Malcolm "Mike" Thomas (July 17, 1953 – August 23, 2019) was an
American football running back in the
National Football League (NFL) for six seasons with the
Washington Redskins and
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...
. He was named
NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in .
Early years
Born in
Greenville, Texas, Thomas graduated from
Greenville High School in 1971 and played
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
at the
University of Oklahoma and the
University of Nevada Las Vegas.
At the time, UNLV was a
Division II program; it moved up to
Division I-A in
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...
. In his senior season in
1974
Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...
, the Rebels were undefe