Notable Players
Many Ducks players have gone on to play football in the professional ranks. Between 1996 and 2008, five players were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft including Jonathan Stewart in 2008, Haloti Ngata in 2006, Joey Harrington in 2002, Akili Smith in 1999, and Alex Molden in 1996. Six former Oregon Ducks football players have been inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame including Gary Zimmerman, Dave Wilcox, Norm Van Brocklin, Dan Fouts, and Mel Renfro. Tuffy Leemans is another NFL Hall of Fame inductee who played for the Oregon freshman team before transferring to George Washington University. Several former players, including Mike Nolan, Gunther Cunningham, John McKay, Jack Patera, John Robinson, Bill Musgrave, and Norv Turner, have become coaches for NFL and college teams. Dan Fouts and Ahmad Rashad have become sportscasters after their professional careers.
LaMichael James ended his Oregon career after the 2011 season as the most decorated Duck in history. James was the first Oregon player to win a national player award (the 2010 Doak Walker Award), the first unanimous All-American in team history (2010), the first back-to-back consensus All-American (2010, 2011), the first Heisman Trophy finalist since Joey Harrington in 2001, and holds virtually every Oregon rushing and scoring record, including:
- most points scored, season (144, 2010) and career (348)
- most touchdowns, season (24, 2010) and career (58)
- most rushing attempts – season (294, 2010)
- most rushing yards – season (1,805, 2011), career (5,082) (5,082 yards is 14th most in NCAA history and most in a 3-year term)
- most all-purpose yards – game (363 at Arizona, 9–24–11), career (5,869)
- most 100-yard rushing games – season (9, 2009, 2010), career (26)
- most 200-yard rushing games – season (4, 2011), career (7).
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Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or players:
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“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
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