College Stars: Football

Rushing
Player	H.S.	College	Years	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TDs
Merwin Hodel	West	Colorado	1949-51	502	2,181	4.3	26
Jerry Latin	East	Northern Illinois	1972-74	294	1,651	5.6	14
Ira Matthews	East	Wisconsin	1975-78	325	1,640	5.0	10
Troy King	Freeport	Wisconsin	1979-82	261	1,439	5.5	9
Cal Cummins	Freeport	Iowa State	1976-77	226	915	4.0	5
Tyreis Thomas	Boylan	South Alabama	2015-16	186	852	4.6	8
Mike Strasser	Hononegah	Northern Illinois	1986-90	156	797	5.1	8
Russell Pope	East	Purdue	1977-78	191	795	4.2	5
Marshall Starks	West	Illinois	1958-60	170	678	4.0	7
Lenny Williams	Guilford	Northwestern	1990-93	538	520	1.0	11
Montell Clanton	Guilford	Northern Illinois	2005-08	77	455	5.9	3
Ricky Mitchell	West	Northern Illinois	1980-84	114	366	3.2	0

 

Passing
Player	H.S.	College	Years	Att.	Comp.	Pct.	Yards	TD
Lenny Williams	Guilford	Northwestern	1990-93	1,076	644	59.9%	7,487	44
Chris Finlen	Hononegah	Northern Illinois	1997-01	910	502	55.2%	6,551	42
Sean Cook	Guilford	Texas Southern	1984-87	1,019	419	41.1%	6,297	45
Mitch Anderson	East	Northwestern	1972-74	609	287	47.1%	3,839	26
Steve Prince	Hononegah	Duke	1989-92	202	99	49.0%	1,221	7
Demry Croft	Boylan	Minnesota	2015	17	7	41.2%	34	0
Jack Beynon	Rockford	Illinois	1932-34	NA	NA	NA	NA	9

 

Receiving
Player	H.S.	College	Years	Rec.	Yards	Avg.	TD
Shawn Wax	Harlem	Illinois	1988-90	101	1,588	15.7	12
Todd Jenkins	Freeport	Northwestern	1980-83	76	1,186	15.3	5
Reggie Sims	West	Northern Illinois	1982-84	72	848	11.8	2
Ira Matthews	East	Wisconsin	1975-78	49	628	12.8	4
Merwin Hodel	West	Colorado	1949-51	48	540	11.3	2
David Olson	Freeport	Illinois	1990-93	52	461	8.9	5
Russell Pope	East	Purdue	1977-78	46	454	9.9	2
Marshall Starks	West	Illinois	1958-60	24	388	16.2	3
Mike Strasser	Hononegah	Northern Illinois	1986-90	19	282	14.8	2
Otha Brooks	Freeport	Northern Illinois	1992-94	16	257	16.1	1
Troy King	Freeport	Wisconsin	1979-82	22	229	10.4	1
Ron Carlson	East	Wisconsin	1960-62	15	168	11.2	0

 

Tackles
Player	H.S.	College	Years	Tackles
Mike Junkin	Belvidere	Duke	1983-86	513
Brock Spack	East	Purdue	1980-83	384
Kevin Selover	Hononegah	Northern Illinois	1997-00	307
Leonard Bell	Jefferson	Indiana	1983-86	296
Bobby Anderson	Auburn	Northwestern	1979-82	275
Lee Hicks	West	Northern Illinois	1981-84	274
Carlos Polk	Guilford	Nebraska	1997-00	227
Paul Johnson	Boylan	Western Michigan	1988-91	172
Stuart Walker	East	Colorado	1975-78	159
Tim Scharf	Boylan	Northwestern	1993-96	150
Dean Lowry	Boylan	Northwestern	2012-15	139
Reggie Harris	East	Northern Illinois	1984-87	113
Joe Coniglio	Boylan	Miami of Ohio	2005-08	106
Earl Upton	Jefferson	Northern Illinois	1989-90	100
Austin Smaha	Belvidere North	Northern Illinois	2013-16	40
Mike Larson	Hononegah	Indiana	1987-88	32
Adam Schroeder	Boylan	Northern Illinois	2004-06	24
Josh Black	Harlem	Syracuse	2016	21
Russell Pope	East	Purdue	1975-76	21

 

Tackles for loss
Player	H.S.	College	Years	Tackles
Carlos Polk	Guilford	Nebraska	1997-00	32
Joe Coniglio	Boylan	Miami of Ohio	2005-08	31.5
Mike Junkin	Belvidere	Duke	1983-86	31
Dean Lowry	Boylan	Northwestern	2012-15	31
Stuart Walker	East	Colorado	1975-79	24
Paul Johnson	Boylan	Western Michigan	1988-91	19
Leonard Bell	Jefferson	Indiana	1983-86	13
Lee Hicks	West	Northern Illinois	1981-84	13
Brock Spack	East	Purdue	1980-83	11
Tim Scharf	Boylan	Northwestern	1993-96	10
Reggie Harris	East	Northern Illinois	1984-87	8
Austin Smaha	Belvidere North	Northern Illinois	2013-15	7.5
Bobby Anderson	Auburn	Northwestern	1979-82	5
Josh Black	Harlem	Sycracuse	2016	4

 

Interceptions
Player	H.S.	College	Years	Tackles
Seth Miller	Auburn	Arizona State	1967-69	11
Lee Hicks	West	Northern Illinois	1981-84	10
Leonard Bell	Jefferson	Indiana	1983-86	9
Bobby Anderson	Auburn	Northwestern	1979-82	8
Earl Upton	Jefferson	Northern Illinois	1989-90	5
Mike Junkin	Belvidere	Duke	1983-86	4
Jerry Stalcup	East	Wisconsin	1957-59	3
Dean Lowry	Boylan	Northwestern	2012-15	3
Ron Carlson	East	Wisconsin	1960-62	2

Notes:

* The NIC-10 Sports History book eventually will try to get games, games started and all-conference honors for offensive linemen.

* These are the stats I have so far. Some schools don’t have statistics on players … even when they should. Ray Robey (Auburn) played at Northwestern in the mid-1990s. Northwestern doesn’t have any stats on Robey even though they have stats for guys like Bobby Anderson (Auburn) who played there in the early 1980s. I was able to dig up some statistics on Tim Scharf through newspaper clippings.

* Stats on players before 1970s are very sparse. Jerry Stalcup (East) likely had a ton of tackles for Wisconsin and Marshall Starks (West) was a two-way player at Illinois, but the Illin juist have his offensive numbers. There’s nothing on the real old-timers such as Laurie Walquist and Samuel Behr of Rockford, who played at Illinois and Wisconsin, or Ralph “Moon” Baker, who was so good for Northwestern that he’s in the College Football Hall of Fame.

* If there are players I’ve missed, email me at alexgary87@gmail.com.