 Ron Dayne
University of Wisconsin
Ron Dayne is an old-fashioned kind of football
player. He isn't flashy, he doesn't say much, he isn't the type to dance in the endzone.
He just plays the game.
But that's OK. When you are as good as Ron Dayne, people will notice and for all the
right reasons. This season, the 5-10, 255-pound Wisconsin tailback became the leading
rusher in major college history, rolling up 6,397 career yards and breaking the mark set
by Ricky Williams of the University of Texas.
"I don't know anyone who's ever exemplified a program like Ron does," Badger
coach Barry Alvarez said. "Everything Wisconsin football is, that's what Ron is. This
school will be appreciating what he's done for decades to come."
Dayne won the Maxwell Football Club's Collegiate Player of the Year Award in a
landslide, receiving 75 percent of the first place votes. He was previously honored by the
Club in 1995 as its High School Player of the Year for his brilliant career at Overbrook
(N.J.) Regional High School. He is only the third player to win both the collegiate and
high school awards. The others were Reds Bagnell (West Catholic, Penn) and John
Cappelletti (Monsignor Bonner, Penn State).
Dayne was a tireless runner who carried Wisconsin to back-to-back Big Ten
championships. He rushed for 200 yards or more in a game a dozen times, including his
final game, a 17-9 victory over Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Dayne had 200 yards on 34
carries and was named the Rose Bowl's Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive
year.
Dayne set his many records without padding them. This season, he sat out the fourth
quarter in five different games when he easily could have piled up huge numbers. Whenever
he was asked about individual honors, Dayne would respond: "It's a team thing."
He led the Badgers by example, on and off the field.
"Ron is the most unselfish player I've ever been around," said Brian White,
Wisconsin's offensive coordinator. "That's why his teammates respect him so much. He
never once questioned our decision to take him out of a game. With all he had riding on
it, he trusts us to do what's in his best interest and the team's.
"Ron is the reason we're able to become a nationally recognized program. You go
into any high school in the country and they know who Ron Dayne is and they know what
uniform number he wears. We have an identity to recruits because of the kind of player and
person Ron is."
"Ron Dayne is the real deal," wrote Steve Bisheff in the Orange County (Ca.)
Register. "He comes at you, down after down, game after game. Most of the time he has
had to run against opponents gearing their entire game plans on stopping No. 33, which
only makes Dayne's career average of 5.8 yards per carry that much more amazing.
"He has the body of a fullback and the feet of a scatback. So if you'll excuse me,
I intend to carefully take my (award) ballot and print the name Ron Dayne up there at the
top -- enthusiastically." |
