March 2000: Vol. 79, No. 2March 2000: Vol. 79, No. 2
he press conference has just ended, but my interview with Herschel Walker is delayed for almost an hour while the new College Football Hall of Fame inductee wades through a long line of autograph seekers. Many of those in line are current college players who are in New York to be honored as scholar-athletes. These guys were still in diapers when Walker led Georgia to the National Championship in 1980. But they know who he is, and what he was. He obliges one last fan—a Waldorf-Astoria waiter—and then we start in on his career, beginning with a two-minute drill:
 Walker's jersey was retired in ceremonies at Sanford Stadium on Sept. 2, 1985. |
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Q: Are you really retired from football for good?
A: I hate to say that anything is final. I might still be the fastest guy in the NFL. I'm at least one of the top five.
Q: Thinking back on the college football recruiting wars, did you really choose Georgia by picking names out of a sack?
A: I really did. It was Easter Sunday and my parents said I had to decide. So I put three names in a sack—Georgia, Southern Cal, and Clemson. I picked three times, and Georgia came up every time.
Q: Every Georgia Fan has a favorite Herschel run. What's yours?
A: The one against Ole Miss where I get hit in mid-air, bounce off the pile, land on my feet, and score. I've seen that replay so many times.
No. 34 was always good copy. When he got tired of answering questions about how many NCAA records he planned on breaking, he'd tell the press, "I'm not sure how long I'll play football. I want to be an FBI agent." When the media asked him how he found time to do 2,000 situps and 1,500 pushups every morning, he'd say, "I only require five hours sleep a night. And I eat only one meal a day."
The kid had boundless energy, a body like Superman's—and, to hear him tell it, he hardly slept or ate. The press wasn't sure what to make of Herschel Walker, but they couldn't get enough of him.
"When he has his hands on the ball," wrote Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News, "there is always this thought: Here is something I might never see again."
Georgia has won 128 games since the prodigal son left school a year early to make his fortune in pro football. In the course of those 17 seasons, we've been thoroughly entertained by the likes of Hampton and Hearst, Zeier and Carter. But the way Herschel Walker ran with the football really is something we might never see again.
To catch up on what happened to the '82 Heisman Trophy winner after he left the friendly confines of Sanford Stadium—in a nutshell, he did unprecedented things in pro football, but was under-appreciated because he was expected to do even more—see the story on this page.
