Thanks for the reply, Heretic. There have
only been three white RB's selected in the first round of the NFL Draft dating back to 1974 and all three were from Stanford: Muster ('88), Vardell ('92) and McCaffery ('17)....You could also throw in Toby Gerhart, who was drafted in round two, but could've been a first rounder and almost won the Heisman, as a tailback.
Weird thing is, what other school has even come close to Stanford in, say, the last 30 years?
Can't think of any, perhaps Purdue and some other Big Ten schools (Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin) have produced some decent RB's, but most were fullbacks in college and the NFL. Mike Alstott was a very rare exception. Even the "Academic Schools" like Northwestern, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and Duke rarely feature a white RB.
Nebraska has had a lot of fantastic fullback's (Schlesinger, Makovika brothers, Janovich, ect.) over the years, but
haven't produced a single impact white tailback since the early 1970's. How does that happen? Huskers could not produce an Alstott or even a Luke Staley or Zach Line type in over four decades?
Last time I checked, Nebraska wasn't/isn't Mississippi with a large black population and they haven't been full Caste for a decades like Oklahoma?
Could an Eric Crouch, Scott Frost or Gerry Gdowski type goy did it given a chance? All were non NFL prospects at quarterback. I vaguely remember Gerry Gdowski, a Nebraska track-legend*, who almost rushed for 1,000 yards as a senior. Perhaps could've been the star tailback that could've vied for the Heisman Trophy?
*
http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=1088775
P.S.: Last week I saw Gdowski's name, he's currently the quarterbacks coach at Vanderbilt. That's why I remembered him. Man, he was lightning fast!