Football for the Escambia High School varsity team began late the following summer. More than one hundred boys, including thirty-eight seniors, turned out for the first practice.
Emmitt and many of the younger players worried that with so many seniors around, they wouldn’t get a chance to play. But from the very first day, Coach Thomas made it clear that this year, things would be different. There was no room on his team for players who weren’t willing to follow instructions, do their best, and stay out of trouble.
“I have only three rules,” Thomas told the boys before their first practice. “Be where you’re supposed to be. Be there when you’re supposed to be there. And be doing what you’re supposed to be doing.” Those rules, he said, pertained to more than football. He expected the team to follow them in school as well. If a player broke any of the rules, even once, Coach Thomas kicked him off the team.
Some of the upperclassmen snickered and smiled when Thomas spoke. But Emmitt knew the coach was serious. He didn’t mind. His parents had already taught him how to behave. Emmitt knew he would have little trouble adhering to Coach Thomas’s rules.
It wasn’t long before some Gators learned just how serious Thomas was. They weren’t used to being responsible for their own behavior. Almost every day, someone got kicked off the team for violating the rules. Many of the older players just plain quit.
That gave Emmitt and some of the younger players the only opportunity they needed. They believed in Coach Thomas and, once they got a chance to play, started believing in themselves.
One day just before the season, Coach Thomas addressed his team after practice. He talked about what he hoped to accomplish that season. Despite the fact that Escambia High hadn’t had a winning season in more than two decades, he thought the team could win its league championship.
“It’s a dream until you write it down,” he told them. “Then it’s a goal.”
Those words made an impression on Emmitt. Ever since that day, Emmitt has made it a practice to set goals for himself. Before nearly every game, he writes down what he hopes to accomplish.
Before the first game, Emmitt achieved one of his goals. Coach Thomas switched the team’s veteran tailback, Sam Bettis, to fullback to make room for Emmitt in the starting backfield.
In Coach Thomas’s entire coaching career, only a handful of freshmen had ever made his team. None had ever made the starting lineup. But Thomas could tell that Emmitt was different.
He proved it in his first game. Facing Pensacola Catholic High School, Emmitt, one of the youngest players on the field, rushed for two touchdowns and 115 yards. Escambia won!
That fall, the talk around the table at the Smith house was all football. Emmitt’s father had decided to show his sons that he still knew how to play the game. Despite his bad knees, he joined a semipro football team, the Pensacola Wings of the Dixie League, playing defensive back and wide receiver. And Emmitt’s little brother Emory was starring in youth league ball, following in Emmitt’s footsteps by playing running back. Emmitt played on Friday nights, Emory played on Saturday mornings, and Emmitt Jr. played Saturday nights.
The Escambia High Gators were much improved. Although they still had an occasional poor game, such as a 51–0 loss to crosstown rival Pensacola High, they finished the season with a record of 7–3.
Emmitt was the big reason for the turnaround. For the season, he rushed the ball 256 times for 1,525 yards—an average of 5.9 yards per carry—and scored 19 touchdowns. And he was only fifteen years old!
When the football season ended, Emmitt went out for the basketball team. Although he stood only five foot nine, Emmitt could already dunk the ball. He tried out for the team and made the varsity.
But during football season, Emmitt had started lifting weights to increase his strength. When he returned to the basketball court, he discovered that his new muscles didn’t respond the same way anymore. He simply couldn’t hit a jump shot.
After being a star in middle school, Emmitt was just another player on the varsity. He rarely played, eventually quitting to concentrate on football. Yet Emmitt still wanted to help the team.
He became a team manager, one of the guys who passes out towels to players during timeouts, makes sure everyone has enough water, and helps take care of the uniforms and equipment.
He didn’t care that he was a big football star. He just wanted to help.
High school football is a big deal in the state of Florida. Teams hold practice sessions for upperclassmen in the spring and then begin again in earnest in late summer to prepare for the upcoming season. Because of the fine weather and strong competition, some of the best high school football players in the country come from Florida. College football coaches from across the nation go there to recruit players.
By the summer of 1984, Emmitt’s sophomore season, he started receiving letters from colleges interested in having him attend and play football. Although most were just form letters like those mailed to hundreds of high school players, Emmitt began to realize that playing football could help him get into college.
Emmitt Smith had been a big surprise in the 1983 season, but now Escambia’s opponents knew all about him. Football wasn’t just for fun anymore. His team depended on him. Every time he stepped onto the field, he knew his performance could result in a college scholarship offer.
Emmitt was much improved in 1984. Lifting weights had made him stronger and quicker, but he started to realize that running the football required more than speed and strength. He began to run more intelligently, making use of his keen sight and sense of anticipation. He tried to fake out the defense and follow his blockers instead of just trying to outrun or run over players.
Now each time Emmitt touched the ball, he ate up huge chunks of yardage. Escambia started winning big.
Emmitt carried the ball nearly 30 times a game. By midseason, the pace started to wear on him.
He sprained both ankles. Emmitt wanted to keep playing, but his coaches didn’t want him to risk further injury. So they compromised. Before facing Tallahassee’s Rickard High, Emmitt had his ankles heavily taped. He still suited up, but his backup, Gerald Williams, started the game. Emmitt would play only in an emergency.
He watched from the sidelines for most of the game. Late in the fourth quarter, Escambia trailed by a touchdown.
The emergency had happened. Coach Thomas looked over at Emmitt. Emmitt looked up at Coach Thomas. The two nodded at each other, and Emmitt ran onto the field as the crowd cheered.
Escambia had the ball on its own 11-yard line. The Gators were 89 long yards away from a touchdown.
Escambia started giving the ball to Emmitt. Sore ankles or not, he was determined to lead the team to a win.
Rickard couldn’t stop him. He faked and followed his blocks as long as possible. If there was a player to run around, Emmitt ran around him. If there was a player to run over, Emmitt ran over him. He did whatever he had to do to keep moving downfield.
With only seconds left to play, Emmitt plunged into the end zone. On the 89-yard drive, he had gained 85 yards!
The score put the game into overtime. Emmitt stayed in.
Escambia got the ball and expertly marched down the field. As they neared the Rickard goal line, they put the ball into Emmitt’s hands one more time.
He swept around end, eyeing the goal line. Then he angled upfield and was hit from the side as he left his feet to dive into the end zone.
Emmitt crossed the goal line, but it didn’t matter. He had fumbled the ball! Rickard recovered.
Emmitt felt terrible. He was afraid that his mistake had cost Escambia the game. In the span of just a few moments, he had gone from being the hero to being the goat.
Fortunately, the Gators stopped Rickard cold, and Escambia won in overtime on a field goal. The fumble hadn’t mattered.
But all of a sudden, Emmitt couldn’t seem to hang on to the football. In one practice, he fumbled four or five times.
Escambia assistant coach Jim Nichols, who coached the offense, decided it was time to let Emmitt know how important it was to hold on to the football. It didn’t matter that he was a big star. Nichols knew he had to treat Emmitt just like the other players.
First, he got in Emmitt’s face. Then he let him have it.
“This isn’t youth league ball anymore,” blasted Nichols. “You will not be a great running back for this team or any team if you keep fumbling the football!”
Then Nichols made Emmitt take part in a grueling set of fumble drills. Over and over again, Nichols would toss the football to the ground. Emmitt would have to dive to the ground, wrap his arms around the ball, then spring to his feet and pitch the ball back to Nichols, who was already throwing another ball at Emmitt’s feet. In only a few minutes, Emmitt was exhausted.
He learned his lesson. Over the next three seasons, he fumbled only five times.
Escambia cruised through the remainder of the season, losing only twice. The team qualified for the state playoffs in Division 3-A, the second-highest division in the state.
With Emmitt leading the way, Escambia rolled over its two postseason opponents, Bartow and Saint Petersburg, to capture the state championship. Emmitt ran for more than 200 yards in each game. In only two seasons, Escambia had gone from being the worst team in the state to being state champs!
Emmitt’s statistics for his sophomore season were almost beyond belief. He gained 2,424 yards, with an average of 8.2 yards per carry. He wasn’t just the best running back in the state of Florida, he was beginning to gain a national reputation. But some critics griped that most of Emmitt’s yardage came against schools much smaller than Escambia. While they admitted that he was good, they didn’t think he was that good.
In his junior year, Emmitt set out to prove his critics wrong. Because of increasing enrollment, the school moved up to Division 4-A, the group containing the biggest schools in Florida. Now no one could complain about the competition.
In the first game of the season, Escambia opened against Woodham High, the defending Division 4-A champions. Emmitt and the Gators would have to prove they belonged in the top division.
They did. Emmitt roiled for 236 yards despite being forced from the game late in the fourth quarter with a hip injury. Escambia kicker Alan Ward nailed a 50-yard field goal in the game’s last minute to give Escambia a two-point win.
The victory set the tone for the remainder of the season. Most opponents got only a brief glimpse of Emmitt as he dashed by, the orange number 24 on his dark blue jersey growing smaller as he rumbled toward the end zone. Often, Emmitt played less than half the game, because Coach Thomas or Coach Nichols removed him if Escambia was way ahead. Emmitt raced for more than 200 yards in seven consecutive games, including a career-best 301 yards against Milton High.
In one game, Nichols pulled Emmitt early in the third quarter when Escambia’s lead stretched to more than six touchdowns. After the game, the coach of the opposing team came bounding across the field toward Nichols, an angry look on his face.
Uh-oh, thought Nichols. He’s going to complain about us running up the score. Doesn’t he know that’s why I pulled Emmitt?
As the other coach approached, Nichols braced himself for a tongue-lashing.
“Jimmy,” yelled the coach. “What are you doing taking Emmitt out?”
“I-I have n-no intention of embarrassing you and your kids,” explained Nichols.
The other coach just shook his head and started laughing. “Come on,” he said, “I just like watching that kid run!”
Escambia made it to the Division 4-A championship game against Bradenton Southeast High School. For the second year in a row, Escambia made it look easy. Emmitt ran for 159 yards, and the Gators captured the state championship.
Once again, Emmitt’s statistics were simply amazing. He scored an incredible 33 touchdowns and gained 2,918 yards on 353 carries. With one season remaining in his high school career, he was already among the greatest high school running backs of all time.
Emmitt was now famous. It seemed that every college in the country had contacted him, trying to convince him to attend their school. Meanwhile, national publications like USA Today and Sports Illustrated sent reporters to Pensacola to write stories about, the most phenomenal running back in the country.
It would have been easy for Emmitt to get a big head, but his family wouldn’t let him. His grandfather would sometimes take him to the bank where his mother worked, point out Mary Smith, and lecture Emmitt about the importance of hard work.
Those lessons took hold. Despite his growing fame, Emmitt still held a part-time job, first at a discount store, then at a local television station. He was still just a high school student.
But what a student! At the beginning of the season, Escambia was ranked by USA Today as the number one high school team in the country. Emmitt was on almost everybody’s list as the nation’s best prep running back.
Escambia’s approach to the 1986 season was best summed up by Coach Thomas. “We do three things here on offense,” he told a reporter. “We hand the ball to Emmitt, we pitch the ball to Emmitt, and we throw the ball to Emmitt.”
For seven games, that was enough, as Emmitt and Escambia met all expectations. Escambia went undefeated and Emmitt was unstoppable. Then they faced their biggest rival, Pensacola High. Both teams needed a win to guarantee them a spot in the playoffs.
Emmitt and Escambia took control in the first half. He raced for more than 100 yards, and the Gators took a 10–3 lead.
A few minutes into the third quarter, Escambia had the ball on its own 49-yard line with fourth down and one yard to go. Emmitt got the ball.
As he took the handoff, Emmitt already knew that although he was supposed to run over right tackle, the hole would be closed. He saw the Pensacola defense all bunched up on the right side.
Emmitt didn’t hesitate. Instead of charging off tackle, he changed direction and scooted outside a split second ahead of the defense.
He knew that all he had to do was turn the corner and he’d be gone. He raced to the sidelines just out of the reach of several defenders, then abruptly cut upfield.
The defenders dove at his feet. All they grasped was air.
Emmitt streaked down the sidelines for a touchdown. Escambia now led by two touchdowns!
But wait! As Emmitt charged into the end zone, instead of seeing the referee raise his hands over his head to signal six points, he saw the official waving his hands in front of his face and blowing his whistle. The play was dead!
Emmitt turned and looked around. At midfield, he saw an official pointing to the ground. Eminitt had stepped out of bounds when he turned the corner.
At least, that’s what the official thought. ’Alms of the game later proved that he was wrong. By then, it was too late.
The outcome of the game turned on that play. Pensacola took control and marched to two quick scores. Then Escambia panicked. Instead of giving the ball to Emmitt, it tried to pass. Emmitt ran the ball only once more the entire game. Escambia lost, 17–10.
They finished the season with a 10–1 record but weren’t selected for the state playoffs.
Emmitt ran for “only” 1,937 yards, averaging 8.6 yards per attempt, on 225 carries. His 8,804 total career rushing yards were the third-best in high school history.
Now Emmitt had a decision to make. Where would he attend college?
At first, he narrowed his choices to six colleges: Nebraska, Clemson, Florida State, Alabama, Auburn, and the University of Florida. According to the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, he was then allowed to visit each campus.
After the visits, Emmitt narrowed down his choices to Auburn, Nebraska, and Florida. He then decided it was too cold in Nebraska, leaving Auburn and Florida in the hunt.
Both schools pulled out all the stops in an effort to get Emmitt to accept a scholarship. Auburn invited him to attend the Citrus Bowl and had Emmitt introduced to the crowd. He even met star Auburn running back Bo Jackson. At the same time, Florida coach Galen Hall promised Emmitt that if he attended Florida, he would start right away.
The accolades started piling on. He was named the Gatorade High School Player of the Year, which earned him a trip to the Super Bowl. Parade magazine also named him Player of the Year. Emmitt was even selected to visit the White House and met President Reagan as a representative of high school sports in the “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign.
But at the same time, Emmitt started hearing from his detractors. People from some of the schools he had decided not to attend started talking down his accomplishments. They whispered that he was too small and too slow to make it big as a college running back.
Several high school recruiting services jumped on the bandwagon. One service wrote that Emmitt was “a lugger, not a runner” and that “sportswriters blew him all out of proportion.” Another complained that Emmitt’s speed in the 40-yard dash was only 4.55 seconds. A number of other backs ran 4.4s or 4.3s.
Fortunately for Emmitt, Coach Pat Dye of Auburn and Galen Hall of Florida had already decided that he was for real. They agreed with what Coach Thomas thought. When a reporter once questioned him about Emmitt’s speed, he responded simply, “I didn’t see him get caught from behind very often.”
As impressed as Thomas was with Emmitt’s running ability, it was his behavior and personality that really made a lasting impression. As Thomas recalled later, “He [Emmitt] never missed a practice, never was late for a meeting, and I never heard him say a swear word. What you have to understand about Emmitt is that he didn’t have to go out searching about who he was. … Emmitt knew who he was because he had a mother and father at home. He was very secure. All he had to worry about was who he could be. He could maximize his talents.”
Emmitt’s parents allowed him to make his own decision. “Go wherever you want to,” said his father. “Just make sure you study.” After thinking long and hard, Emmitt made his decision on February 11, 1987. At a press conference held in the Escambia High gym, Emmitt announced he had accepted a scholarship from University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. In the end, he wanted to stay in Florida so his parents would have every opportunity to see him play.
Besides, grinned the former Escambia High Gator at the press conference, the University of Florida nickname was the Gators.
“Once a Gator, always a Gator,” joked Emmitt.