Who is Emmitt Smith: Football Legend

Born in Pensacola, Florida, Emmitt Smith attended Escambia High School in Pensacola. He joined the football team, for which he scored 106 touchdowns and rushed for 8,804 yards. This was the second best yardage record for American high school football at the time. Smith rushed for over 100 yards in 45 of the 49 games he started for Escambia (including the last 28 in a row) and finished with a 7.8 yards per carry average. Twice, he broke the 2000 yard rushing mark in a season. This earned him the USA Today and Parade Magazine high school player of the year in 1986.

Despite all this, college recruiting experts called him "too small and too slow" for college football when he signed with the University of Florida football team. He proved them wrong in a game against Tulsa, during which he gained 109 yards in 10 carries, including a 66-yard touchdown run. This accomplishment earned him the privilege of starting in the SEC opener against Alabama in Birmingham.

In this game, he broke a forty-year-old single-game rushing record by rushing 224 yards and scoring two touchdowns in 39 carries during the course of beating the Crimson Tide. He then passed the 1000-yard marker during his 7th game, the fastest ever to do so during his freshman year. He was named Southeastern Conference and National Freshman of the Year.

A knee injury prevented him from breaking the 1000 mark during his sophomore year, but came roaring back during his junior year with 1,599 total rushed yards that season, a Floridian record. In all, he achieved 58 Florida records, including 316 rushing yards in a single game against New Mexico. He chose not to go back for his senior year, however, opting instead to enter the NFL draft.

NFL teams were concerned that he was still too small and too slow for professional football, so he fell to the 17th pick in the first round of drafting. Selected by the Dallas Cowboys, he became the first player with five consecutive seasons with 1,400 rushed yards.

Am I hearing an "I told you so" yet?

As a runner, Smith favored consistent effectiveness over a dazzling style. He was often compared to Detroit Lions' running back, Barry Sanders, because both were highly successful for their respective teams. There is disagreement about who was the better running back. Some site Smith's "north-south" style of play, which took full advantage of the offensive line's talented work, while others point to Sanders' spectacular running style with sudden changes of direction. But there is no disputing that Emmitt Smith was the first player to post 11 consecutive seasons with 1,000 or more rushing yards.

Although he played with the Arizona Cardinals for his last couple of seasons, he ended his career with the Dallas Cowboys, signing a one day contract for no money so he could play in Super Bowl XXXIX in February 2005. In September of the same year, he was inducted in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor. In 2010, he was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame.

(Image courtesy Wikipedia)

Talk about your to-the-goal contest! After tying with "Saved by the Bell" star Mario Lopez in the judges' tally, Emmitt Smith won the third season of "Dancing with the Stars" in viewer voting. "It is awesome! It is awesome!" declared Smith, hugging his professional dance partner Cheryl Burke. "We came a long way, we really have."

Dubbed "The Big Easy" for his laid-back style during the contest, Smith proved he can do the samba just as well as he gained yardage on the football field. "You don't get into a competition unless you think you can win," he told AP Radio after the final night.