| No. 35 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Running back | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born | (1964-08-14)August 14, 1964 (age 61) Graceville, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 210 lb (95 kg) | ||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||
| High school | Graceville | ||||||||||||
| College | Florida | ||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1986: 1st round, 27th overall pick | ||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||
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Charles Neal Anderson (born August 14, 1964) is an American former professionalfootball player who was arunning back for eight seasons with theChicago Bears of theNational Football League (NFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Anderson playedcollege football for theFlorida Gators. He was a first-round pick in the1986 NFL draft. He was a four-timePro Bowl selection with the Bears.
Anderson was born inGraceville, Florida in 1964.[1] He attendedGraceville High School,[2] and played for the Graceville Tigers high school football team.
Anderson accepted an athletic scholarship to attend theUniversity of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played forCharley Pell andGalen Hall'sFlorida Gators football teams from1982 to1985,[3] and shared the Gators' backfield withfullbackJohn L. Williams for four years. Memorably, Anderson ran for 197 yards versus theKentucky Wildcats as a freshman in 1982, a seventy-six-yardtouchdown against theLSU Tigers in1983, and 178 yards and an eighty-yard touchdown against theTennessee Volunteers in1984.[3] He was a team captain in 1985, a first-teamAll-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1985, an Associated Press honorable mentionAll-American in 1984 and 1985, and the recipient of the Gators'Fergie Ferguson Award in 1985.[3] In his four years as a Gator, Anderson had fourteen games with 100 yards or more rushing, 639 carries for 3,234 yards rushing and thirty touchdowns, forty-ninereceptions for 525 yards receiving and two touchdowns, and ninety-seven yards passing.[3] In terms of career rushing yardage, he remains the Gators' third all-time running back behindErrict Rhett andEmmitt Smith.[3]
Behind the rushing of Anderson, the rushing and receiving of John L. Williams, the receiving ofwide receiverRicky Nattiel and the passing ofquarterbackKerwin Bell, the Gators finished with identical best-in-the-SEC records of 9–1–1 in 1984 and 1985.[4] Anderson graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in public relations in 1986, and was later inducted into theUniversity of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1995.[5][6] The sportswriters ofThe Gainesville Sun selected him as No. 13 among the top 100 all-time greatest Gators from the first 100 years of Florida football in 2006.[7]
The Chicago Bears selected Anderson in the first round (27th pick overall) of the1986 NFL draft.[8] He played for the Bears for eight seasons from1986 to1993.[9] He joined the franchise as a rookie immediately following the Bears'1985 championship season. The Bears picked Anderson to back up, and eventually succeed,Walter Payton, who became the Bears and NFL's all-time rushing leader during his lengthy career. After Payton's retirement in1987, Anderson became the team'sstarting running back.
Anderson's best years came during the late 1980s, where he rushed for over 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons.[9] In all three seasons, Anderson scored over ten touchdowns and averaged over four yards per carry. Ultimately, his best season came in1989, when he rushed for 1,275 yards, received 434 yards, and scored 15 touchdowns. He was invited to thePro Bowl in1988, 1989,1990 and1991.[1]
Over his eight-year career, Anderson appeared in 116 regular season games, and started 91 of them; he amassed 6,166 yards and scored 51 touchdowns rushing, and 2,763 yards and 20 touchdowns receiving—a career total of 71 touchdowns.[1] Anderson's career was shortened by injuries and the Bears' fall-out during the early 1990s. He is currently the Bears' third all-time franchise rusher, behind Payton andMatt Forté.[10][11]
Anderson says his favorite memory from his NFL career was December 2, 1990, when he scored a 50-yard game-winning touchdown on a pass fromJim Harbaugh against theDetroit Lions, which eliminated them from the playoffs and secured an appearance by the Bears. "I caught a touchdown pass against Detroit at the end of the game. And that put us in the playoffs. One of the few things I remember was being under the pile and everybody jumping on top of me. All of the guys in the locker room called me 'The Cuz.' And I could just hear people saying: 'The Cuz! The Cuz!'"[12][13]
| Year | Team | GP | Rushing | Receiving | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | |||
| 1986 | CHI | 14 | 35 | 146 | 4.2 | 23 | 0 | 4 | 80 | 20.0 | 58 | 1 |
| 1987 | CHI | 11 | 129 | 586 | 4.5 | 38 | 3 | 47 | 467 | 9.9 | 59 | 3 |
| 1988 | CHI | 16 | 249 | 1,106 | 4.4 | 80 | 12 | 39 | 371 | 9.5 | 36 | 0 |
| 1989 | CHI | 16 | 274 | 1,275 | 4.7 | 73 | 11 | 50 | 434 | 8.7 | 49 | 4 |
| 1990 | CHI | 15 | 260 | 1,078 | 4.1 | 52 | 10 | 42 | 484 | 11.5 | 50 | 3 |
| 1991 | CHI | 13 | 210 | 747 | 3.6 | 42 | 6 | 47 | 368 | 7.8 | 26 | 3 |
| 1992 | CHI | 16 | 156 | 582 | 3.7 | 49 | 5 | 42 | 399 | 9.5 | 30 | 6 |
| 1993 | CHI | 15 | 202 | 646 | 3.2 | 45 | 4 | 31 | 160 | 5.2 | 35 | 0 |
| Career | 116 | 1,515 | 6,166 | 4.1 | 80 | 51 | 302 | 2,763 | 9.1 | 59 | 20 | |
Anderson now lives with his wife and their three children in the Gainesville area, where he helped found a bank and owns a 2,000-acre (810 ha) peanut farm.[14] He is active in the community. He is a big fan of professional wrestling and attendedWrestlemania XI.
In 1998, Anderson helped found, and is now on the board of directors of, Community Bank and Trust of Florida, a bank with 11 locations in and near Gainesville.[13]
