Elbert L. "Ickey" Woods (born February 28, 1966) is a former
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 ...
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 American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...
who played for the
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...
of 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 ...
from 1988 through 1991. 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 ...
at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...
. He is best remembered for his "
Ickey Shuffle
The Ickey Shuffle was a touchdown celebration performed by National Football League (NFL) fullback Elbert "Ickey" Woods, who played for the Cincinnati Bengals. After scoring a touchdown, Woods would shuffle his feet to the right and hold the foo ...
" end zone dance, performed each time he scored a
touchdown
A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...
. After a
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 ...
season in which he set numerous rookie franchise records, a series of injuries shortened his NFL career and he retired after four years.
Early life
Elbert Woods was given the nickname "Ickey" based on his little brother's pronunciation of his given first name, which sounded like "E-E." He attended
Edison High School in Fresno, California, where he played sports. He received one college football scholarship, from the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...
(UNLV), where he was a four-year letterwinner for the
UNLV Rebels
The UNLV Rebels are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The Rebels compete in the NCAA Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision for college football) as a member of the Mountain West Confer ...
. As a freshman in 1984, the Rebels, led by future NFL star quarterback
Randall Cunningham
Randall Wade Cunningham Sr. (born March 27, 1963) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles and is also known for ...
, went 11-2 and won the
California Bowl
The California Bowl (later the California Raisin Bowl) was a post-season college football bowl game played annually at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California, from 1981 to 1991. The game featured the champions of the Big West Conference (known p ...
30-13 against the
Toledo Rockets
The Toledo Rockets are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Toledo. The Rockets compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The ...
, a game in which Woods rushed nine times for 53 yards and one touchdown.
In his senior year of 1987, he broke out and led the nation in rushing with 1,658 yards, with 6.4 yards per attempt. That total remains the second-most in UNLV history, and he still holds the school record in single-game rushing attempts with 37 in two different games. In one of those games, he ran for a personal-best 265 yards against the
University of the Pacific. He rushed for more than 100 yards in nine games, and more than 200 yards three times, in 1987, and was named first-team All Big West.
He was inducted into the UNLV Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.
Professional career
The
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...
of 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) in the second round, drafted Woods with the 31st overall selection, of the
1988 NFL Draft
The 1988 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 1988, at the Marriot Marq ...
. He was a breakout star as a rookie, setting franchise rookie records for rushing with 1,066 yards (since broken by
Corey Dillon
Corey James Dillon (born October 24, 1974) is a former American football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and New England Patriots. Dillon played college football at Washing ...
), 15 touchdowns, and an NFL-leading 5.3 yards per carry, along with 228 yards and three touchdowns in the playoffs as the Bengals advanced to
Super Bowl XXIII
Super Bowl XXIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Cincinnati Bengals and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...
. His team lost the game 20-16 to the
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 ...
, but he finished as the game's leading rusher with 79 yards.
In 1989, Woods tore his left
anterior cruciate ligament
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...
(ACL) in the second game of the season, a 41-10 victory over 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 ...
. He missed 13 months. By the time he returned, his starting role was filled by
Harold Green.
In 1991, Woods injured his right knee in the preseason. He returned at midseason but he ran for just 97 yards on 36 carries. He was out of football by age 26. His career statistics include 332 carries for 1,525 yards and 27 touchdowns, along with 47 receptions for 397 yards. Woods was later named #7 on
NFL Top 10
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 major ...
's ''Top Ten One-Shot Wonders''.
's NFL off-season, Ickey Woods held at least 30 Bengals franchise records, including:
* Rush Attempts: playoffs (89), playoff season (72 in 1988), playoff game (29 on 1989-01-08 BUF)
* Rush Yards: playoffs (391), playoff season (307 in 1988)
* Rush Yds/Att: playoffs (4.39), rookie season (5.25 in 1988)
* Rushing TDs: season/rookie season (15 in 1988), playoffs (4), playoff season (3 in 1988), playoff game (2 on 1989-01-08 BUF)
* Rush Yds/Game: playoffs (78.2)
* Total TDs: playoffs (4), playoff season (3 in 1988), playoff game (2 on 1989-01-08 BUF), rookie season (15 in 1988)
* Yds from Scrimmage: playoffs (409), playoff season (307 in 1988)
* All Purpose Yds: playoffs (409), playoff season (307 in 1988)
* 100+ yard rushing games: season (7 in 1988, with
Cedric Benson
Cedric Myron Benson (December 28, 1982 – August 17, 2019) was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Texas Longhorns and was recognized as a co ...
), playoffs (2), rookie season (7)
* Games with 1+ TD scored: playoffs (3), rookie season (11)
* Games with 2+ TD scored: season/rookie season (6 in 1988), playoff game (1; with
Charles Alexander,
Dan Ross,
Stanley Wilson)
* Games with 3+ TD scored: rookie season (1; with three others)
Personal life
![US Navy 020203-N-3653A-001 Ickey Woods and Redskin Cheerleaders](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/US_Navy_020203-N-3653A-001_Ickey_Woods_and_Redskin_Cheerleaders.jpg)
Woods is the longtime owner/coach of the
Cincinnati Sizzle
The Cincinnati Sizzle is a women's professional full-contact/tackle football team from Cincinnati, Ohio. The team was established in 2003, by former Cincinnati Bengals running back Ickey Woods. Steve Sherman is the current owner of the Cincinn ...
of the full-contact
Women's Football Alliance
The Women's Football Alliance (WFA) is a professional full-contact Women's American football tackle minor league that began play in 2009. It is the largest 11-on-11 football league for women in the world, and the longest running active women's ...
; one of the players was his ex-wife, Chandra Baldwin-Woods. He runs the Ickey Woods Youth Foundation as well as the Jovante Woods Foundation, named for their son who died at age 16. Jovante was an honor student and a member of the
Princeton High School football team who suffered a fatal asthma attack at home. The foundation provides funding and education for asthma research and organ donor education.
Woods has six children. Since retiring from the NFL, he has been a sales representative for a meat company, sold security systems, and has owned a flooring store in Cincinnati.
In 2006, he was an assistant coach for the
Cincinnati Marshals of the
National Indoor Football League
The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, A ...
.
Ickey Woods appeared in
Bootsy Collins
William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer.
Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading n ...
' video "Who-Dey Invasion." He appeared in a
Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell, doing business as Altafiber (typeset as altafiber), is a regional telecommunications service provider based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It provides landline telephone, fiber-optic Internet, and IPTV services through its ...
commercial, doing the "Ickey Shuffle" with the company's president
and was in a national
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produ ...
commercial doing the "Ickey Shuffle" with his mother. In 2014, he was featured in a national
GEICO
The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is a private American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owne ...
Insurance commercial in which he reprised his "Ickey Shuffle" while gleefully buying cold cuts at a deli counter. On May 1, 2015, Woods announced at the
Auditorium Theatre
The Auditorium Theatre is a music and performance venue located inside the Auditorium Building at 50 Ida B. Wells Drive in Chicago, Illinois. Inspired by the Richardsonian Romanesque Style of architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the building was d ...
in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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that the
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...
had selected
offensive tackle
Offensive may refer to:
* Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative
* Offensive (military), an attack
* Offensive language
** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...
Jake Fisher
Jake Fisher (born April 23, 1993) is a former American football player. He played college football for the University of Oregon. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals as an offensive tackle in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He sw ...
of the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
as the 21st pick in the second round (53rd overall) of the
2015 NFL Draft
The 2015 NFL Draft was the 80th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. It took place in Chicago at the Auditorium Theatre and in Grant Park, from April 30 to May 2. The previous ...
. After replicating his signature move, the "Ickey Shuffle" and making the pick announcement, Woods said, "gonna get me some cold cuts," a line from the aforementioned
GEICO
The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is a private American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owne ...
television commercial. He also appeared in a couple of commercials before
Super Bowl XLIX
Super Bowl XLIX was an American football game played to determine the champions of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2014 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots defeated the National Football Conf ...
. The dance move is occasionally duplicated by other NFL players.
References
External links
Career StatsCatching Up With... Bengals running back Ickey samaj (1997)Ickey Woods - Realizing His True Calling (2006)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samaj, Icky
1966 births
Living people
American football running backs
Cincinnati Bengals players
Players of American football from California
Sportspeople from Fresno, California
UNLV Rebels football players