and Thurman Thomas are the others). In 1994, Walker set a special NFL record. He's had a 90+ yard run, a 90+ yard pass, and a 90+ yard kickoff return in the same season - making him the only player to ever achieve that. Despite all the records and special achievements, Walker never played on a championship team.

Private / other sports

Herschel Walker married his college girlfriend, Cindy DeAngelis Grossman, in 1983. After 18 years of marriage, they divorced in 2001. Walker has a black belt in Taekwondo and almost made the Olympic participation as a relay runner. At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville , Walker came seventh in the two-man bobsleigh . The 100 meters was Walker back in 10.22 seconds, 100 yards in 9.3 seconds.

Web links

• Herschel Walker in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Silver: Herschel Walker trade: Boon for Cowboys, bust for Vikings. In: nfl.com. National Football League (NFL), October 10, 2014, accessed on August 18, 2015 : "The premium draft picks obtained in the trade helped Jones and Johnson execute an extreme home makeover which contributed to the building of a dynasty."