Walter Jerry Payton was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League for 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears.
67 Facts About Walter Payton
2.
Walter Payton retired with the most receptions by a non-receiver, and he had eight career touchdown passes.
3.
Walter Payton was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame that same year, and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
4.
Walter Payton was named to the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994 and the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019.
5.
Walter Payton began his football career in Mississippi and went on to have an outstanding collegiate football career at Jackson State University, where he was an All-American.
6.
Walter Payton started his professional career with the Chicago Bears in 1975, who selected him with the 1975 Draft's fourth overall pick.
7.
Walter Payton proceeded to win the 1977 AP NFL Most Valuable Player Award and won Super Bowl XX with the 1985 Chicago Bears.
8.
Walter Payton retired from football at the end of the 1987 season having rushed for at least 1,200 yards in 10 of his 13 seasons in the NFL.
9.
Walter Payton was one of three children born to Peter and Alyne Walter Payton in Columbia, Mississippi.
10.
Walter Payton's year of birth is disputed; most sources at the time of his death stated he was born in 1954.
11.
Walter Payton's father was a factory worker who had played semi-professional baseball; he died in jail just a couple of hours after being wrongfully accused of driving under the influence due to a stroke that presented similar symptoms to alcohol intoxication.
12.
Walter Payton was an active member of the Boy Scouts, Little League, and his local church.
13.
Walter Payton's performance helped ease the local tensions surrounding desegregation.
14.
Walter Payton's statistics proved that was no exaggeration: he scored in every game during his junior and senior years.
15.
Walter Payton was named to the all-conference team two years in a row.
16.
Walter Payton led the Little Dixie Conference in scoring his senior year and made the all-state team.
17.
In 1973, Walter Payton had a school record 24 rushing touchdowns, and was named Black College Player of the Year.
18.
Walter Payton won this award again in 1974, in addition to being selected for the All-American Team.
19.
Walter Payton graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor's degree in Communications.
20.
Walter Payton was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996, and he was posthumously inducted into the inaugural class of the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
21.
Walter Payton set a school record with 279 rushing yards in the game.
22.
Walter Payton finished the season with only 679 yards and seven touchdowns.
23.
However, Walter Payton led the league in yards per kickoff return.
24.
Walter Payton earned numerous awards that season, including the Associated Press and Pro Football Writers of America's Most Valuable Player awards.
25.
Walter Payton rushed for a then-record 275 yards, breaking the previous record of 273 yards held by O J Simpson.
26.
In that record-setting game against the Vikings, Walter Payton was suffering with a 101-degree fever and intense flu.
27.
Walter Payton's longest run was for 58 yards, and he caught one pass for 6 yards.
28.
Walter Payton's record stood for 23 years until Corey Dillon of the Cincinnati Bengals ran for 278 yards on October 22,2000.
29.
Walter Payton continued his success by rushing for more than 1,400 yards in both seasons.
30.
On September 19,1984, Walter Payton passed Franco Harris as the active leader in career rushing yards.
31.
Three weeks later, on October 7,1984, against the New Orleans Saints, Walter Payton broke Jim Brown's career rushing record of 12,312 yards.
32.
In 1985, Walter Payton rushed for more than 1,500 yards, helping the Bears establish the league's second-best offense with the emergence of quarterback Jim McMahon.
33.
In one 1984 game, Walter Payton was pressed into service as the team's fourth-string quarterback.
34.
Walter Payton performed with his teammates in the widely released 1985 music video The Super Bowl Shuffle.
35.
Walter Payton, who was a 12-year veteran, amassed 1,333 yards in the 1986 NFL season.
36.
Over his entire career, Walter Payton rushed for 16,726 yards, which broke the record for most rushing yards by any NFL player in history, and scored 110 touchdowns.
37.
Walter Payton caught 492 passes for 4,538 yards and 15 touchdowns.
38.
Walter Payton set several team records, including most career rushing yards, receptions, touchdowns, and touchdown passes by a running back.
39.
Walter Payton's motto was "Never Die Easy", which is the title of his posthumously published autobiography.
40.
Walter Payton attributed this motto to Bob Hill, his coach at Jackson State.
41.
In practice, this meant that Walter Payton refused to deliberately run out-of-bounds and always delivered some punishment to his tacklers before being forced off the field or forced down.
42.
Walter Payton developed this as a way to distract his pursuers during long runs, saying that it startled them into thinking and gave him some advantage over players who were actually faster runners.
43.
Walter Payton re-invented the practice of stiff-arming his tacklers, which had gone out of favor among running backs in the 1970s.
44.
Walter Payton's running gait was somewhat unusual, as his knees were minimally bent, and the motion was largely powered from the hip.
45.
Walter Payton referred to this procedure as an 11,000-yard checkup.
46.
Walter Payton disapproved of the growing practice of touchdown celebrations; he preferred post-game antics such as rushing into the locker room and locking his teammates out in the cold while taking a long shower.
47.
The couple had two children, Jarrett Walter Payton was born on 1980) and Brittney Walter Payton (1985 and and resided in South Barrington, Illinois.
48.
Walter Payton was inducted as a laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln by the governor of Illinois in 1987 in the area of sports.
49.
In 1987, Walter Payton accidentally shot a manager of a nightclub in Schaumburg, Illinois, that was owned by Walter Payton.
50.
Walter Payton pursued various business ventures in retirement, including becoming co-owner of Dale Coyne Racing in the CART IndyCar World Series.
51.
Walter Payton drove in several Trans-Am Series events, including a 1993 race at Road America in which his car overturned and caught fire.
52.
The property became known as "Walter Payton's Roundhouse", hosting a restaurant, brewery, banquet and meeting facility, and museum.
53.
Walter Payton appeared on a 1987 episode of Saturday Night Live.
54.
In February 1999, Walter Payton announced that he had a rare liver disease known as primary sclerosing cholangitis, which may have led to his cholangiocarcinoma.
55.
Walter Payton spent his final months as an advocate for organ transplants, appearing in many commercials to encourage others to donate organs, although by the time his first appeal was recorded, his illness was already too far advanced for transplantation to have been a viable option.
56.
On November 1,1999, Walter Payton died from the complications that arose from his illness.
57.
The foundation continues to run a program that Walter Payton organized to donate toys to underprivileged children across the Chicago area each Christmas.
58.
Emmitt Smith tearfully paid homage to Walter Payton after breaking Walter Payton's rushing record.
59.
Ahman Green, a former player for the Bears' rival Green Bay Packers, is said to have idolized Walter Payton, viewing the highlight film "Pure Walter Payton" before each game.
60.
Until its sale to Two Brothers Brewing in 2011, Walter Payton's Roundhouse continued to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the Aurora, Illinois site.
61.
Pictures and memorabilia of Walter Payton cover the walls of the golf course clubhouse.
62.
The asteroid 85386 Walter Payton, discovered by the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing observatory in 1996, is named in Walter Payton's memory.
63.
Walter Payton was the NFL's all-time leader in rushing yards and all-purpose yards prior to the 2002 NFL season, when Emmitt Smith broke his record.
64.
Walter Payton held the rushing touchdown record until it was broken by Marcus Allen during the 1996 NFL season.
65.
Walter Payton held the single game rushing record until the 2000 NFL season, when it was broken by Corey Dillon.
66.
Walter Payton led the league in rushing yards and touchdowns in the 1977 NFL season.
67.
Walter Payton passed for eight touchdowns, which is second to Gifford for non-quarterbacks.