Marquise Walker

Marquise Walker (born December 11, 1978) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver and punt returner who signed to play in the National Football League (NFL).

McNabb, who was the Big East Conference offensive player of the decade for the 1990s, was not likely to be replaced by a quarterback of equal skill.

Thus, Walker went on to wear #4 at Michigan.

Walker was named as the Gatorade High School Football Player of the Year for New York State, and he was named to the 1997 USAToday All-USA high school football team.

He was ranked as the ninth best high school football prospect in the country in 1998 by the Sporting News.

Walker played football at Michigan from the 1998 NCAA Division I-A football season through the 2001 season, finishing his career with 176 receptions for 2,269 yards and 17 touchdowns.

During his career he played on two Big Ten Championship teams (1998, 2000), but neither team went to the Rose Bowl.

During his career, the two teams that he compiled the most total single-opponent receiving yards against were Michigan's fiercest conference opponents: He had 256 yards against Ohio State and 251 yards against Michigan State.

His highest career single-opponent touchdown and single-opponent reception totals were also in the Michigan – Ohio State football rivalry games and his Paul Bunyan Trophy game totals were tied for second in both of these statistics.

He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines, setting many of the school's receiving records and becoming an All-American in 2001, when he led the Big Ten Conference in receptions.

Walker is remembered for a pair of spectacular one-handed catches during the 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season.

Walker's single-season receptions record was broken in 2001 by Anthony Morat of Rome, New York's "Free Academy" who later played Division III football at the State University of New York at Cortland from 2003–2006 and earned 2006 first-team All-conference honors.

Harold Jasper, whose career receiving yards record Walker broke, later played for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team and two Arena football teams.

Jasper also was the only receiver to have had more single-season yards in New York State history than Walker.

Walker is best remembered for a pair of one-handed catches he made in 2001.

One of the one-handed catches was a touchdown catch in the back of the end zone against the Iowa Hawkeyes football team in a 32–26 comeback from a 21–7 deficit on October 27, 2001.

The Post-Standard, Walker's hometown newspaper, described his grab in the Iowa game this way: "There he was in the corner of the end zone, as two Iowa defensive backs stalked him like sentries. The ball delivered high and wide, seemed an improbable stretch, an impossible goal. And yet, as it spiraled toward him, Marquise Walker leaped and lifted his right arm. His fingertips grazed the leather and tipped it skyward. And then, as he tumbled back to earth, he wrapped his hands around the ball and caressed it to his chest. Touchdown Michigan."

Walker seriously considered playing for Syracuse University of the Big East Conference, but Syracuse Orange quarterback Donovan McNabb only had one more year remaining.

Playing at Washington on September 8, 2001, Walker set the Michigan record for the most receptions in a game with 15, surpassing Tai Streets and Brad Myers.

He tied his mark later in season against Ohio State.

Then on the November 24, 2001 day that he surpassed Carter as the career receptions leader, he totaled 15 receptions in a 26–20 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes football team while accumulating 160 yards and two touchdowns.

He was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the 86th overall pick in the third round of the 2002 NFL Draft.

He was injured during his first year with Tampa Bay and had several brief stints with several other NFL teams over the next two seasons.

Before the 2002 NFL Draft, Baltimore Ravens Senior vice president of football operations, Ozzie Newsome referred to Walker's collegiate catches as some of the best catches he has seen in college in a long time.

In 2004, Braylon Edwards surpassed most of his school records.

In high school, Walker set several important New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) football records for receptions and reception yardage.

All of these records have since been broken.

Walker's career-high school records were broken in 2004 by Bruce Williams out of Syracuse's Christian Brothers Academy, who played for the Syracuse Orange football team from 2005 through 2008.

Williams took four years to break Walker's record which was set during only three years.

He had signed to play in the Arena Football League in 2006 but did not play.

Walker was born in Syracuse, New York, and was a high school football All-American for Henninger High School in Syracuse.

He was also a standout basketball player who averaged over twenty points a game as a sophomore and junior, but abandoned the sport for football.

In high school, he established numerous NYSPHSAA football records: career receptions (181), single-season receptions (80), and career receiving yards (3352).

In addition, he recorded the second highest single-season yardage total (1190).

His 13 single-season touchdowns was third in state history, and he totaled thirty-five career touchdowns for Henninger.

He played defensive back and accumulated two hundred tackles and fourteen interceptions.

This record continued to stand through the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season.

Both of Walker's 15-reception efforts came in losses.

He first recorded 15 receptions against the Washington Huskies football team in a 23–18 loss where he accumulated 159 yards and two touchdowns from quarterback John Navarre.

On that day he added a 13-yard run and a 15-yard punt return.