Tyrone Wheatley

Tyrone Anthony Wheatley Sr. (born January 19, 1972) is an American football coach and former player.

He is the head football coach for Wayne State University, a position he has held since 2023.

Previously, he served as the running backs coach of the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL).

He played professionally as a running back for 10 seasons in the NFL.

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

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

He ranks among the Wolverines' all-time rushing leaders in numerous categories, and his name appears in several places in the Big Ten football record book.

He 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 (two team awards for football, one team award for indoor track, one award for 110 meter hurdles, and three awards for individual football statistical performances).

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

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

Shortly afterward, Wheatley's mother, Patricia, was laid off and became an alcoholic.

With the effective loss of his two parents, Wheatley and his sister were forced to move in with an aunt, where he lived through the rest of his childhood.

Due to family difficulties, Wheatley acted as the guardian of two cousins and his half brother.

In the 1990 MHSAA Championship game against upper peninsula powerhouse Kingsford High School at the Pontiac Silverdome, Wheatley ran for 165 yards and a touchdown in a 21–7 victory.

That season, he led the Bulldogs to a 12–1 record, and to their only state football championship.

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

In track and field, he won the Michigan High School Track and Cross Country Athlete of the Year award in 1991.

However, at one point 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 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.

In his junior year, he led his school to the state Class B track championships, and he became the first individual four-time track and field state champion in the same year in MHSAA history.

Following his graduation from the University of Michigan, Wheatley was selected by the New York Giants of the NFL in the first round of the 1995 NFL Draft.

During his NFL career (1995–2004), he totaled over 6,500 all-purpose yards as a running back and kickoff returner.

After retiring from the NFL, Wheatley returned to his hometown to coach his high school alma mater, Dearborn Heights' Hamilton J. Robichaud High School.

He 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 was born in Inkster, Michigan.

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

He 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.

Mongo was ten years younger than Wheatley, and graduated from high school in New Jersey in 2004—thirteen years after Wheatley had graduated from high school.

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.

Because of his family trouble, he assumed a family leadership role at a relatively young age.

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.

When he was in high school, he would take his younger siblings to basketball games, mapping out emergency plans for shooting outbreaks or brawls.

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

While playing in the NFL, he realized that leaving Mongo—the youngest of his siblings—in Inkster and merely providing financial support was not a solution because Mongo was still exposed to gang shootings.

As Mongo's guardian, Wheatley moved Mongo to New Jersey for school.

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

In 2004, with his graduation from high school imminent, Mongo signed a letter of intent with Utah State as a defensive back.

Wheatley attended Hamilton J. Robichaud High School in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, a neighboring municipality of Inkster.

During his time at Robichaud High School, he became a nine-time MHSAA state champion (seven-time individual in track and field, one-time team each in track and field and football).

He 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.