Hall of Famer Doak Walker Dead at 71

He was only 5 feet 11, 173 pounds and not particularly fast, but he was big enough to become a legend in Texas, and folks there would say that takes somebody mighty big.

Doak Walker, who died Sunday in Steamboat Springs, Colo., at 71, was big enough to move his Southern Methodist football team across Dallas to find more seats for people to watch his exploits, and he was big enough to require that the capacity of the new home--the Cotton Bowl--be expanded from 47,000 to 75,000.

A plaque there now calls it “The House That Walker Built.”

He was big enough to require the Southern Methodist trophy case be expanded to house the 1948 Heisman Trophy, and big enough for SMU, beginning in 1990, to bestow the Doak Walker Award on the player deemed college football’s best running back.

He was big enough to play a key role in Detroit winning 1952 and ’53 NFL championships. Big enough to become a member of the college and professional football halls of fame.

“He had the heart of a lion,” said Yale Lary, a Detroit teammate who intended no pun and who had made several visits to Walker since his paralysis that was the result of a Jan. 30 ski accident. Complications from that paralysis were listed as the cause of Walker’s death.

“He had just enough to be able to do everything,” Lary said. “I can still see him running down the field. He was quick, and he just followed his blocking until he saw a hole and then whoosh, he was gone. It was about like he was on ice skates.”

Walker and Bobby Layne had spent much of their careers together, from Highland Park High to Detroit to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with time out to become rivals, Layne at Texas and Walker at SMU.

And Layne, a quarterback, deferred to few people, but he did to Walker, calling him “the greatest clutch player I have ever seen.”

Layne saw plenty of him, first at Highland Park and then in the Southwest Conference, in which Walker scored against the Longhorns in his first college game and caught a pass that set up the winning touchdown in the Mustangs’ 14-13 victory over Texas in 1947.

“Doak and Bobby Layne were like black and white,” Lary said. Layne liked the night life and Walker “was very quiet and subdued. He was just an All-American boy.”

Walker was a three-time All-American running back at SMU, where he never rushed for more than 684 yards in a season; he threw for only 605 yards in his top passing year; he caught passes totaling only 278 yards in his top receiving year. He also punted, kicked extra points and field goals, returned punts and kickoffs and played defensive back and, in his spare time, was a reserve guard on the Mustang basketball team and an outfielder on the baseball team.

“Other than golf, I never really tried a sport that, inside of 30 minutes, I couldn’t play pretty good,” Walker once said.

And football, he played very well.

“I remember when I was in high school in Fort Worth, I saw him play against [Texas Christian] twice, and in 1947, they lined up for a kickoff [with 1:40 to play] and I could hear them yelling, ‘Don’t kick it to Walker,’ ” Lary said. “Well, they did and he ran the ball back 75 yards, and then he scored the touchdown.”

It earned the Mustangs a 19-19 tie and their first undefeated season. SMU (9-0-2) then tied Penn State, 13-13, in the Cotton Bowl, with Walker throwing a 53-yard touchdown pass, running for a two-yard touchdown and kicking an extra point.

But that was in Texas, where college football was king. When Walker went to Detroit and the NFL, he was said to be too small.

He was all-pro in four of his six NFL seasons.

“I can remember him coming in and running a 67-yard touchdown in the 1952 championship game with Cloyce Box leading the interference,” Lary said. “Doak was always a clutch player.”

In that game, Walker scored the touchdown that gave the Lions a 14-0 lead and they defeated Cleveland, 17-7, for the title. The next year, Walker scored a touchdown and kicked a field goal in a 17-16 victory over the Browns that brought Detroit a second successive championship.

Two years later, after the 1955 season, he was finished with football. He decided he could make more money with a contracting firm and never looked back.

He is survived by his wife, Skeeter Werner, a former Olympic skier from Steamboat Springs, four children and four grandchildren.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.