Herschel Walker of the New Jersey Generals runs for 162 yards on 28 carries against the Jacksonville Bulls on a Monday night in the Meadowlands. With 2,129 yards on the season, Walker surges past Eric Dickerson’s single season pro football rushing record of 2,105 yards.
Dickerson, who established the record just six months earlier as a second-year running back with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, damned Walker’s feat with faint praise:
“Two thousand yards is two thousand yards any way you cut it, no matter what league. The difference is between the majors and the minors. But mine was done in the majors, his was done in the minors.”
Walker set his record in the 16th game of the USFL season. Dickerson also set his record in a 16-game season. The USFL played an 18-game schedule so Walker had two more games to add on to his mark. e finished the 1985 season with 2,411 yards on the ground, a mark that has never been surpassed in any pro league.
