Doak Walker Award

The Doak Walker Award honors the top running back in college football in the United States. Established in 1990, it is named in honor of Doak Walker, a former running back who played for the SMU Mustangs from 1945 to 1949 and in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions from 1950 to 1955. The player is selected by the award's National Selection Committee, which consists of notable sportswriters, television commentators, analysts, radio sports personalities and former All-America and NFL All-Pro football players.^[1] Recipients receive a bronze sculpture of Doak Walker, designed by artist Blair Buswell.

Doak Walker Award

The Doak Walker Award, designed by artist Blair Buswell
Awarded for	The nation's top college football running back
Country	United States
Presented by	SMU
History
First award	1990
Most recent	Ollie Gordon II, Oklahoma State
Website	www.smu.edu/DoakWalkerAward

Notable Accomplishments

Wisconsin running backs won four times in eight years from 2012 to 2019. Wisconsin and Texas are tied with the most wins with 5 apiece.^[2]

Ricky Williams (Texas – 1997, 1998), Darren McFadden (Arkansas – 2006, 2007) and Jonathan Taylor (Wisconsin – 2018, 2019) are the only three players to win the award more than once.

Winners

Made at least one Pro Bowl during NFL career

Year	Winner	School	Ref
1990	Greg Lewis	Washington
1991	Trevor Cobb	Rice
1992	Garrison Hearst	Georgia
1993	Byron "Bam" Morris	Texas Tech
1994	Rashaan Salaam	Colorado
1995	Eddie George	Ohio State
1996	Byron Hanspard	Texas Tech (2)
1997	Ricky Williams	Texas
1998		Texas (2)
1999	Ron Dayne	Wisconsin	[3]
2000	LaDainian Tomlinson	TCU	[4]
2001	Luke Staley	BYU
2002	Larry Johnson	Penn State
2003	Chris Perry	Michigan
2004	Cedric Benson	Texas (3)
2005	Reggie Bush	USC
2006	Darren McFadden	Arkansas	[5]
2007		Arkansas (2)
2008	Shonn Greene	Iowa	[6]
2009	Toby Gerhart	Stanford	[7]
2010	LaMichael James	Oregon	[8]
2011	Trent Richardson	Alabama	[9]
2012	Montee Ball	Wisconsin (2)	[10]
2013	Andre Williams	Boston College	[11]
2014	Melvin Gordon	Wisconsin (3)	[12]
2015	Derrick Henry	Alabama (2)	[2]
2016	D'Onta Foreman	Texas (4)	[2]
2017	Bryce Love	Stanford (2)	[2]
2018	Jonathan Taylor	Wisconsin (4)	[13]
2019		Wisconsin (5)
2020	Najee Harris	Alabama (3)	[14]
2021	Kenneth Walker III	Michigan State
2022	Bijan Robinson	Texas (5)
2023	Ollie Gordon II	Oklahoma State

References

General

• Doak Walker Award Winners. Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
• College Football Awards – Doak Walker Award. ESPN.com. Retrieved December 13, 2016.

Footnotes

1. "Selection Committee - SMU".
2. Galloway, Jason. "Badgers running back Jonathan Taylor becomes 4th Wisconsin player to win Doak Walker Award". madison.com. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
3. "Dayne Wins Walker, Maxwell". CBS News. December 9, 1999. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
4. "TCU's LaDainian Tomlinson Named Winner of the 2000 Doak Walker Award Presented by Vectrix". Texas Christian University Athletics. December 9, 2000. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
5. "Tebow takes Maxwell, O'Brien; McFadden wins Walker". ESPN.com. December 7, 2007. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
6. Rittenberg, Adam (December 11, 2008). "Iowa's Greene wins Doak Walker Award". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
7. "Stanford's Toby Gerhart wins Doak Walker Award". The Mercury News. December 10, 2009. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
8. "Oregon RB LaMichael James wins Doak Walker Award". San Diego Union-Tribune. Associated Press. December 9, 2010. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
9. "Alabama's Trent Richardson wins Doak Walker Award". ESPN.com. Associated Press. December 8, 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
10. Temple, Jesse (December 6, 2012). "Wisconsin's Ball wins Doak Walker Award". Fox Sports. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
11. Hightower, Kyle (December 12, 2013). "BC's Andre Williams Wins Doak Walker Award". Associated Press. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
12. Potrykus, Jeff (December 11, 2014). "Melvin Gordon wins Doak Walker Award as top running back". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
13. Zucker, Joseph (December 12, 2019). "Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor Wins 2019 Doak Walker Award as Nation's Best RB". Bleacher Report.
14. Martin, Tyler (January 7, 2021). "Alabama RB Najee Harris Wins 2020 Doak Walker Award". Sports Illustrated.

External links

• Official website