Earl Campbell

Football Player

• Born: March 29, 1955
• Birthplace: Tyler, Texas

Football player

Campbell was one of the most dominant running backs in college and professional football history. He won the 1977 Heisman Trophy and was the first pick of the 1978 National Football League (NFL) draft. His success on the field led him to be inducted into the College Football, NFL, and Texas College Football halls of fame.

Area of achievement: Sports: football

Early Life

Earl Christian Campbell was the sixth of eleven children born to B. C. and Ann Collins Campbell in the small East Texas town of Tyler. His father worked in the rose fields during the day and at Kmart in the evenings. He often brought Campbell and his older brothers to the fields to help cultivate the roses the town was famous for. When Campbell was eleven years old, his father died of a heart attack, leaving Ann to raise eleven children on a maid’s salary. Despite the hardships they faced as a family, Campbell did not realize how poor they had been until he signed his first professional football contract.

Life’s Work

Campbell started attracting attention with his athletic abilities at recently integrated John Tyler High School. In his junior year, he earned All-America honors for his play at linebacker. His coach decided to switch him to running back, much to Campbell’s displeasure, and he was named an All-American again his senior year after rushing for 2,224 yards. John Tyler won the state championship after an undefeated season.

After an intense recruitment period, Campbell decided to attend the University of Texas, a school that had only integrated its football team a few years earlier. As a freshman, Campbell earned All-Southwest Conference honors and was named Southwest Conference Newcomer of the Year after rushing for 950 yards. Campbell also was determined to prove himself in the classroom; he attended each class, sat in the front row, and worked diligently with tutors when he needed it. By his senior year, he was one of the top running backs in the nation, rushing for 1,744 yards that year for a career total of 4,443 yards. In December 1977, Campbell was awarded the Heisman Trophy as the best player in college football.

Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams was so impressed with Campbell that he acquired the first pick in the 1978 National Football League (NFL) draft from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers so that he could draft the Texas star. Campbell signed a $1.4 million contract and began construction on a new house for his mother in Tyler. He bonded with his new coach, O. A. “Bum” Phillips, a highly respected coach who hailed from the small East Texas town of Orange. The most impressive performance of Campbell’s rookie year was a Monday night game against the Miami Dolphins. Campbell ran for 199 yards and four touchdowns in the Oiler victory. That game is credited by many Oiler players as the night that “Luv Ya Blue,” the intense fandom that crossed social and economic lines in Houston, was born. The game also served to introduce the national audience to Campbell’s powerful running style. Campbell was named NFL rookie of the year and most valuable player (MVP) and won the NFL rushing title.

In 1980, Campbell earned his third straight NFL rushing title, went to his third straight Pro Bowl, and married his high school sweetheart, Reuna Smith. The couple later had two sons, Christian and Tyler. The following year, the Texas state legislature passed a bill that proclaimed Campbell an official state hero of Texas.

By 1982, injuries were beginning to slow Campbell. During the 1984 season, the Oilers traded him to the New Orleans Saints. Phillips, who had been fired after the 1980 season, was now the Saints coach. However, they were not able to recapture the magic of their early seasons together. After one and a half seasons with the Saints, Campbell announced his retirement in 1986. He had a career total of 9,407 rushing yards and 806 receiving yards.

After his retirement, Campbell went to work for the University of Texas’s athletic department as an adviser for the school’s athletes. He also founded Earl Campbell Meat Products in 1990, turning his hobby of making sausage into a business. Campbell was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Texas College Hall of Fame in 1996. The biggest honor of his post-football career was his induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991. Campbell was selected for this honor in his first year of eligibility; Phillips presented him for induction.

Because of the damaging effects of the kind of hard-hitting football Campbell played, he became primarily confined to a wheelchair in his late forties. He was unable to walk or sit in a car without experiencing excruciating pain, nor could he sleep more than four or five hours a night for the same reason. He developed severe arthritis in both knees and a debilitating back injury. After months of rehab work, he was able to use a walker and only needed the wheelchair occasionally. In 2012 doctor's ruled out Lou Gehrig's disease as a potential after-effect of Campbell's football career, but he did undergo nerve treatment to help him walk more easily and feel less pain.

For his achievements as a running back, in 2019 the NFL announced that he had been included as a member of its 100 All-Time Team created to recognize the one hundred people considered the best in the league's history as it reached a milestone of one hundred seasons. In 2020, he came in seventh place on ESPN's list of the 150 best players in the history of college football.

Significance

Campbell’s powerful running style endeared him to football fans, as did his perseverance on and off the field. He overcame childhood poverty and racial conflict to become an acclaimed athlete whose name is mentioned among the greats in the game’s history.

Bibliography

Campbell, Earl, and John Ruane. The Earl Campbell Story: A Football Great’s Battle with Panic Disorder. Toronto: ECW, 1999. Print.

"Earl Campbell Ranked No. 7 in ESPN's 150 Greatest Players." Texassports.com, The University of Texas at Austin Athletics, 13 Jan. 2020, texassports.com/news/2020/1/13/football-earl-campbell-ranked-no-7-in-espns-150-greatest-players.aspx. Accessed 20 July 2021.

Garber, Greg. "Campbell Is Paying Price for Hard-Hitting Style." ESPN.Go. ESPN Internet Ventures, 2 Feb. 2004. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Hampton, Rickey Lamar. "NFL Legend Earl Campbell: The Incredible 'Tyler Rose.'" Big Hamp 76. Ricky Lamar Hampton, 12 Dec. 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Miller, Paddy Joe. The Tyler Rose: The Earl Campbell Story. 2nd ed. Spring: Schuromil Productions, 1997. Print.

Pirkle, John. Oiler Blues: The Story of Pro Football’s Most Frustrating Team. Houston: Sportline, 2000. Print.

Reid, Jan. “What Did Football Teach Earl Campbell About Running a Business? Take Your Hits and Keep Moving Forward.” Texas Monthly (Sept. 2001): 106–16. Print.

"The Tyler Rose: Earl Campbell." Earl Campbell. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

"What Did Football Teach Campbell About Running a Business? Take Your Hits and Keep Moving Forward." Texas Monthly. Emmis Publishing, Sept. 2001. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.