Obscure RB trivia

[Bryan]

If 2) is USFL, I'm really interested to hear who. I'm almost positive Maurice Carthon had 1,000 yards in the USFL, but he was a blocking FB in the NFL. I think there was a CC article about how many games he played in one year, but I don't recall the details. Herschel Walker would be a plausible guess, but I'm sure it's not him.

So, this isn't the first time I've said this...but I've botched yet another trivia question. I was watching the 85 Browns-Dolphins playoff game, and Bob Trumpy said that Kevin Mack had run for 1000 yards with the Express earlier in the year and then had a 1000-yard season with the Browns. I went back into my USFL statbook and found two interesting things....Mack played with the Express only in 1984 (not 1985), and he didn't come close to rushing for 1000 yards in the USFL. There were a few RBs who played in both leagues in 85 that I saw; Carthon, Cribbs, Gary Anderson, Bill Johnson, Mike Rozier, Tim Spencer....but none of them really came close to doing the double 1000.

[RichardBak]

Not Kelly. 1968 was only his third year as a starter. And I did think of Daniels, who I believe had crossed 5,000 yards by 1968, but he wasn't in the NFL, so I assume he doesn't qualify either.

Clem Daniels was in the NFL in the 1968 season, playing for the Niners. He also had 5000+ career rushing yards. So the three RBs are Perkins, Bass & Daniels. Kind of tricky, but also kind of weird that there was such a relative dearth of great RBs at that time.

I don't think it necessarily was a lack of quality backs, they just didn't post the numbers that guys benefitting from an expanded schedule and one-back offensive schemes would in years to come.

FWIW I had Perkins, Bass, and Crow. Totally forgot that Daniels finished his career w/ SF.

[TanksAndSpartans]

I was watching the 85 Browns-Dolphins playoff game, and Bob Trumpy said

Great choice of games - I had to check it out too. (Early in the game Woody Bennett made a decent run for Miami, but I remembered it being Ron Davenport. I also remembered the score as 21-3 in the first quarter, but turns out they didn't go up by that much until after the half).

Anyway, when Earnest Byner went 66 yards to put the Browns up 21-3 in the 3rd quarter, one of the announcers mentioned Dan Fike, an OL who made a block on the play, was playing his 39th game in the last 12 months. Do you think that's correct? I wonder how many players played say 30+ (not sure what number to use here) games that year.

[Bob Gill]

Anyway, when Earnest Byner went 66 yards to put the Browns up 21-3 in the 3rd quarter, one of the announcers mentioned Dan Fike, an OL who made a block on the play, was playing his 39th game in the last 12 months. Do you think that's correct? I wonder how many players played say 30+ (not sure what number to use here) games that year.

Fike played for Tampa Bay in the USFL; that's an 18-game season, and they played one playoff game, so he could have appeared in 19 games there. The Browns played a 16-game season, also with one playoff game, so I'd say the most games Fike could've played was 36 -- which is still quite a heavy load, of course.

On the other hand, now that I think of it, Tampa Bay played two exhibition games and the Browns played four, so if you want to count those I guess Fike could've played in as many as 42. That would be kind of a technicality, though.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Bob! I can't find the CC article on Carthon, but Wikipedia is counting those exhibition games. Here is what they said:

In 1985, Carthon signed as a free agent with the New York Giants. From February to June, his USFL career consisted of three preseason games, 18 regular season games, and a final playoff on June 30, 1985. After reporting to the Giants in July, he played an additional five preseason games, 16 regular season games, and two playoff rounds, for a total of 45 contests in less than a year.

I don't know if I'd count those exhibition games either and playoffs depends whether you were on a good team. I was wondering who was healthy enough to play that full 18 game USFL schedule and then good enough (and healthy enough) to start for an NFL team over the course of a 16 game schedule (I wouldn't ding someone for missing a game or two - I think 30 is a decent number - starting 30+ games would qualify to me). I wonder if we're talking less then 5 players, 5-10, 10+?

[Jay Z]

Not Kelly. 1968 was only his third year as a starter. And I did think of Daniels, who I believe had crossed 5,000 yards by 1968, but he wasn't in the NFL, so I assume he doesn't qualify either.

Clem Daniels was in the NFL in the 1968 season, playing for the Niners. He also had 5000+ career rushing yards. So the three RBs are Perkins, Bass & Daniels. Kind of tricky, but also kind of weird that there was such a relative dearth of great RBs at that time.

I don't think it necessarily was a lack of quality backs, they just didn't post the numbers that guys benefitting from an expanded schedule and one-back offensive schemes would in years to come.

FWIW I had Perkins, Bass, and Crow. Totally forgot that Daniels finished his career w/ SF.

Offense, rushing as well as passing, did decline during the second half of the 1960s. The first half had Brown and Taylor and some others like John Henry Johnson or John David Crow. Dominant rushing performances were less frequent in the second half of the decade, before the switch to more running oriented offenses in the 1970s.