White, Byron Whizzer

The 1938 NFL Draft marked a significant moment in the league's history as teams sought to acquire new talent from the college ranks. Here's a look at the top ten players chosen:

Born June 8, 1917, in Fort Collins, Colorado, was Byron “Whizzer” White the great University of Colorado halfback from 1935 to 1937. It is amazing that he was able to play to such a high level as he came from a high school in Wellington, Colorado that had only 13 players on the gridiron team. According to the National Football Foundation Whizzer's best collegiate game may have been in 1936 when the Buffs played Utah. The talented back ran wild over the Utes defense as he scored on runs of 90, 41, 40, and 38 yards in a 31-7 victory!    The nightmare of White for Utah continued in the 1937 game as he scored on two more long runs, this time covering yardage of 85 and 37 and then kicked two extra points and a field goal to ice the cake in a 17-7 Colorado win. In 1937 he led the nation in scoring, rushing, total offense, and all-purpose running. He averaged 246 yards a game in all-purpose running, a record until 1988. His longest play in college was a 102 yard kick return against Denver in 1936.  Byron wasn’t just a superior athlete as he graduated as he was also a Phi Beta Kappa and a Rhodes Scholar. The NFF voters chose Byron Whizzer White to be inducted into their College Football Hall of Fame in 1954. Whizzer played pro football with Pittsburgh in 1938, studied at Oxford University in England in 1939, played professionally with Detroit in 1940- 1941. In two of his seasons, he led the National Football League in rushing. Byron Raymond "Whizzer" White was an American lawyer later in life, who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1962 to 1993.