Lance McIlhenny is a former American college

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was an award-winning

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

. He led the

SMU Mustangs The SMU Mustangs are the athletic teams that represent Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, United States. The Mustangs were founded in 1911 and joined the Southwest Conference, competing against Baylor, Rice, Texas, Texa ...

to two

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 an ...

championships.

Biography

McIlhenny is considered to be one of the greatest option

s in

NCAA Division I-A The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

history. As a freshman, he did not begin the 1980 season as the starter at

, but was promoted during the seventh game against the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. Future NFL running backs

Eric Dickerson Eric Demetric Dickerson (born September 2, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. Dickerson played college football for the Mustangs of Southern Me ...

and Craig James, combined with blue chip running back Charles Waggoner, were nicknamed the "Pony Express" for their running attack; with McIlhenny leading the offense. In

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, he led the

in passing efficiency with a 133 rating. Slocum told Sherrington, McIlhenny “understood option football. ... He had two great running backs at SMU, but he’s the one who made it all go”. In the 1983 Cotton Bowl, number-four-ranked SMU and McIlhenny (a senior), played against the number-six-ranked

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

and

Dan Marino Daniel Constantine Marino Jr. (born September 15, 1961) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons with the Miami Dolphins. After a successful college career at Pittsburgh and be ...

in his final game. SMU won, 7-3. McIlhenny is the winningest quarterback in school and

history, finishing with a career record of 34-5-1. He played a key role in the Mustangs two SWC Championships (

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

). As Kevin Sherrington, sports writer for The Dallas Morning News observed in a January 2015 analysis of the 1982 Mustangs, "Lance McIlhenny had more than a little to do with the success. He became SMU’s starting quarterback midway through his freshman year. Not because he was big or fast or could throw a pass through your earhole. What he was, was a mechanic. Nobody south of the Red River ran the option better. He learned it at the foot of Frank Bevers at Highland Park, where R.C. Slocum, then a Texas A&M assistant, recruited him for the Aggies." In 2013, he was inducted into the SMU Athletics Hall of Fame.

Personal life

His father

Don McIlhenny Donald Brookes McIlhenny (November 22, 1934 – April 18, 2023) was an American professional football player who was a halfback in the National Football League for the Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, and San Francisco 49ers ...

played 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 ...

. After college, McIlhenny opted not to continue a career in professional sports. He told UPI in 1982, "I really don't think I would want to stay in the game as a coach. ... Oh, maybe I might coach my kids or be a YMCA coach. But football takes a lot out of you. It is a grind. I get too wrapped up in it. My mom will be the first to tell you that". He worked for several commercial real estate firms in the Dallas area, including Jones Lang LaSalle, The Staubach Company, CASE Commercial Real Estate, Cresa Partners and CBRE, where he was a first vice president.

References

External links

SMU Hall of Fame bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:McIlhenny, Lance Living people Players of American football from Dallas American football quarterbacks SMU Mustangs football players Year of birth missing (living people)