Thurman Thomas

Thurman Lee Thomas (born May 16, 1966) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills.

He played college football for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

During the 1982-83 season, Thomas led the Willowridge football team to a Texas Class 4A State Title.

He formerly resided in the Willow Park II subdivision, located southeast of the Fort Bend Tollway and Beltway 8.

Thomas attended college at Oklahoma State University where he was an upperclassman teammate of running back Barry Sanders.

At Oklahoma State, Thomas had 897 rushes for 4,595 yards, 43 touchdowns, 5,146 total yards, and 21 100-yard rushing games.

He was also a Heisman Trophy candidate in his senior year, finishing seventh in voting.

From 1984-87, Thomas carried the ball a remarkable 897 times for the Cowboys, the most rushing attempts in a career in Oklahoma State history.

He was a first team selection on the College Football All-America Team in 1985 and 1987.

Thomas led the Big Eight in rushing and scoring in 1985 and 1987 and was voted the conference's Offensive Player of the Year both seasons.

Thurman Thomas starred as a sophomore in 1985 when he posted 1,553 yards rushing, fourth best in the country.

Between his sophomore and junior seasons he suffered a tear to his ACL in his left knee, missing some games during the 1986 season.

He bounced back his senior season, rushing for 1,613 yards and finishing third nationally in rushing.

In the 1987 Sun Bowl, Thomas ran for 157 yards and four touchdowns in the 35-33 comeback victory over West Virginia, keeping sophomore Barry Sanders on the sidelines for the majority of the game.

Thomas left OSU as the school's all-time leading rusher and his number 34 (chosen in honor of Earl Campbell and Walter Payton) is one of only three jerseys retired at Oklahoma State.

Thomas was selected by the Bills in the second round of the 1988 NFL draft, where he spent all but one season of his professional career.

A knee injury damaged Thomas's certain first round pick status and caused him to slip into second round (40th overall) of the 1988 NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills, their first choice in the draft.

Seven other running backs were drafted ahead of him.

Thomas is well known as part of the offense that included Jim Kelly and Andre Reed, which led the Bills to four straight Super Bowl appearances.

In 1989 and 1990, his combined total yards from scrimmage was 3,742.

This was more than 200 yards better than any other player in the NFL.

Thomas was the AFC rushing leader in three seasons (1990, 1991, and 1993).

In the first three seasons of his career, Thomas had a total of twelve games with at least 100 yards rushing.

The Bills won every one of those games.

He was voted to the All-Pro team in 1990 and 1991, was selected to five straight Pro Bowls from 1989–1993, and was named NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1991, after becoming the eleventh player in NFL history to finish a season with over 2,000 all-purpose yards.

Currently, he is fifteenth on the NFL all-time list for most rushing yards in a career.

Thomas currently holds the all-time Buffalo Bills rushing record with 11,938 yards and the team record for yards from scrimmage with 16,279 over twelve seasons.

He is also fourth overall in team scoring.

Overall, Thomas finished his thirteen seasons (the last one was spent in Miami) with 12,074 rushing yards, 472 receptions for 4,458 yards, and 88 touchdowns (65 rushing and 23 receiving) with 16,532 total yards from scrimmage.

Thomas is the only player in NFL history to lead the league in total yards from scrimmage for four consecutive seasons.

He is one of only eight running backs to have over 400 receptions and 10,000 yards rushing.

Walter Payton, Marshall Faulk, Marcus Allen, Ricky Watters, Tiki Barber, Warrick Dunn and LaDainian Tomlinson are the other six.

He qualified for the Pro Bowl five times, twice received first-team All-Pro honors, and was NFL MVP in 1991.

Thomas' efforts helped his team make a record four consecutive Super Bowl appearances from 1991 to 1994, although the Bills lost each game.

He spent his final NFL year as a member of the Miami Dolphins in 2000.

During his twelve seasons with the Bills, Thomas established himself as a central contributor of the Bills "K-Gun" offense that utilized no-huddle shotgun formations.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007 and into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008.

Thomas was born in Houston, Texas.

He grew up playing football on the Missouri City Junior High School (now Missouri City Middle School) and Willowridge High School teams.

In 2008, Thomas was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame.