100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters

Temple made him a comic book. He didn't need one to break Marcus Allen's record.

In the fall of 1986, Temple's sports information office tried everything to get Heisman Trophy voters to notice Paul Palmer. They printed a life-sized poster. They mailed 800 updated statistics releases every week. They arranged hundreds of interviews with newspapers and media outlets across the country.

Then they made a comic book.

"Temple University Football Featuring the Adventures of Paul Palmer" was a 16-page magazine that told the story of an undersized, overlooked kid from Potomac, Maryland, who became the nation's leading rusher. In the comic book version, Palmer finds two diamond earrings on a playground, and his grandmother holds them until he earns them — a scholarship to Temple. The earrings give him superpowers.

"I thought the whole idea was kind of funny," Palmer told the Birmingham Post-Herald. "It made me feel good, but also uncomfortable because some people don't exactly understand that the sports information staff here did that, that it wasn't my idea. But really, the whole thing made me laugh."

The real Paul Palmer did not need a comic book origin story. The real story was better.

The Numbers

Palmer carried the football 43 times against East Carolina on October 11, 1986. He rushed for 349 yards and three touchdowns in a 45-28 victory — eight yards short of the all-time NCAA Division I record. His all-purpose total that day was 417 yards, including 68 in kick returns, tying an NCAA record.

Then he did it again. The next week in Norfolk, he carried it 44 times for 239 yards in a 29-13 victory over Virginia Tech. Then 187. Then 212. Four games, 987 rushing yards — an NCAA record for consecutive games.

By the end of his senior season, Palmer had rushed for 1,866 yards and led the nation in rushing yards per game, all-purpose yards and all-purpose yards per game. His 2,633 all-purpose yards broke Marcus Allen's NCAA record. He was a unanimous First Team All-American and finished as runner-up for the Heisman Trophy to Vinny Testaverde of Miami.

For his career: 4,895 rushing yards, 6,613 all-purpose yards, 39 rushing touchdowns. At the time of his graduation, he ranked sixth in NCAA Division I history in career rushing and fourth in career all-purpose yards. He set 23 school records.

He did it at 5-foot-9, 175 pounds.

"Some people thought I may have been too small to play high school ball," Palmer told the Philadelphia Daily News before his senior season. "In college, everyone thought I was too small to play college ball. And then when the pros come around, people are saying the same things. But I don't worry about it. I like to think of it as quality, not quantity."

The Invisible Man

Palmer was the best running back in the country in 1986 and almost nobody outside Philadelphia knew it. Temple was a Division I-A (FBS) independent, unaffiliated with any conference, playing home games at Veterans Stadium. The Owls' record since Palmer arrived as a freshman in 1983 was 19-23. No network wanted to televise them.

"People don't know who I am unless I have my jacket on that says 'Paul Palmer, No. 6' on my chest," he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Or unless I'm wearing my Temple football shirt or something."

On campus, he used a fake name. "Well, sometimes around campus, when I meet people, I use the name Leroy Johnson," Palmer told the Post-Herald. "It is to keep them from treating me like something special because I'm Paul Palmer."

His opponents knew him. Joe Paterno, whose Penn State defense saw Palmer run for 206 yards, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "There are not many backs who have gained 200 yards against us. I think the best way to shut him down is to keep your own offense on the field."

Don Nehlen, West Virginia's head coach, said: "Paul Palmer may just be the most dangerous running back in college football."

Dick MacPherson, Syracuse's head coach, told the Journal-Constitution: "Paul Palmer reminds me of Joe Morris. I can't pay him a higher compliment." MacPherson had coached Morris at Syracuse before Morris became a star with the New York Giants.

The Heisman voters were slower to catch on. Through the sixth week of the 1986 season, a national poll ranked the Heisman candidates: Vinny Testaverde first, Brian Bosworth second, Jim Harbaugh third. Palmer was fourth. Testaverde had been anointed the winner after Miami beat Oklahoma a month into the season.

"My reaction was that it wasn't fair, not just to me but to the other candidates as well," Palmer told the Gannett News Service. "It's unfair to say someone has won something just three-four weeks into the season."

Thirty years later, he put it more simply: "I think a lot of the voters didn't see me play."

When they did see him, the numbers held. Palmer carried 29 times for 149 yards in a 24-14 loss at Alabama — a performance that validated him with the skeptics who said he had piled up statistics against weaker competition.

Pound for Pound

Bruce Arians arrived at Temple as head coach in 1983 — the same year Palmer arrived as a freshman. He had coached in the SEC — three years at Mississippi State, two at Alabama under Bear Bryant. He would later coach the Indianapolis Colts, the Arizona Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, winning Super Bowl LV.

He said Palmer was the best.

"Pound for pound Paul Palmer was the best player I ever coached," Arians told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "When playing at around 170 pounds and to carry it 40 times a game and a lot of time it was up the middle, he was a true running back. And he was always there. His dependability and availability were unmeasured, and he was just tough as nails."

Arians' assistant head coach, Paul Davis, had been an Auburn assistant for 13 seasons. He coached William Andrews, James Brooks and Joe Cribbs — three of the best running backs in SEC history.

"I asked him to compare Paul to those two, and he said Paul was better," Arians told the Post-Herald, "that he combined the best of both with the toughness of William Andrews."

What set Palmer apart was not the talent alone. It was the durability. He carried the ball 35 to 40 times a game at 175 pounds and never broke down.

"I haven't spent any time in the whirlpool this season, and I don't think I have any more bruises than any other running back," Palmer told the Post-Herald.

The Monday after the 349-yard East Carolina game, Palmer showed up to night practice and ran like it was the first game of the season.

"Practice started and bang! — Paul came flying out of there," Arians told the Gannett News Service. "He led the way for us. As far as I'm concerned, Paul Palmer won the Virginia Tech game for us on Monday night."

"And believe me," Arians said, "I've never seen Paul Palmer have a bad practice."

The Fall and the Return

Palmer was selected 19th overall in the 1987 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. His professional career lasted three seasons and 41 games across three teams.

In July 1988, it emerged that Palmer had signed with agent Norby Walters before his eligibility expired, receiving monthly payments and a $5,000 loan. Temple forfeited all six wins from the 1986 season. Palmer's records were erased from the books. His athletic prizes and rewards were withdrawn. Temple president Peter Liacouras ordered him to reimburse his senior year scholarship.

The payments that cost Palmer his records, his awards and nearly his legacy — monthly checks and a $5,000 loan from an agent — would be a modest NIL deal in 2026.

For years, Paul Palmer's name did not appear in Temple's record book. The program's own media guide incorrectly listed the 1986 team as 0-11 instead of 6-5.

Then Temple brought him back. His records were reinstated. He was inducted into the Temple Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2018, he became the first Temple player inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

"Maybe if I'd won the Heisman, or the Maxwell, people would look at me a little differently," Palmer told the Inquirer. "I just wish they would take a deeper look."

They finally did.

Why It Matters

Paul Palmer represented something larger than his own career, and he knew it.

"I'm kind of representing a lot of people," he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Small backs, small football players in general. Players that come from small schools. Players that don't usually get much of a chance. I think a lot of people are pulling for me maybe because they see a lot of me in them."

In 2018, Temple's sports information director showed up at Haddon Heights High School in New Jersey, where Palmer works with special education students. Palmer thought he was getting leftover swag from the Gasparilla Bowl — a backpack and a couple of t-shirts. Instead, Rich Burg handed him a box with a commemorative football.

He called his former teammates. Joe Greenwood, the defensive back who arrived at Temple a freshman when Palmer was a junior, texted back that he had tears in his eyes.

"It's not just a big deal for me; I think it validates a lot of people associated with Temple football," Palmer told the Hall of Fame. "It's not just me; it validates the great friends I've had for years that trained as hard as I trained who didn't get the same recognition. It's Bruce Arians, being a 32-year-old first-time coach and the only Division I coach who offered me a scholarship, it's a tremendous feather in his cap.

"When I go in, not by any stretch of the imagination am I going in by myself. Physically I'll be there and physically you'll see me, but I'm not walking there by myself."

They told you it didn't matter. Here are 100 reasons it does.