No. He lettered as a freshman & sophomore, and is on the roster list as a letterman, but is not listed in the list of letterman for some reason, although he used to be.
No, a kid from Richardson named Wayne Johnson, who at that time was the fastest white man in the world. He actually stepped off a 9.1? hundred, but Lam had gotten a 9.1 a couple of years before. Johnson wore #4, and is the first person I ever sat down with Fred Akers and asked him WHY he wasn't on the field. The Aggies and OU feared him even though he didn't play much. Fred told me that if I put him on the hashmark on the goal line, he could run down those hashmarks faster than anyone on the team, BUT if he put a DB on the other goal line and told him he could not move, Wayne could not get around him. It was all straight ahead speed, which considering some of the "dancers" we had, may not have been a bad thing. Remember Jitter Fields? Love the kid, but I think he holds the Texas record for most yards lost after catching a punt.
Is there some reason Montrell Flowers never gets mentioned in this discussion? I'd swear I remember him running like a 9.97 100 meters. Might have wind-aided.
I wasn't aware of Flowers ever breaking 10.2/10.3; he may have, I just am not aware of it. Not football, but Texas got Don Parkhurst out of Baytown, when he ran a 9.4 as a HS junior, but Patterson quickly turned him into a 9.7 guy. (Yards not meters)
I was being facetious about "the record", but we did use to call it "adventures in punt returns". When he got to the Saints, I went to a game and he grabbed the punt, retreated to his right, looped around to his left, and after doing his best Tommy Tune tap dance, only lost 8-9 yards, but it was inside the 10. I was sitting with Volanda Wilson, Renae (sp) Campbell, and Jack Tatum's wife. Mrs Tatum looked at me and said, "That's one of yours? You need to teach the boy north and south; only go forward". She is a really nice lady, but she is totally brutal at a game.
I was still in junior high when my HS played Grapeland (non-district games) for a couple seasons. I recall a particular play involving Tony Jones. We had just punted and the ball came to rest around mid-field, totally surrounded by our coverage team. Just before the ref blew the whistle, Jones sprinted into the scrum, picked up the ball, ran the wrong direction for about 10 yards, then turned the correct direction, broke outside and ran untouched for a TD. Crazy speed. To this day I still remember thinking, even for a HS player, how tiny he looked.
Shogun, He was short, but could dunk a basketball with either hand, and stand flatfooted under the basket and go up and dunk it. If I am not mistaken, he was the point guard on that intramural team that Everett Gay organized. They challenged the varsity and Weltlich refused to allow them to play. An unauthorized game in Gregory Gym was embarrassing, not only because the football team won, but by how much they won. Center on Everett's team was TE William Harris, gone way too soon.
Jamal had that top end speed, but was a step off what we are talking about. He is a flier for sure. Eric was fast, but again, not that "elite" speed that rarely hits the football field. Chris Gilbert was quick, but not that fast. I know that he never made the 100 finals at meets we went to. I think his top 100 time was 9.9, maybe 9.8. As a RB, Chris' strength was his quickness, and the fact that I don't think anyone got a real "shot" on Chris his entire career. Great human being. First time I met him was at the Royal Purple Relays in Beaumont - always the opening event of track season in late January. I went over to the north end where the 100 started and introduced myself and told him I had watched him once, read about him, and just wanted to shake his hand. Back then there were lots of sprinters going 9.8 and under, with 9.4 (Don Parkhurst) being the fastest; several came in at 9.5 (Dale Bernauer, Mike Simpson). Norm Bulaich I believe consistently hit 9.8, but Lord he hated the 220.
This thread goes to show that there are a lot of different ways to be “fast” in football. Most speed that matters is not from a stopped position like a track sprint. To use a car analogy, first gear is really not relevant. The exception I can think of is stop/start moves ala Wes Welker or whoever; I guess that’s one way to be fast. Top end speed becomes relevant sometimes, like long runs or kickoff returns, and it is beautiful to watch. Lam Jones would be the elite name there. The two other speed characteristics I can think of are holding a high speed while changing direction, and accelerating. Changing direction at high speed, that’s Eric Metcalf. Thus, punt returns. Acceleration, well I suppose I would nominate Jamaal Charles.
According to DKR, Jimmy Saxton was the best he had ever seen. He said he cut reverse on a dime and be full speed on first step.
I'm a little older than OrangeShogun and was a senior at Garrison HS when Tony was a sophomore. We had a really good team that year and played Grapeland in non-district. I was probably the only AA kicking specialist in the state at that time (open heart surgery, supposed to avoid contact). Grapeland couldn't do much on offense in that game but every time I kicked off Tony was a threat to score. Late in the game he got through our other 10 players and I was left one-on-one with the fastest kid I had ever seen. I was supposed to jog off of the field after kicking off but I had to at least try to tackle him. He would probably have gotten past me 99 times out of 100, but somehow I tackled him that time and preserved the shutout. I had a grand total of one tackle in my "football career".
