Damien Anderson
 Anderson with the Cardinals in 2005 | |||||||||
| No. 20, 22, 32 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Running back | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | July 17, 1979 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 218 lb (99 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Wilmington (Wilmington, Illinois) | ||||||||
| College: | Northwestern | ||||||||
| Undrafted: | 2002 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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| Player stats at PFR | |||||||||
Damien Ramone Anderson (born July 17, 1979) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the Northwestern Wildcats, earning consensus All-American honors. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, and later played for the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos.
Early life
[edit]Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Wilmington High School in Wilmington, Illinois, where he played high school football for the Wilmington Wildcats.
College career
[edit]Anderson attended Northwestern University, and was a standout for the Northwestern Wildcats football team from 1997 to 2000. As a senior in 2000, Anderson capped a record-setting season by becoming just the fourth player in Big Ten Conference history to run for 2,000 or more yards in a single season. He closed his four-year career with 4,485 rushing yards (the eighth-best figure in Big Ten history), 38 rushing touchdowns and 5,261 all-purpose yards—all school records. His single-season rushing average was the 20th best in NCAA history (an average of 174.0 yards per game for 11 regular-season games). Anderson also rushed for 1,549 yards in eight Big Ten games in 2000, which remains a conference single-season record. His running exploits helped the Wildcats capture a share of the 2000 Big Ten title, their third conference crown in a six-year period.
Anderson finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting[1] and was tabbed as a finalist for the Doak Walker Award (nation's top running back). He received first-team All-Big Ten honors, and was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American, after receiving first-team All-America honors from the Football Writers Association of America, the Walter Camp Foundation, Football News, CNN/SI.com and Sporting News.[2]
In addition to his Wildcats career records for rushing, all-purpose yardage, rushing touchdowns, and 200-yard rushing games (4), Anderson still holds five team single-season marks, all set in 2000: rushing yards (2,063), yards per game (171.9), all-purpose yards (2,195), rushing touchdowns (23) and points (138). He also scored at least one touchdown in 11 consecutive games, a Northwestern record. Anderson, who played in 43 career games, started 32 consecutive games during his career and 40 times overall.
Professional career
[edit]Anderson played four years with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals as well as two years with the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos.
In 2004 he made an amazing recovery from injuries sustained in a car accident. Anderson spent 14 days in an intensive care unit and nearly three weeks in the hospital after undergoing surgery to remove his spleen and repair a fractured eye socket. He also suffered liver damage, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung in the rollover accident. Anderson was fully recovered in time for the Cardinals' June minicamp.
Personal life
[edit]Anderson is married to Elizabeth Anderson with whom he has son: Drake is a running back for the University of Arizona, after starting his college career at Northwestern.
References
[edit]- ^ "2000 Heisman Trophy Voting". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
- ^ 2011 NCAA Football Records Book, Award Winners Archived August 17, 2012, at Archive-It , National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis, Indiana, p. 11 (2011). Retrieved June 25, 2012.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Damien Anderson at Wikimedia Commons
- 1979 births
- Living people
- All-American college football players
- American football running backs
- Arizona Cardinals players
- Canadian football running backs
- Edmonton Elks players
- Northwestern Wildcats football players
- People from Wilmington, Will County, Illinois
- Players of American football from Will County, Illinois
- Players of American football from Chicago
- Players of Canadian football from Chicago