65 Facts About Tyrone Wheatley

In high school, Wheatley was named Michigan's athlete of the year in both football and track and field.

Tyrone Wheatley attended the University of Michigan and earned first-team All-Big Ten Conference honors on Big Ten Champion football and track teams.

Tyrone Wheatley was named to All-Big Ten teams in football and track and field a total of four times, and he earned portions of seven Big Ten championships.

Tyrone Wheatley was traded to the Miami Dolphins, but cut before the 1999 season began.

Tyrone Wheatley signed with the Oakland Raiders and led the team in rushing three times, and twice finishing among the NFL's top ten players in rushing touchdowns.

Tyrone Wheatley has served as the running backs coach for the Ohio Northern Polar Bears, the Eastern Michigan Eagles, the Syracuse Orange and the Michigan Wolverines on college; and for the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL.

Wheatley's father suffered a mortal gunshot wound to the head in 1974 when Wheatley was two years old.

Tyrone Wheatley's stepfather died of a heart attack when he was 13, leaving behind Tyrone Wheatley, his sister, and half-brother, two-year-old Leslie Mongo.

Tyrone Wheatley was involved in competitive athletics from an early age: In his youth, he ran competitively with the Penn Park track team, where, as an eight-year-old, he stood out for his discipline and promptness.

Tyrone Wheatley made it clear to his brothers and sisters that when chaos came to their lives, they should to turn to him because he would be there and he would never fall.

Tyrone Wheatley's guardianship continued throughout his career at the University of Michigan and while he was a professional athlete.

Mongo later earned outstanding freshman athlete honors during the Bergen County, New Jersey outdoor track championships while living with Tyrone Wheatley, who was playing for the Giants at the time.

Tyrone Wheatley is among the highest-scoring football players in Michigan high school history, and he led his high school to the state football championships while playing eight different positions and being named the Michigan Football Player of the year.

Tyrone Wheatley has been described as the greatest football player in Michigan High School history.

However, at one point Tyrone Wheatley had quit the track team because the coach refused to let him run four individual events as a sprinter, jumper and hurdler.

The coach relented, and Tyrone Wheatley became a seven-time MHSAA Class B individual state champion by winning the long jump, 100 meters, 110-meter hurdles both his junior and senior seasons and winning the 200 meters as junior.

Tyrone Wheatley became a high school All-American in track, and he was a member of successful relay teams in high school.

Tyrone Wheatley had made a name for himself as a nine-time Michigan High School Athletic Association state champion athlete.

Yet, despite his versatility and promise, Tyrone Wheatley considered turning down athletic scholarships in hopes of obtaining an academic scholarship.

Tyrone Wheatley chose to remain in metropolitan Detroit and attend the University of Michigan on an athletic scholarship.

Tyrone Wheatley played running back for the football team for four years and ran on the track team for three years.

Tyrone Wheatley was described in the press as a football player who put his team ahead of himself.

Tyrone Wheatley's 47 rushing touchdowns, which ranked third in Big Ten history at the end of his career, ranked fifth behind Ron Dayne, Anthony Thompson, Pete Johnson and Thomas through the 2006 season.

Tyrone Wheatley has both the best and second-best single-game yards per carry performances in Michigan history.

Tyrone Wheatley had amassed the most touchdowns by a running back in Michigan history by the end of his junior year and was a professional prospect.

Tyrone Wheatley stayed at Michigan for another year with the stated intent of obtaining his degree, but stayed without receiving the degree.

Tyrone Wheatley only finished 12th in the Heisman balloting as a senior.

Tyrone Wheatley placed eighth at the 1995 NCAA outdoor championships in the 110 meter hurdles, which earned him All-American honors.

Tyrone Wheatley was drafted by the New York Giants in the first round of the 1995 NFL Draft with the seventeenth overall selection.

Tyrone Wheatley held out for 17 days before signing a five-year contract with the team.

Tyrone Wheatley set no goals for himself and lived by his grandmother's motto on preparing oneself: "You can set your sails, but you can't set the wind".

Tyrone Wheatley's introduction to the Giants was a contract squabble that kept him from getting to training camp on time.

Tyrone Wheatley later fell asleep in a meeting which drew a fine from Reeves.

Tyrone Wheatley was not known for living erratically so his falling asleep and loss of concentration was enough of a problem that the Giants had Wheatley evaluated.

On top of this, Tyrone Wheatley was fined several times for tardiness to team meetings.

In 1997, by the end of training camp, Rodney Hampton's knees had given out, and although Tyrone Wheatley had a great camp, Tiki Barber was named the starting tailback.

Tyrone Wheatley led the team in carries that season despite missing two games and shared the ballcarrying responsibilities with Way and Barber.

Tyrone Wheatley's playing weight limit had been set at 230 pounds in training camp and had been raised to 235 on Tyrone Wheatley's request.

Tyrone Wheatley had played at 233 pounds in the final game of his college career.

Tyrone Wheatley thought he was treated unfairly in New York although two different coaching staffs had issues with him.

The general opinion of Tyrone Wheatley was that he was blessed with enormous talent, but as a package he was an enigma.

However, in addition to the enigmatic issues, Tyrone Wheatley had physical problems in New York.

Tyrone Wheatley was injured and unable to perform for parts of all four of the training camps.

The Dolphins hoped that Tyrone Wheatley would compete for the starting tailback position with Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar, who had rushed for a league-leading 15 touchdowns in 1997 but whose production had fallen off to only 6 in 1998.

However, Tyrone Wheatley was cut from the Miami Dolphins training camp roster.

Tyrone Wheatley had only gone through one week of Dolphins training camp before being released, making him available to the Raiders.

Tyrone Wheatley was paired in the Raiders backfield with Napoleon Kaufman, the eighteenth overall selection in the 1995 NFL Draft.

How well Tyrone Wheatley complemented Napoleon Kaufman in Oakland was quickly evident to the New York media, and his newfound success was noticed when the Giants had an impotent running game in his absence.

In 1999, Tyrone Wheatley was the Raiders' leading rusher and their only running back to have more than one touchdown reception.

The players gelled as a unit and not only did Tyrone Wheatley have his best seasons in Oakland, but long time NFL veterans on the Raiders amassed their best season upon his arrival.

Tyrone Wheatley combined effectively with Kaufman to form an inside and outside attacking combination in these first two years.

Tyrone Wheatley had more carries than in 2001, but did not start a single game and did not see the end zone often.

Again, Tyrone Wheatley went an entire season without a 100-yard rushing game.

In 2003, Tyrone Wheatley reclaimed his role as the Raiders' leading rusher although Garner, the second leading rusher, continued to be the target of more passes and Crockett made it to the end zone as a rusher as often as Tyrone Wheatley and Garner combined.

Tyrone Wheatley became the sixth person to lead the Raiders franchise in rushing yards three times.

Unable to adequately rehabilitate his hamstring, Tyrone Wheatley retired from the NFL and returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In November 2006, Tyrone Wheatley was hired at his alma mater, Robichaud High School, as the track coach.

Tyrone Wheatley was to serve as the running backs coach for the team in the league that planned to begin play in April 2008.

Tyrone Wheatley interned as an NFL Minority coaching fellow with the Pittsburgh Steelers during the summer of 2008 training camp.

Tyrone Wheatley served at the Rising Stars Football Camp as an assistant instructor.

In 2015, Tyrone Wheatley decided to return to his alma mater and coach the running backs at the University of Michigan on the staff for the new Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh.

In January 2017, the Jacksonville Jaguars hired Tyrone Wheatley as running backs coach to rejoin Marrone, who was hired as Jaguars' head coach.

On February 6,2019, Tyrone Wheatley was named head coach of Morgan State Bears football.

Tyrone Wheatley was named head football coach at Wayne State University in Detroit on January 26,2023.

In 2012, Tyrone Wheatley was selected for induction into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.