Biography Of The 1978 Heisman Trophy Winner Billy Sims

By Author: Cheyanne Cooke
Total Articles: 381
Comment this article

The Heisman Trophy award is the most prestigious award that a player can win over the course of his college career. Even a national championship is not remembered as well as the winners of the Heisman Trophy award. In 1978, the Heisman Trophy award was won by Billy Sims.

Sims grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, but he eventually moved to Texas when he was in the 8th grade. In high school he was a dominant player and rushed for nearly 8000 yards over the course of his career. He was amazing in high school and rushed for at least 100 yards in 38 consecutive games.

The story of Billy Sims in his college career is an interesting one. Sims played for the University of Oklahoma. He was recruited by one of the great college coaches of all-time, Barry Switzer. During the early parts of his college career he was injured and hardly made his way into the lineup. Over the course of his first two seasons on the Sooners, he only managed to rack up 545 yards rushing for Oklahoma.

Interestingly enough, the opportunity for Sims to become a star, was actually partly in thanks to the great Earl Campbell. Campbell was recruited ...
... by Barry Switzer to come play at Oklahoma. Switzer saw Campbell as one of the great prospects of all-time and believed that he would not only be an instant star at the college level, but that he would be a star at the NFL level if he went straight to the NFL. This would have meant that Sims would have had to take a backseat to Campbell at Oklahoma. In the end, Campbell decided to go play at Texas, leaving the door open for Billy Sims.

In his junior season he was amazing and averaged a whopping 7.6 yards per carry during the regular season. He ended the season with nearly 1900 yards, which was a record for his school until Adrian Peterson broke the record in 2004.

In 1978 Sims was named the Heisman Trophy winner and was seen as a dominant force in football. Over the course of his career at Oklahoma he managed to lead the team to two Orange Bowl titles. One of the games was against Nebraska. Nebraska was known for having the top rushing defense in the nation. He dominated the Cornhuskers and rushed for 247 yards over the course of the game, leading his team to a 17-14 victory.

Sims finished his career at Oklahoma with more than 3800 yards.

With his dominant play in his last couple of seasons at Oklahoma he managed to land himself a spot as the top player in the 1980 NFL Draft. The Detroit Lions took him first overall.

While his career in the NFL is not remembered as well as his college career, he was actually a very good player in his time with Detroit. He made the Pro Bowl in his first three seasons and racked up more than 5100 yards with a 4.5 yard per carry average over the course of his career. He only played 5 seasons in the NFL as he suffered a knee injury that ended his career.

AUTHOR:-
Cheyanne Cooke writes reviews on various sporting events including the sports betting websites. In this piece of write up, the author highlights one of the most popular sports CFB and CFB betting odds. The author also refers popular online sportsbook.