Doak Walker

Ewell Doak Walker, son of Ewell and Emma Walker, football player for Highland Park High School, Southern Methodist University and the Detroit Lions was born on January 1, 1927, in Dallas, Texas. Walker won the Heisman trophy in 1948 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986. Walker played on the same team at Highland Park with Bobby Layne. The two athletes parted ways after high school as Layne attended the University of Texas and Walker attended SMU, but they would reunite after college when both played for the Detroit Lions. In early 1945 Walker joined the Merchant Marine and became a radio operator but was discharged in October 1945 as the postwar need for manpower dwindled. Walker's college career was interrupted when he was drafted into the army in 1946, but he resumed his studies and sports when he returned to SMU in 1947. Walker retired in 1955, accepting a job offer from an electrical construction company that paid the same salary he was earning in the NFL. The business soon transferred him to Colorado where he lived the rest of his life. In 1950 Walker married his college sweetheart, Norma Peterson. They had four children, Laurie, Kris, Russell Doak, and Scott Alexander. His marriage to Norma ended in divorce in 1965. In 1969 Doak married ski instructor and former Olympian Skeeter Werner. They lived together in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for the rest of their lives. On January 30, 1998, Doak Walker was seriously injured in a skiing accident in Colorado. His injuries kept him incapacitated until his eventual death in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, on September 27, 1998. In 1989, SMU and the Dr Pepper Company teamed up to form the Doak Walker Award, given annually to college football's best running back.