American Football Database
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Don Woods
No. 33, 47     
Running back
Personal information
Date of birth: (1951-02-17) February 17, 1951 (age 73)
Place of birth: Denton, Texas
Career information
College: New Mexico
NFL Draft: 1974 / Round: 6 / Pick: 134
No regular season or postseason appearances
Career history
* San Diego Chargers (19741980)
Career highlights and awards
* 1974 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year
Rushing Yards     3,087
Average     4.0
TDs     16
Stats at NFL.com

Donald Ray Woods (born February 17, 1951 in Denton, Texas) is a retired National Football League American football running back who played with the San Diego Chargers and San Francisco 49ers from 1974–1980.

College career[]

Woods attended New Mexico Highlands University for college before transferring to the University of New Mexico his senior year when New Mexico Highlands dropped their football program.[1] He was a mobile quarterback for the Lobos, leading the team with both 869 yards on 52 of 124 passes, and 971 yards on 220 rushes for 11 touchdowns,[2] and winning the team's MVP award.[3] In a game against rival New Mexico St., he rushed for 188 yards, at the time the fourth most in school history, for which he won the UPI Back of the Week award on Sept. 15, 1973.[3] He also both rushed and passed for 100+ yards in the same game twice, against Utah (100 and 134) and Colorado St. (148 and 128).[3]

Professional career[]

Woods was selected in the 6th Round of the 1974 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay released Woods at the end of training camp and he was subsequently picked up by the Chargers early in the 1974 season. He was used almost exclusively as a running back, despite playing quarterback in college (albeit one who ran almost twice as often as passed). The move proved very fruitful for San Diego, as Woods, despite not suiting up until the 3rd week of the season, went on to set a then-NFL-rookie-rushing-record of 1,162 yards in only 12 games, including a then-rookie-record seven 100-yard rushing performances (weeks 3,4,5,7,10,12, and 14). Woods was selected the 1974 NFL Rookie of the Year. His seven rushing touchdowns and 96.8 rushing yards per game remain Chargers franchise rookie records, and his 1,162 rushing and 1,511 yards from scrimmage are second only to the numbers LaDanian Tomlinson put up in 2001.

A knee injury slowed Woods down during the 1975 campaign and while having several solid years with the Chargers, was never able to recapture the electricity of his rookie campaign. Woods was eventually phased out of the Chargers offense and traded to San Francisco during the 1980 season, finishing out his career that season with the 49ers. Woods finished his career with 3,087 career rushing yards and scored a total of 21 touchdowns. As of the 2017 off-season, Woods remains number 7 on the all-time Chargers rushing list.

NFL Career Statistics[]

Source[4] Rushing Receiving Passing Kick Returns
Year Tm G Rush Yds TD Rec Yds TD Fmb Cmp Att Yds TD Int Sk Rt Yds TD APYd
1974 SDG 12 227 1162 7 26 349 3 4 1 3 28 1 1 0 3 61 0 1572
1975 SDG 5 87 317 2 13 101 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1976 SDG 11 126 450 3 34 224 1 1 1 2 11 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
1977 SDG 14 118 405 1 18 218 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 27 0 650
1978 SDG 16 151 514 3 34 295 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 37 0 831
1979 SDG 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 10
1980 SDG 2 4 10 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 6 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
SFO 10 50 229 0 20 171 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Career 85 763 3087 16 145 1358 5 15 3 8 45 2 1 1 7 135 0 3063

References[]

Template:New Mexico Lobos quarterback navbox Template:Packers1974DraftPicks


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