David Walker (born December 24, 1955) is a former left-handed

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

who played for

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

in the mid-1970s.

Early years

Walker was Louisiana's 1972 all-state quarterback and the state's outstanding offensive player while playing for Sulphur High School in

Sulphur, Louisiana Sulphur () is a city in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 21,809 in 2020. Sulphur is part of the Lake Charles metropolitan statistical area. History Sulphur is named for the sulfur mines that were operated in th ...

, where he was tagged with his nickname, "Moon".

Texas A&M

In 1973, at age 17, Walker became the youngest-ever college quarterback. In Walker's first start of his freshman season, Texas A&M defeated the

TCU Horned Frogs The TCU Horned Frogs are the athletic teams that represent Texas Christian University. The 18 varsity teams participate in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I and in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for football, competi ...

, 35–16. The victory broke a four-game losing streak against the Frogs and was the first of 24 straight the Aggies have won in the series. The Aggies finished the season as the third-highest-scoring team in A&M history, and Walker was named the U.P.I. Southwest Conference Freshman of the Year. Walker was the quarterback his sophomore season in 1974 and led A&M through an 8-3 campaign, A&M's first winning season since the victorious Cotton Bowl team of 1967. Their 21-14 win against the 5th ranked LSU Tigers, the Aggies' second in 15 tries at LSU's Tiger Stadium, moved the previously unranked squad to #9 in the country. In the game, the Aggies had three ball carriers break the century mark in rushing; Skip Walker with 130, Bubba Bean with 127, and fullback Bucky Sams who finished with 107 yards and scored the winning touchdown late in the 4th quarter. A final game loss at Texas kept them from the Cotton Bowl and the SWC championship, thus allowing

Grant Teaff Grant Garland Teaff (; born November 12, 1933) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at McMurry University (1960–1965), Angelo State University (1969–1971), and Baylor University (1972–1992), compilin ...

's Baylor team, a 20-0 victim of the Aggies earlier in the season, to claim the crown. The Aggies' Top 15 ranking marked the first time since 1957 the Aggies had been ranked at season's end and only the sixth since their 1939 National Championship. Walker was replaced by Texas All-Stater David Shipman during the 1975 season and did not play. The Aggies rose to #2 and the country's top-ranked defense before ending the season with one-sided losses to Arkansas and Liberty Bowl opponent Southern California. In 1976, he regained the starting QB job for the final six games, all lop-sided victories, including the first win in 20 years on the University of Texas campus in a decisive 27-3 victory in Darryl Royal's final A&M game as UT's head coach. Walker capped off the season by leading the Aggies to a 37-14 victory over

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

in the

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

, applying the finishing touches to A&M's second consecutive 10 win season, a first in A&M history and a feat accomplished only 3 times since. In the game Walker was 11 of 18 for 122 yards, including a touchdown pass to fullback George Woodard. Walker also scored in the 2nd quarter on a 9-yard keeper. The Sporting News ranked Texas A&M #3 and the A.P. had them 7th in the country following the season. It would be 1985 before the Aggies would be ranked again in a final poll. Walker led Texas A&M to a 37-14

victory over

to cap off the 1976 season and had the Aggies ranked No. 5 in the AP poll after a 33-17 win over No. 7

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship institution of the five- ...

in 1977. Walker set a Texas A&M single-game for rushing yards by a quarterback when he carried 27 times for 182 yards in a come-from-behind 38-21 win against SMU. The single-game yardage record stood for more than 30 years until

Johnny Manziel Johnathan Paul Manziel ( ; born December 6, 1992), nicknamed "Johnny Football", is an American former football quarterback. He played college football for the Texas A&M Aggies and was the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. He played prof ...

rushed for 229 yards against Oklahoma in the

2013 Cotton Bowl Classic The 2013 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic was a post-season American college football bowl game held on January 4, 2013, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas in the United States. The 77th edition of the Cotton Bowl Classic began at 7:00 p.m. CS ...

. Walker was injured for a game against TCU in the 1977 season, but returned for the final regular season games against top-ranked Texas and the University of Houston to complete the 8-3 season. He then sat out the 47-28 1977 Bluebonnet Bowl loss to USC until the final minutes.

Later years

In 2011, Walker published a memoir, ''I'll Tell You When You're Good!: The Memoir of America's Youngest College Quarterback'', recounting the difficulties of his college football career. In 2012, he was rated among the top ten quarterbacks in Texas A&M history. Walker was one of 13 former students inducted into the Sulphur High School Centennial Hall of Fame on April 20, 2013. Walker began writing a weekly column called "QB1 Film Room" for TheRebelWalk.com, an online media outlet covering Ole Miss Sports.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, David 1955 births Living people American football quarterbacks Texas A&M Aggies football players People from Sulphur, Louisiana Players of American football from Lake Charles, Louisiana