Lawrence Tallmagde Ricks (born June 4, 1961) 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 ...

player. 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 ...

as a tailback for the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

from 1979 to 1982 and was selected as a first-team running back on the 1982 All-Big Ten Conference football team. He also played professional football as a backup

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 ...

and

kick returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

for the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

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 1983 and 1984.

Early years

Ricks was born in

Barberton, Ohio Barberton is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 26,550 at the 2010 census. Lying directly southwest of Akron, it is a suburb of the Akron metropolitan area. History Barberton was founded in 1891 by industrialist O. ...

, in 1961. He attended Barberton High School. In October 1978, he rushed for 215 yards on 19 carries and four touchdowns in a 34-0 victory over

Walsh Jesuit High School Walsh Jesuit High School is a private, Catholic, co-educational college preparatory high school located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, approximately 30 miles south of Cleveland. Walsh Jesuit is reputed to be one of Ohio's leading college preparatory sc ...

. He was a part of the Barberton High National Honor Society.

College career

Ricks enrolled at the

in 1979 and played

for

Bo Schembechler Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler Jr. ( ; April 1, 1929 – November 17, 2006) was an American football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the University of ...

Michigan Wolverines football The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for its ...

teams from 1979 to 1982. As a sophomore, Ricks shared the tailback position on the

1980 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1980 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1980 Big Ten Conference football season. In their 12th season under head coach Bo Schembechler, the Wolverines compile ...

with

Butch Woolfolk Harold E. "Butch" Woolfolk (born March 1, 1960) is a former American football running back and kick returner who played in college for the University of Michigan (1978–1981) and in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants ( ...

, with each starting six games at the position. He gained 850 rushing yards on 167 carries, with six rushing touchdowns.(Ricks' statistics can be retrieved by typing "ricks" into the space provided for the player's last name.) As a junior, he saw his playing time reduced and was the team's fourth-leading rusher, gaining 413 yards on 86 carries for the 1981 Michigan team. Tailback Woolfolk, fullback

Stan Edwards Stanley J. Edwards (born May 20, 1959) is a former American football running back. A native of Detroit, Edwards played college football at the University of Michigan from 1977 to 1981 and for six years in the National Football League (NFL) for t ...

, and quarterback

Steve Smith Stephen, Steve, Stevie, or Steven Smith may refer to: Academics * Steve Smith (political scientist) (born 1952), British international relations theorist and senior university manager * Stephen Smith (journalist) (born 1956), American journalist, ...

each had more rushing carries and yards than Ricks during the season. Ricks had his best season as a senior for the 1982 Michigan team, taking over as Woolfolk's replacement. He started all 12 games at tailback and gained 1,388 rushing yards (second in the

Big Ten 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 ...

and ninth in the nation) on 266 carries (5.2-yards per carry, 118.2-yards per game), with 8 touchdowns. He had seven 100-yard games during the season, including a career-high 196-yard game against Purdue and a 177-yard game against Illinois. In his final game for Michigan, he was the rushing leader in the

1983 Rose Bowl The 1983 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game, played on January 1, 1983. It was the 69th Rose Bowl Game. The UCLA Bruins defeated the Michigan Wolverines by a score of 24–14, in a bowl rematch of a regular season game, also won by UCLA. ...

against

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. At the end of the year, he was selected by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

as a first-team running back on the 1982 All-Big Ten Conference football team. Over the course of his four-year career at Michigan, Ricks totaled 2,751 rushing yards (at the time fifth on the school's career list) on 541 carries (5.1 yards per carry) and 24 touchdowns.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Ricks was selected by the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

in the eighth round (220th overall pick) of the

1983 NFL Draft The 1983 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 26–27, 1983, at the New York She ...

. He was also selected by the

Michigan Panthers The Michigan Panthers were a professional American football team based in the Detroit, Michigan area. The Panthers competed in the United States Football League (USFL) as a member of the Western Conference and Central Division. The team played i ...

in the 1983 USFL Territorial Draft: On August 24, before the start of the season, he was traded to the

in exchange for a seventh round draft choice (#178-

Karl Powe Karl Alonzo Powe (born January 17, 1962) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Alabama State University. Early years Powe attended Mattie T. Blou ...

). He only had one carry during the team's first three preseason games.

Kansas City Chiefs

Looking for a successor to the late

Joe Delaney Joe Alton Delaney (; October 30, 1958 – June 29, 1983) was an American football running back who played two seasons in the National Football League (NFL). In his two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, Delaney set four franchise records ...

, the

acquired a series of

s during the 1983 preseason. Ricks appeared in 12 games (none as a starter), as a rookie, gaining only 28 rushing yards on 21 carries. On August 30,

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

, he was placed on waivers by the Chiefs, but was re-signed three days later. During the season, he appeared in only five games and was used primarily as a kickoff returner. He gained one rushing yard on two carries and 83 return yards on five kickoff returns.

References