Quiz question: Rushing leaders and all-pro selections

[Bob Gill]

This is something I just thought of today. What NFL rushing leader failed to show up on a single all-pro first or second team for the season when he topped the league?

Admittedly, I haven't checked every single season, so it's possible that more than player qualifies here, but I doubt it.

[Brian wolf]

I can't confirm UPI, or other All-Pro teams/votes but rushing leader Kareem Hunt wasn't voted AP All-Pro in 2017.

[Bob Gill]

I can't confirm UPI, or other All-Pro teams/votes but rushing leader Kareem Hunt wasn't voted AP All-Pro in 2017.

Ha! You're right -- and he wasn't named by the Sporting News or Pro Football Weekly either. So the guy I have in mind was not the only one. Very interesting.

[JohnTurney]

I didn't know, so I looked it up and found Hunt --- but also going way back -- Doug Russell --- but seems like he's the one.

[Bob Gill]

I didn't know, so I looked it up and found Hunt --- but also going way back -- Doug Russell --- but seems like he's the one.

Yes, he's the one I was thinking of. To be honest, I can't name the rushing leaders for any recent seasons. But for some reasons I can remember almost all of them from before I was born.

[Brian wolf]

I never knew that Charles White and Freeman McNeil were All-Pros the years they led in rushing. Eddie Price even led the league, but was barely included in the 100 greatest NY Giants.
Dickie Post led the AFL in rushing without All-Pro recognition.
Arian Foster was running well for the Texans and a coach in Kubiak who believed in it, before having injuries in 2015-16 that ended his career ...

[NWebster]

The other agencies got him but I always found it odd that Bill Dudley was 2nd Team with AP in 1946 despite leading the league in Rushing Yards, Punt Return Yards AND Interceptions. I think the other agencies got it right that year with him on 1st Team.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Growing up where and when I did, my first thought was Freeman McNeil remembering that he won a rushing title in a strike-shortened season and thinking maybe he didn't get the All-Pro nod.

***
I always found 1935 an odd year for rushing statistics. The leader had such a low total, I even wondered if it was erroneous. The Bears had a pretty good 1-2 punch in '34 with Feathers and Nagurski that wasn't available in '35. The Lions were a really good running team at the time, but distributed the ball among a lot of backs:

1934 (attempts; ypc)
Ace Gutowsky 146; 3.5
Dutch Clark 123; 6.2
Glenn Presnell 108; 3.8
Ernie Caddel 105; 5.0
Frank Christensen 96; 3.2

1935
Clark 120; 3.6
Gutowsky 102; 2.9
Caddel 87; 5.2
Presnell 71; 3.2
Buddy Parker 59; 2.6
Bill Shepherd 54; 2.6

If Dutch Clark runs at his career average of 4.6, he would have wound up with the title, but given the leader had less than 500 yards, there's probably 100 other ways that number gets surpassed as well. So you wind up with a guy who never had a 500-yard season winning a rushing title. That's a good trivia question too

[Bob Gill]

Yeah, I've never been able to figure out what happened to rushing offenses from 1934 to '35.

In 1934, given whatever number of carries was needed to qualify, EIGHT players averaged 4.8 yards per carry or better. In 1935, that number was ONE (Ernie Caddel). Doug Russell, incidentally, averaged 5.4 in 1934, fifth in the NFL.

Russell's average league-leading total of 499 yards would've placed him eighth in 1934. Oddly enough, his average of 3.6 per carry -- only two-thirds of his average in 1934 -- tied for fourth in the league in 1935. It's just weird.