Robert Eugene Ferguson (August 29, 1939 – December 30, 2004) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, where he won the Maxwell Award in 1961. Ferguson then played professionally in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) with the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

and

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

. He was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

in 1996.

Playing career

Ferguson attended Troy High School in Troy, Ohio. Ferguson's first year of eligibility at

was 1959. The starting

at the beginning of the season was the senior, and

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

candidate, Bob White. Through the course of the season, however, Ferguson supplanted White as the starter and led the team in rushing that season, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. Over the next two seasons, Ferguson continued to lead the Ohio State offensive attack. In both 1960 and 1961 Ferguson was a unanimous

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n selection. In 1961, he won the

UPI College Football Player of the Year The United Press International College Football Player of the Year Award was among the first and most recognized college football awards. With the second bankruptcy of UPI in 1991, along with that of its parent company, the award was discontinued. ...

, the Maxwell Award, and was the runner-up to

Ernie Davis Ernest Davis (December 14, 1939 – May 18, 1963) was an American football player who won the Heisman Trophy in 1961 and was its first African-American recipient. Davis played college football for Syracuse University and was the first pick in the ...

for the Heisman Trophy. The 1961 Heisman vote was the second-closest in the history of the award, with Davis edging Ferguson by 53 points. Ferguson shared the Ohio State backfield in 1961 with halfbacks

Paul Warfield Paul Dryden Warfield (born November 28, 1942) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) from 1964 to 1977 for the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins, except for a year in t ...

and Matt Snell. Ferguson was a power runner and Warfield was supplied speed. The common description of the time said, "Warfield is the lightning, Ferguson is the thunder." The Buckeyes won the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

that year and were voted national champions by the

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

(FWAA). Ferguson finished his career at Ohio State with 2,162 rushing yards. This rushing total was at the time second in team history behind Howard Cassady. Ferguson owns the distinction of never having been thrown for a loss during his college football career. Ferguson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996, and into Ohio State's own Varsity O Hall of Fame in 1987. He was selected to the Ohio State Football All-Century Team in 2000. Ferguson was a first-round draft pick by both the

of the

and the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

of the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

. Ferguson accepted the offer from the Steelers, but a head injury hampered his football career. After two seasons, playing both for the Steelers and the

, he joined the Dayton Colts of the Midwest Football League in 1965.

Later life

Ferguson returned to Ohio State University and earned a master's degree in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

. He worked as a youth counselor in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

until he was forced to retire in 1990 due to health problems. Ferguson died in 2004 of complications due to diabetes.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Bob 1939 births 2004 deaths American football fullbacks Ohio State Buckeyes football players Pittsburgh Steelers players All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Maxwell Award winners People from Troy, Ohio Players of American football from Columbus, Ohio African-American players of American football Deaths from diabetes Midwest Football League (1962–1978) players 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people