Donald Ray Woods (born February 17, 1951) is a former
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 ...
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 wi ...
running back
A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball,
and block. Ther ...
who played with the
San Diego Chargers and
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...
from 1974–1980.
College career
Woods attended
New Mexico Highlands University
New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) is a public university in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Founded in 1893, it has satellite campuses in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Farmington and Roswell. NMHU has an average annual enrollment of approximate ...
for college before transferring to the
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
his senior year when New Mexico Highlands dropped their football program. He was a mobile quarterback for the Lobos, leading the team with both 869 yards on 52 of 124 passes, and 971 yards on 220 rushes for 11 touchdowns,
and winning the team's MVP award.
[Se]
New Mexico Sports Media Guide (PDF)
/ref> In a game against rival New Mexico St., he rushed for 188 yards, at the time the fourth most in school history, for which he won the UPI Back of the Week award on Sept. 15, 1973.Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
(100 and 134) and Colorado St. (148 and 128).
Professional career
Woods was selected in the 6th Round of the 1974 NFL Draft
The 1974 NFL draft took place at the Americana Hotel in New York City, New York, on January 29–30, 1974. Each of the 26 NFL teams were granted 17 selections for a total of 442 picks.
Many experts consider the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers to have ha ...
by the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay released Woods at the end of training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events, ...
and he was subsequently picked up by the Chargers early in the 1974 season. He was used almost exclusively as a running back, despite playing quarterback in college (albeit one who ran almost twice as often as passed). The move proved very fruitful for San Diego, as Woods, despite not suiting up until the 3rd week of the season, went on to set a then-NFL-rookie
A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year).
In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...
-rushing-record of 1,162 yards in only 12 games, including a then-rookie-record seven 100-yard rushing performances (weeks 3,4,5,7,10,12, and 14). Woods was selected the 1974 NFL Rookie of the Year
Various entities present a National Football League Rookie of the Year Award each season to the top rookie(s) in the National Football League (NFL). The NFL considers the (rookie) of the year awards by the Associated Press (AP) to be its official ...
. His seven rushing touchdowns and 96.8 rushing yards per game remain Chargers franchise rookie records, and his 1,162 rushing and 1,511 yards from scrimmage are second only to the numbers LaDainian Tomlinson
LaDainian Tarshane Tomlinson (born June 23, 1979) is a former American football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. After a successful college career with the TCU Horned Frogs, the San Diego Chargers se ...
put up in 2001.
A knee injury slowed Woods down during the 1975 campaign and while having several solid years with the Chargers, was never able to recapture the electricity of his rookie campaign. Woods was eventually phased out of the Chargers offense and traded to San Francisco during the 1980 season, finishing out his career that season with the 49ers. Woods finished his career with 3,087 career rushing yards and scored a total of 21 touchdowns. As of November 2021, Woods remains number 8 on the all-time Chargers rushing list.
NFL Career Statistics
References
1951 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Denton, Texas
American football running backs
New Mexico Highlands Cowboys football players
New Mexico Lobos football players
San Diego Chargers players
San Francisco 49ers players
National Football League Offensive Rookie of the Year Award winners
{{runningback-1950s-stub