.jpg) Owens in 1969 | |||||||||||||||
| No. 36 | |||||||||||||||
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| Position | Running back | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1947-12-09)December 9, 1947 (age 77) Gore, Oklahoma, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 215 lb (98 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | Miami(Miami, Oklahoma) | ||||||||||||||
| College | Oklahoma (1967–1969) | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1970: 1st round, 19th overall pick | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
Playing | |||||||||||||||
Operations | |||||||||||||||
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| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||
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Loren Everett "Steve" Owens (born December 9, 1947) is an American former professionalfootball player who was arunning back for five seasons with theDetroit Lions of theNational Football League (NFL). He playedcollege football for theOklahoma Sooners, winning theHeisman Trophy and earningAll-American honors in 1969. He was selected in the first round (19th overall) of the1970 NFL draft by the Lions, and became the first Lion to rush for over a 1,000 yards in a season.
Born in Gore, Oklahoma, Owens was raised inMiami, Oklahoma. He attended Miami High School, where he was a standouthigh school football player for the Miami Wardogs. He is in the Miami Wardogs Hall of Fame. There is a sculpture of him by the Wardogs football field.
Owens played college football for theUniversity of Oklahoma inNorman from1967 to1969. As a senior in 1969, he was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American, and became the second Oklahoma Sooner to win the Heisman Trophy (afterBilly Vessels, and precedingSam Bradford,Jason White,Billy Sims,Baker Mayfield andKyler Murray). He was the Sooners' all-time scorer with 57touchdowns untilDeMarco Murray beat his record in 2010, and retains the third highest Sooners career rushing total with 4,041 yards.
Owens holds the distinction of executingtouchdowns on the first threeforward passes of his NCAA career.[1] He also established the career rushing record of 3,867 yards that stood for two years untilEd Marinaro broke it in 1971.[2] His 1967–1969 career points per game record were the following season by Arkansas' Bill Burnett.[3]
In 2006, the university erected a bronze statue of Owens on its campus in Heisman Park, commemorating his 1969 award. He was also a member ofKappa Sigmafraternity at OU.
The Detroit Lions chose Owens in the first round (nineteenth overall) in the1970 NFL draft, and he signed in June.[4] He played for the Lions for five seasons, from1970 to1974, and struggled with injuries. In his rookie year, he had a severely separated shoulder that kept him out of the season's first half.[5] Healthy, Owens rushed for 1,035 yards in1971, becoming the first back in the history of the Lions' franchise to run for more than 1,000 yards in a single season, and was selected for thePro Bowl.
On Thanksgiving in 1974 atTiger Stadium, Owens opened the game with 46 yards in four carries but went down in the first quarter with ligament damage to his left knee.[6] and sat out the entire1975 season. He retired during training camp in August1976,[7] after a series of injuries that plagued his pro career.
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | Games | Rushing | Receiving | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | ||
| 1970 | DET | 6 | 1 | 36 | 122 | 3.4 | 23 | 2 | 4 | 21 | 5.3 | 11 | 0 |
| 1971 | DET | 14 | 13 | 246 | 1,035 | 4.2 | 23 | 8 | 32 | 350 | 10.9 | 74 | 2 |
| 1972 | DET | 10 | 9 | 143 | 519 | 3.6 | 18 | 4 | 15 | 100 | 6.7 | 15 | 0 |
| 1973 | DET | 12 | 8 | 113 | 401 | 3.5 | 16 | 3 | 24 | 232 | 9.7 | 30 | 0 |
| 1974 | DET | 11 | 8 | 97 | 374 | 3.9 | 27 | 3 | 24 | 158 | 6.6 | 13 | 0 |
| 53 | 39 | 635 | 2,451 | 3.9 | 27 | 20 | 99 | 861 | 8.7 | 74 | 2 | ||
| Year | Team | Games | Rushing | Receiving | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | ||
| 1970 | DET | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 4.5 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 7.0 | 7 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 4.5 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 7.0 | 7 | 0 | ||
Owens served as theathletic director for theOklahoma Sooners athletic program at his alma mater from August 1996 until March 1998.[8]