Earl Campbell

Earl Campbell

Earl Christian Campbell (born March 29, 1955), nicknamed The Tyler Rose, is a former professional American football running back. He, Paul Hornung, and O.J. Simpson are the only Heisman Trophy winners to have also been first overall National Football League draft picks and members of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame.

He was born in Tyler, Texas, the sixth of eleven children. His father died when he was 11 years old. He began playing football in fifth grade as a kicker, but moved to linebacker and then to running back in sixth grade. In 1973, he led the Corky Nelson-coached John Tyler High School to the Texas 4A State Championship (4A then was the largest classification in the state). Then-Oklahoma Sooners head coach Barry Switzer, who unsuccessfully recruited Campbell, said in his 1989 book that Campbell was the only player he ever saw who could have gone straight from high school to the NFL and immediately been a star.

After his retirement, Campbell has suffered from debilitating injuries that resulted from his NFL career; he had surgery to remove three of his vertebrae, and he suffers from drop foot and persistent knee pain.