{"id":89405,"date":"2026-07-21T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=89405"},"modified":"2026-07-20T20:54:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T00:54:50","slug":"39-days-away-from-college-football-kickoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/07\/21\/39-days-away-from-college-football-kickoff\/","title":{"rendered":"39 Days Away From College Football Kickoff"},"content":{"rendered":"
We are 39 days away from College football kickoff <\/a>. Today, we have Sam Cunningham, Larry Csonka, and John Kimbrough. Three outstanding college football players. <\/span>Be sure to check back tomorrow for #38 in our countdown<\/a> to kickoff. Enjoy!<\/span><\/div>\n

Sam Cunningham (39) Days Away From College Football Kickoff<\/h2>\n

Sam Bam<\/h3>\n

Sam Cunningham<\/a> got the nickname “Bam” because of his powerful goal-line runs with the Trojans. Over three years at USC, the team went 24-8-2, and he became the school’s top rushing fullback with 1,579 yards and 23 touchdowns.<\/span>
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\nIn his first game as a rookie under Hall of Fame coach John McKay, Cunningham ran for 135 yards and scored two touchdowns on just 12 carries against Alabama. That 1970 performance is said to have inspired coach Paul “Bear” Bryant to help integrate college football in the south.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nA member of the Trojans’ 1972 national championship team, Cunningham was named player of the game after scoring four touchdowns in the 1973 Rose Bowl against Ohio State, setting a modern Rose Bowl record. He was also the team’s Back of the Year and captain of a squad many consider one of the best ever, which included Hall of Famers Anthony Davis, Lynn Swann, Richard Wood, and Charles Young.yed in the 1973 Hula Bowl, College All-Star Game and Coaches All-America Game. The Santa Barbara, California, native was inducted into the USC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1992.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nThe New England Patriots picked him 11th overall in the 1973 NFL Draft, and he spent his entire nine-year pro career with the team. He made the AFC Pro Bowl in 1978 and is also in the New England Patriots Hall of Fame.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nAfter his football days, Cunningham helped raise money for cancer causes and worked as a landscape contractor in Inglewood, California.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nWhen his brother Randall Cunningham from UNLV was inducted in 2016, they became the eighth pair of brothers in the College Football Hall of Fame.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Another Great #39, Larry Csonka, Syracuse<\/span><\/h3>\n
These days, many athletes get bigger and stronger by lifting weights at the gym. Larry Csonka<\/a>, one of the strongest football players ever, took a different approach. “I had my own body-building program. I grew up on a farm,” he said. “I picked corn, shoveled dirt, baled hay, milked cows, and every day I ran two miles home for supper.” His farm was in Stow, Ohio. By the time “Zonk” got to college, he was ready to use those muscles on the football field. At Syracuse University, he played fullback, weighing in at 230 pounds and known for his power. From 1965 to 1967, he ranked 19th, 9th, and 5th in the nation for rushing yards. Syracuse already had a tradition of great runners like Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Jim Nance, and Floyd Little, but Csonka broke their records.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He ran for 2,934 yards, setting a school record that stood for 14 years. He once ran 56 yards against West Virginia in 1965, but more often he was a force, averaging 4.9 yards per carry, with 14 games over 100 yards, and carrying the ball 43 times in a single game against Maryland in 1967. He was named All-America in 1967, and it was unanimous. After Syracuse, he played 12 years as a pro, including championship seasons with Miami in 1972 and 1973.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One More Great #39, John Kimbrough, Texas A&M<\/span><\/h3>\n
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\n
In the late 1930s, passing was taking over Southwest football, but John Kimbrough, a fullback from Texas A&M, showed that running the ball could still win games. Kimbrough powered through defenses, often making his own path. He earned All-America honors in 1939 and 1940 and helped the Aggies win 20 out of 21 games during those seasons. In 1939, the team went undefeated in 11 games, won the Sugar Bowl against Tulane 14-13, and claimed the national championship. The next year, the Aggies finished 9-1-0 and beat Fordham 13-12 in the Cotton Bowl. Fans often saw the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Kimbrough charging into the end zone, breaking tackles with his high knee action.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
His coach, Homer Norton, compared him to football legends like Red Grange, Jim Thorpe, and Bronko Nagurski, and most people agreed. Known as Jarrin’ John, Kimbrough rushed for 152 yards on 26 carries and scored two touchdowns in the Sugar Bowl win over Tulane. He later served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, retiring as a captain. After the war, he played three seasons with the Los Angeles Dons from 1946 to 1948. Kimbrough eventually became a rancher in Haskell, Texas, and served one term in the Texas Legislature.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Editor’s Note: The countdown to college football kickoff has been a series on the Last Word on College Football social media platforms for the past 9 years. \u00a0They consisted of a photo and a small blurb for each player, with the jersey corresponding to the number of days until kickoff. \u00a0The rank of the players is sourced from articles by Bleacher Report, Fox Sports, and The Athletic. There are also some favorite players of the Last Word on College Football writers. \u00a0Their bios are sourced from multiple online sources, including but not limited to the College Football Hall of Fame, their Heisman profiles, and school websites.<\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo: USC Athletics<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are 39 days away from College football kickoff . Today, we have Sam Cunningham, Larry Csonka, and John Kimbrough. Three outstanding college football players. Be sure to check back tomorrow for #38 in our countdown to kickoff. Enjoy! Sam Cunningham (39) Days Away From College Football Kickoff Sam Bam Sam Cunningham got the nickname […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1643,"featured_media":89468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,2,3,35641,35575,35603],"tags":[36114,36248],"class_list":["post-89405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-acc","category-featured","category-sec","category-syracuse-orange","category-texas-am-aggies","category-usc-trojans","tag-countdown-to-kickoff","tag-john-kimbrough"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89405"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89471,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89405\/revisions\/89471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}