Robert Strait (born November 14, 1969) 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 ...

. Strait is considered one of the best high-school football players in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

history. While playing at

Cuero High School Cuero High School is a public high school located in Cuero, Texas, United States and classified as a 4A school by the University Interscholastic League (UIL). It is part of the Cuero Independent School District located in central DeWitt County. ...

from 1985–88, Strait rushed for 8,411 yards on a state-record 1,131 carries, and scored 841 points. He had 41 games with more than 100 yards rushing for his career, with was then second to

Emmitt Smith Emmitt James Smith III (born May 15, 1969) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys. Among other accolades, he is the lea ...

's national record of 45 games and was the Texas state record until Wes Danaher broke the record in 1995 with 43 100-yard games. In 1987, Strait scored 372 points, which is second in Texas football history only to Ken Hall (395 points in 1953), while Cuero High won the 3A state championship. In 1985 and 1986, Cuero had lost the title game. Considered the state's top recruit in 1989 alongside

Jessie Armstead Jessie Willard Armstead (born October 26, 1970) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) who played for eleven seasons with the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins between 1993 and 2003. He played col ...

, Strait accepted a scholarship offer by

Grant Teaff Grant Garland Teaff (; born November 12, 1933) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at McMurry University (1960–1965), Angelo State University (1969–1971), and Baylor University (1972–1992), compiling ...

to play for

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

. At the time, he was considered “the most heralded recruit in Baylor school history.” In the

1994 NFL Draft The 1994 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, 1994, at the Marriott Mar ...

he was picked by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

in the sixth round with the 171st pick overall. He never played in the NFL, though.

References

1969 births Living people People from Cuero, Texas American football running backs Baylor Bears football players Cleveland Browns players {{runningback-1960s-stub