Tony Dorsett

Did You Know?

• Dorsett is the uncle of NFL Hall of Fame cornerback Ty Law, a three-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots.
• He hosts the Tony Dorsett Celebrity Golf Classic for McGuire Memorial, which has raised nearly $5 million.
• In November 2013, Dorsett announced he had signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), citing memory loss and unexplained rage as major symptoms.

Early life

Dorsett grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, the son of Wes and Myrtle. He attended Hopewell High School, where he played football and basketball. As a sophomore in 1970, he started at cornerback because coaches thought the 147-pound Dorsett was too small for running back. The next year, a competition for the starting running back position ended when he took a screen pass 75 yards for a touchdown against Ambridge in the season opener.

He finished 1971 as an All-State selection after rushing for 1,034 yards and 19 touchdowns, leading the Vikings to a 9–1 record. In 1972, he again earned All-State honors, setting a single-game rushing record of 247 yards against Sharon, a single-season record of 1,238 yards, and a career record of 2,272 yards. Dorsett also played linebacker on defense. His teams never reached the WPIAL Class AA playoffs because they needed an undefeated record; the only losses in 1971 and 1972 came when he played less than a quarter due to a concussion or on a muddy field.

After his senior season, he played in the Big 33 Football Classic, where future coach Johnny Majors first saw him live. Hopewell later retired his jersey number 33, and in 2001 the stadium was renamed Tony Dorsett Stadium.

College career

At the University of Pittsburgh in 1973, Dorsett became the first freshman in 29 years to be named All-American, the previous being Doc Blanchard of Army in 1944. He finished second in the nation in rushing with 1,586 yards in 11 games and led the Panthers to their first winning season in a decade. His rushing total broke the freshman record set by New Mexico State's Ron "Po" James in 1968. The school convinced him to go by Tony for the marketable initials TD.

During his freshman year, his son Anthony was born on September 14, 1973. Dorsett faced criticism for the birth out of wedlock, but he believed continuing his football career was the best way to support his son. Three games into his sophomore season, he became Pitt's all-time leader in career rushing yards, surpassing Marshall Goldberg's record of 1,957 yards. Against Notre Dame as a junior, he rushed for 303 yards to break his own school single-game record.

As a senior in 1976, he totaled 290 yards against Notre Dame, darting 61 yards on his first run of the season in a 31–10 win.

Professional career

Before the 1977 NFL draft, scouts questioned Dorsett's durability due to his small size. The Dallas Cowboys selected him second overall after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers passed; Dallas acquired the pick from the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for four other selections. Dorsett had told Seattle he would not play for them. He signed a five-year contract worth about $1.1 million, the first Cowboys contract over $1 million.

Head coach Tom Landry initially designed precise running plays but later let Dorsett choose his running lanes. In his rookie season, Dorsett rushed for 1,007 yards and 12 touchdowns, earning Offensive Rookie of the Year. He set a Cowboys rookie record that stood until Ezekiel Elliott surpassed it in 2016. Named starter in the 10th game, he became the first player to win a college national championship and then a Super Bowl the next year when the Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos 27–10 in Super Bowl XII.

In his second season, he recorded 1,325 yards and 9 touchdowns, but the Cowboys lost Super Bowl XIII to the Pittsburgh Steelers 35–31. In 1980, against the St. Louis Cardinals, he pivoted 360 degrees on the four-yard line and ran around the left side for a touchdown without being touched.

Legacy

Tony Dorsett played 12 seasons in the NFL, running for 12,739 yards and 77 touchdowns. He also caught 13 touchdown passes and even returned a fumble recovery for a score. On January 3, 1983, during a Monday Night Football game in Minnesota, he broke a 99-yard touchdown run against the Vikings—the longest run from scrimmage in league history, a record later tied by Derrick Henry in 2018. The Cowboys had only 10 players on the field for that play because fullback Ron Springs did not hear the call.

Dorsett made the Pro Bowl four times (1978, 1981–1983) and rushed for over 1,000 yards in eight of his first nine seasons. In the strike-shortened 1982 season, he led the NFC with 745 rushing yards. He was named First-team All-Pro in 1981 and Second-team All-Pro in 1982 and 1983. In 1994, he was inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame, and also entered the Texas Stadium Ring of Honor.

He is one of only two players, along with Marcus Allen, to have won the Heisman Trophy, a Super Bowl, a college national championship, and be enshrined in both halls of fame. A football stadium at Hopewell High School and a street near Acrisure Stadium are named after him.