 In his first year at Syracuse, Little led the
freshman team in rushing, scoring, and pass receiving, averaging over eight yards per run.
Then he broke Davis' varsity sophomore rushing record (686 yards) with 828 yards. He also
led the Orangemen in pass receiving, punt and kickoff returns, and scoring. His total
offensive production of 1,686 yards averaged out to 168 yards per game.
"But I didn't
really have a good year," Little said. "I really didn't start coming until the
seventh game, against Pitt. I started seeing my cuts, started seeing the blocking angles,
got my moves. Before that, it all seemed too much to handle."
But soon it was
Little who was to much to handle. He finished his Syracuse career with 2,704 yards
rushing, nearly 5,000 in total offense, and 46 touchdowns.
But to describe
Little's performance at Syracuse merely in terms of numbers is like describing the Empire
State Building by just saying it's 1,250 feet high. Each has to be seen to be truly
appreciated.
Take the
five-touchdown effort Little dramatically turned in against the University of Kansas in
his Syracuse home varsity debut. Gale Sayers, who later became one of pro football's
all-time running greats with the Chicago Bears, was then a star at Kansas. Sayers received
most of the pregame publicity. But it was Little the people were talking about when the
game was over.
In the first
quarter Little went around left end from the Kansas 19-yard line. He got a block at the
line of scrimmage, faked to the outside, cut to the middle, brushed off a tackler, and
flew to the end zone.
A few minutes
later he was off again, this time for 55 yards. He started off tackle, then funneled up
the middle, bouncing from defender to defender, across the goal line.
"I think if
you ran the play back slowly," said Ted Dailey, the Syracuse defensive line coach,
"you'd find about eleven Kansas players either had a hand on him or a chance to
tackle him."
Syracuse got close
to the goal again and Little scored from a yard out. Later he scored from the 3. Sayers
was just another anonymous Jayhawk by the time Floyd scored his fifth touchdown, climaxing
the most dramatic debut anyone had ever made in the Syracuse stadium. Scoring touchdown
number five, Little went off tackle from the 15. Three steps beyond scrimmage he seemed to
tilt to his right like an overburdened sailboat. He glided into a group of defenders. Off
one, off another. Acceleration. End zone. Final score: Little and company 38, Kansas 8.Later that season,
Little made what some Syracuse fans still call, in hushed tones, "The Run." It
came against Oregon State. Wally Mahle, the Syracuse quarterback, took the snap,
straightened up, and lobbed a pass about five yards over the middle to Little. Both sides
of the Oregon State defense collapsed on Little as he cut down the center of the field.
The run was restricted to a path no more than ten yards between the waves of tacklers. It
looked like the wagon train boss running a Sioux gauntlet in a John Wayne western. The
Beaver safeties appeared to close the gap at the 20-yard line. But then came that
fantastic Little acceleration, and Floyd raced into the end zone.
The crowd sat in
stunned silence. They realized they had seen a once-in-a-lifetime run. Afterward, someone
asked Little about his ability to accelerate like a giant jet leaving the runway.
"It's just a gift," he said. "I have three different speeds and
premeditated moves. I like to get close to a defender, at arm's length, then make my cut
at a 45-degree angle. I can do it at top speed. The idea is to try to lock into the
defender's eyes to see if he'll flinch, then juke [fake] him. If you watch his eyes,
you'll know if there's enough time to cut.
"Some are
faster, but I can run as fast sideways as I can straight ahead, which few can. I can
accelerate fast and shift speeds smoothly. I'm small, but that helps me to hide. I mean
it. I'm hard to spot behind big linemen. Also it's hard to get down to my legs, which is
the only place to bring me down. I'm strong, I have good balance, and I make good use of
my arms, which I swing to break tackles. I run skittery, like a mouse eluding a cat. I
can't explain my moves. I don't think any good runner can. I can't copy anyone. I don't
know what I'm doing until I do it, then I can never repeat it. It's some kind of instinct.
I look at me on films and say, 'Jeez, that guy made a helluva move. What was that?'"
In addition to
perfecting his football skills, Floyd matured greatly as a person at Syracuse. He became a
team leader and at least a respectable student. In his freshman year Little had met a coed
from St. Alban's, New York, named Joyce Green. A part-time model and an honor student,
Joyce was the daughter of two schoolteachers. She and Floyd began to date, and they were
married when he graduated in 1967. |
· Floyd Little ·