{"id":89413,"date":"2026-07-23T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=89413"},"modified":"2026-07-23T09:14:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:14:52","slug":"37-days-away-from-college-football-kickoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/07\/23\/37-days-away-from-college-football-kickoff\/","title":{"rendered":"37 Days Away From College Football Kickoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are 37 Days Away From College Football Kickoff<\/a>. \u00a0Does anyone else feel like July is FLYING by? Today, we have Doak Walker. The player that helped build the historic Cotton Bowl with his talent and popularity. <\/span>Be sure to check back tomorrow as we tackle #36 in our countdown<\/a> to kickoff. Enjoy!<\/span><\/p>\n

Doak Walker (37) Days Away From College Football Kickoff<\/h2>\n

“The Doaker”<\/h3>\n
Doak Walker<\/a> showed leadership, sportsmanship, and both academic and athletic success during his memorable career at SMU in the late 1940s. He appeared on the covers of many national magazines and became a national sensation known as “the Doaker.”<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Walker was a versatile player who punted, returned punts and kickoffs, and kicked extra points. He earned All-America honors in 1947, 1948, and 1949. Walker started as a freshman in 1945 but missed the 1946 season while serving in the Army. He won the Maxwell Trophy as a sophomore. By Walker’s junior year, his performances were already legendary, and in 1948, Walker won the Heisman Trophy and he was the first junior to do so.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Walker led the Mustangs to Southwest Conference championships and Cotton Bowl appearances in 1947 and 1948. Because so many fans wanted to see him play, SMU moved its home football games from Ownby Stadium on campus to the Cotton Bowl in downtown Dallas. The Cotton Bowl was quickly expanded from 46,000 to 75,000 seats. The stadium honored Walker with a plaque at the main entrance that says: “The Cotton Bowl, the House that Doak Built.”<\/span><\/div>\n
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Walker earned his Bachelor of Science degree from SMU on time before joining the Detroit Lions in 1950. \u00a0That year, he led the NFL in scoring as a rookie with 128 points, which was the second highest in NFL history at the time. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Walker gained 1,520 rushing yards over his entire career, a total that Barry Sanders could reach in a single season. However, Walker played in ‘T’ formation teams with quarterback Bobby Layne, who was not known for running, and three backs lined up behind him.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
With limited opportunities, Walker averaged 4.9 yards per carry, and his highest rushing total in a season was 386 yards on 83 attempts during his rookie year. In three of his six seasons, he had over 500 receiving yards, and in two others, he had over 400. He caught 152 passes for 2,539 yards, averaged 39.1 yards as a punter (50 punts for 1,955 yards), and kicked 49 field goals. As a return man, he ran back 38 kickoffs for 968 yards (a 25.5-yard average) and 18 punts for 284 yards (a 15.8-yard average).<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Walker was known for his scoring ability. He totaled 534 points, won the NFL scoring title twice, and still ranks third on Detroit’s all-time scoring list. In just six seasons, he kicked 183 extra points, which also puts him third on the team’s list. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Over six years with the Lions, he helped the team win NFL Championships in 1952 and 1953 and was named All-Pro four times. \u00a0Walker left professional football after just six seasons, still in his prime and with teams still wanting him.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 1959 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986. Before the 2000 season, SMU retired his jersey number 37, the only number ever retired in the school’s athletic history. \u00a0Walker passed away on September 27, 1998, exactly 50 years after he appeared on the cover of Life Magazine. He died from complications following a skiing accident.<\/span><\/div>\n

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: The Doak Walker Award<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are 37 Days Away From College Football Kickoff. \u00a0Does anyone else feel like July is FLYING by? Today, we have Doak Walker. The player that helped build the historic Cotton Bowl with his talent and popularity. Be sure to check back tomorrow as we tackle #36 in our countdown to kickoff. Enjoy! Doak Walker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1643,"featured_media":89497,"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":[7,2,35640],"tags":[36114,895,4922],"class_list":["post-89413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-featured","category-smu-mustangs","tag-countdown-to-kickoff","tag-heisman-trophy","tag-maxwell-award"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89413","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=89413"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89537,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89413\/revisions\/89537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}