Gold Jacket Spotlight: No holes in Earl Campbell's game
In 1977, EARL CAMPBELL became the first Texas Longhorn to win the Heisman Trophy. He dominated college football that season, leading the nation in rushing and scoring.
Earl’s season performance was so impressive, Southern Methodist head coach Ron Meyer declared, “If he doesn’t win the Heisman Trophy, they should melt the damned thing.”
That season served as the precursor of a Pro Football Hall of Fame career.
Nicknamed “the Tyler Rose,” Earl blossomed into the first overall pick of the 1978 National Football League Draft and is the focus of this week’s Gold Jacket Spotlight.
The Houston Oilers traded first- and second-round picks in the 1978 draft, third- and fifth-round picks in the 1979 draft and tight end Jimmy Giles for the opportunity to obtain Tampa Bay’s No. 1 pick in 1978.
“We won’t need the 15-minute time limit to select Campbell,” declared Oilers owner K.S. “Bud” Adams Jr.
In an effort to execute some level of due diligence prior to the selection, Oilers head coach O.A. “Bum” Phillips contacted Texas head coach Darrell Royal for his opinion of Earl.
Royal’s response: “Bum, he ain’t got a hole in him nowhere. What you see is what you get.”
And what the Oilers got was a punishing running back who would garner 29 postseason awards and set nine team records during his rookie season.
In his story, “This Oiler’s a Gusher of a Rusher,” Ron Reid wrote, “When you get someone with Campbell’s kind of ability and attitude, you’ve really got something. You don’t get a chance to get very many kids like him and, if you get one, he can be the difference over the next five years. He can put this club over the hump.”
A difference, indeed. Earl and the Oilers qualified for the playoffs in each of his first three seasons. The Oilers had gone eight years without a playoff appearance and 17 – all the way back to the 1961 AFL Championship Game – without a playoff win prior to Earl’s arrival.
Earl certainly caught the attention of opposition players and coaches, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team that would end the Oilers’ playoff hopes with victories in consecutive AFC Championship Games after the 1978 and 1979 regular seasons.
“He can inflict more damage on a team then any back I know of,” said defensive lineman JOE GREENE, the future Hall of Famer (Class of 1987) of the Steelers. “O.J. (SIMPSON) did it with speed; Campbell does it with power. He’s a punishing runner. He hurts you.
“There are very few tacklers in the league who will bring Earl Campbell down one-on-one. When we’re preparing for the Oilers, we emphasize the importance of gang tackling. We work on it.”
Hall of Fame (Class of 1997) coach DON SHULA said Earl provided the missing piece for the Oilers.
“Houston could always move the ball with the passing game and the quick screens and the gimmicks. When the Oilers got Campbell, it made Dan Pastorini that much more effective at all the things he’s been doing through the years,” Shula said. “I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Pastorini came into his own as an NFL quarterback at the same time the Oilers got Campbell. He’s the guy Pastorini was always looking for and never had.”
Earl was recognized for his talents on the field and his even-keeled and approachable attitude off the gridiron.
“If there’s a kid that has a chance to play his whole career and be the same person he started out as, it’s Earl,” Phillips said.
Earl played eight seasons in the NFL, rushed for 9,407 rushing yards, tallied 74 touchdowns and was selected to five Pro Bowls. He led the league in rushing his first three seasons and after his career was named to the NFL 100 All-Time Team.
“I’d like to take credit for all he’s meant to football, but the truth is, credit belongs to the people who raised him – his junior high and high school coaches, his college coaches, him mama and his aunt and his whole family,” Phillips said while presenting Earl for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991. “When I got Earl, he was not only a football player, he knew how to live on and off the field. It’s a credit to his family and the people who brought him up.”
In other words, “the Tyler Rose” had fully bloomed.
Earl’s season performance was so impressive, Southern Methodist head coach Ron Meyer declared, “If he doesn’t win the Heisman Trophy, they should melt the damned thing.”
That season served as the precursor of a Pro Football Hall of Fame career.
Nicknamed “the Tyler Rose,” Earl blossomed into the first overall pick of the 1978 National Football League Draft and is the focus of this week’s Gold Jacket Spotlight.
The Houston Oilers traded first- and second-round picks in the 1978 draft, third- and fifth-round picks in the 1979 draft and tight end Jimmy Giles for the opportunity to obtain Tampa Bay’s No. 1 pick in 1978.
“We won’t need the 15-minute time limit to select Campbell,” declared Oilers owner K.S. “Bud” Adams Jr.
In an effort to execute some level of due diligence prior to the selection, Oilers head coach O.A. “Bum” Phillips contacted Texas head coach Darrell Royal for his opinion of Earl.
Royal’s response: “Bum, he ain’t got a hole in him nowhere. What you see is what you get.”
And what the Oilers got was a punishing running back who would garner 29 postseason awards and set nine team records during his rookie season.
In his story, “This Oiler’s a Gusher of a Rusher,” Ron Reid wrote, “When you get someone with Campbell’s kind of ability and attitude, you’ve really got something. You don’t get a chance to get very many kids like him and, if you get one, he can be the difference over the next five years. He can put this club over the hump.”
A difference, indeed. Earl and the Oilers qualified for the playoffs in each of his first three seasons. The Oilers had gone eight years without a playoff appearance and 17 – all the way back to the 1961 AFL Championship Game – without a playoff win prior to Earl’s arrival.
Earl certainly caught the attention of opposition players and coaches, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team that would end the Oilers’ playoff hopes with victories in consecutive AFC Championship Games after the 1978 and 1979 regular seasons.
“He can inflict more damage on a team then any back I know of,” said defensive lineman JOE GREENE, the future Hall of Famer (Class of 1987) of the Steelers. “O.J. (SIMPSON) did it with speed; Campbell does it with power. He’s a punishing runner. He hurts you.
“There are very few tacklers in the league who will bring Earl Campbell down one-on-one. When we’re preparing for the Oilers, we emphasize the importance of gang tackling. We work on it.”
Hall of Fame (Class of 1997) coach DON SHULA said Earl provided the missing piece for the Oilers.
“Houston could always move the ball with the passing game and the quick screens and the gimmicks. When the Oilers got Campbell, it made Dan Pastorini that much more effective at all the things he’s been doing through the years,” Shula said. “I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Pastorini came into his own as an NFL quarterback at the same time the Oilers got Campbell. He’s the guy Pastorini was always looking for and never had.”
Earl was recognized for his talents on the field and his even-keeled and approachable attitude off the gridiron.
“If there’s a kid that has a chance to play his whole career and be the same person he started out as, it’s Earl,” Phillips said.
Earl played eight seasons in the NFL, rushed for 9,407 rushing yards, tallied 74 touchdowns and was selected to five Pro Bowls. He led the league in rushing his first three seasons and after his career was named to the NFL 100 All-Time Team.
“I’d like to take credit for all he’s meant to football, but the truth is, credit belongs to the people who raised him – his junior high and high school coaches, his college coaches, him mama and his aunt and his whole family,” Phillips said while presenting Earl for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991. “When I got Earl, he was not only a football player, he knew how to live on and off the field. It’s a credit to his family and the people who brought him up.”
In other words, “the Tyler Rose” had fully bloomed.
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