Donald Roy "Ike" Forte (born March 8, 1954) 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 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 ...

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 ...

for the New England Patriots, the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

, and the New York Giants. He played college football at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

and was drafted in the second round of the 1976 NFL Draft.

College career

Forte began his college career with the

Tyler Junior College Tyler Junior College (TJC) is a public community college in Tyler, Texas. It is one of the largest community colleges in Texas, with an enrollment of more than 12,500 credit students each year with an additional 20,000 continuing education enroll ...

, playing two seasons. He earned junior college All-America honors in his sophomore season when he ran for 1,175 yards. Next moving to Arkansas, Forte was the leading rusher for the team in his junior and senior seasons, earning All-

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...

honors in both 1974 and 1975. He had eight 100-yard games rushing and finished as the third best rusher in team history to that point. In 1975, Forte was a co-captain and a key player in the Hogs winning the Southwest Conference title and, in his last college game, he led the team in an upset of the Georgia Bulldogs in the

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its namesake stadium i ...

. In that game, he rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns, earning the game's Most Outstanding Offensive Player award.

Professional career

Forte began his journeyman career in the

with the New England Patriots after being drafted by them in the second round with the 38th overall pick in the 1976 NFL Draft. In his career, Forte scored seven touchdowns while gaining 511 rushing yards on 165 carries and 387 receiving yards on 39 receptions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forte, Ike 1954 births Living people People from Texarkana, Arkansas American football running backs Arkansas Razorbacks football players New England Patriots players New York Giants players Washington Redskins players Tyler Apaches football players