Alfred Eugene "Sonny" Collins (born January 17, 1953) 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 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 ...

(NFL). He was drafted by the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

in the second round of the

1976 NFL draft The 1976 National Football League draft was an annual player selection meeting held April 8–9, 1976, at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, New York. The draft lasted 17 rounds, with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks m ...

. 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 ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

College career

Collins rushed for 3,835 yards with 26

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether Rush (gridiron football), running, Forward pass, passing, returning a Kickoff (gridiron football), kickoff or Punt (gridiron football), punt, or recovering a Turno ...

during his college career and was the 1973

SEC Player of the Year Southeastern Conference Player of the Year refers to the most outstanding player for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in a given sport for a given season. For lists of individual sport SEC Players of the Year by year: *Southeastern Conference Bas ...

. He finished his collegiate career at Kentucky as the all-time leading rusher. The record would stand for 43 years until

Benny Snell Benjamin Snell Jr. (born February 26, 1998) is an American football running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Kentucky. Snell is the great-nephew of former New York Jets runnin ...

surpassed it in 2019. In 2012, he was named an SEC Football Legend.

NFL career

Collins was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the second round (#36 overall) of the

1976 NFL Draft The 1976 National Football League draft was an annual player selection meeting held April 8–9, 1976, at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, New York. The draft lasted 17 rounds, with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks m ...

. He only played for a year before retiring with a career ending knee injury.In UK football history, Sonny Collins comes to mind, says records are made to be broken
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Sonny 1953 births Living people People from Madisonville, Kentucky Players of American football from Kentucky American football running backs Kentucky Wildcats football players Atlanta Falcons players