Stephen Wood Van Buren (December 28, 1920 − August 23, 2012) was a Honduran-American professional football halfback who played for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL) from 1944 to 1951. Regarded as a powerful and punishing runner with excellent speed, he won four NFL rushing titles through eight NFL seasons, including three straight from 1947 to 1949. At a time when teams played 12 games a year, he was the first NFL player to rush for over ten touchdowns in a season—a feat he accomplished three times—and the first to have multiple 1,000-yard rushing seasons. When he retired, he held the NFL career records for rushing attempts, rushing yards, and rushing touchdowns.
Van Buren played college football for the LSU Tigers, where he led the NCAA in scoring in his senior season. After leading LSU to victory in the 1944 Orange Bowl, he was selected by the Eagles with the fifth overall pick of the 1944 NFL draft. Van Buren acquired many nicknames over his career in reference to his running style, including "Wham Bam", "Moving Van" and "Supersonic Steve". He was the driving force for the Eagles in the team's back-to-back NFL championships in 1948 and 1949; he scored the only touchdown of the 1948 NFL Championship Game against the Chicago Cardinals, and in the next year's championship game against the Los Angeles Rams he set postseason records with 31 carries and 196 rushing yards.
After his playing career, Van Buren coached in minor league football, winning an Atlantic Coast Football League (ACFL) championship with the Newark Bears in 1963. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. Van Buren is a member of the NFL 1940s All-Decade Team, the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team and the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. Considered one of the greatest players in Eagles franchise history, his number 15 jersey is retired by the team, and he is enshrined in the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. For his college career, he was inducted into the Louisiana State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1944 and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1961.
Early life Born in La Ceiba, Honduras, to an American father and a mother of Spanish heritage, Stephen Wood Van Buren was orphaned at age ten and was sent to live with relatives in New Orleans, Louisiana. There he attended Warren Easton High School, and tried out for the football team originally as a sophomore, but did not make it. Later that year he dropped out of high school and went to work in an iron foundry. He returned to high school two years later and made the team as an end his senior year. He played well enough that season to earn an athletic scholarship to Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge.
College career Playing for the LSU Tigers football team, Van Buren was used primarily for blocking until his senior season, when head coach Bernie Moore moved him to tailback because of a lack of players due to World War II conscription. Van Buren received a class IV-F exemption due to an eye defect, so he was able to avoid conscription. "He probably was the greatest running back in Southeastern Conference history," Moore recalled, "and I used him as a blocking back until his last year. The folks in Baton Rouge never let me forget that."
He began the 1943 season by scoring four touchdowns in a 34–27 win over Georgia, including the game-winning touchdown with less than two minutes to play.Vincent 2008, p. 54. His final college game was the 1944 Orange Bowl against Texas A&M. Despite A&M coach Homer Norton devising a game-plan specifically to stop him, Van Buren was responsible for all of his team's points, as he ran for two touchdowns, threw for one more, and kicked LSU's only successful extra point attempt in the 19–14 victory.Vincent 2008, p. 55. He finished the season with 847 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns. He also completed 13 of 36 passing attempts for 160 yards. His 98 points scored (111 including the bowl game) led the nation. After the season, the Associated Press named Van Buren to its All-Southeastern Conference first team.
Professional career While still enrolled at LSU, Van Buren was drafted into the National Football League by the Philadelphia Eagles with the fifth overall pick of the 1944 NFL draft. A month later, on May 19 he resigned from the university due to an eye infection that had been bothering him since the Orange Bowl game. The Eagles gave Van Buren a $4,000 contract with no signing bonus. But Van Buren, modest to a fault, took three weeks to sign the contract because he did not feel he was good enough to play professionally. He played as a running back and return specialist in the NFL for eight seasons, all of them with the Eagles. He spent the first seven of them under head coach Earle "Greasy" Neale, who dubbed Van Buren "the best halfback in modern times."
1944–1946: Kick return prowess Van Buren played in nine games during his first season with the Eagles, rushing for 444 yards as a running back and recording five interceptions on defense as a defensive back. His first NFL return touchdown came in the third game of the season, on a 55-yard punt return in the second quarter of a 38–0 shutout win against the Boston Yanks. Three games later, he returned a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown against the New York Giants, which was the longest kickoff return by any player that season. His 15.3 yards per punt return also led the league. Van Buren was named to the Associated Press's All-Pro first team following the season, the only rookie so named for 1944.
In 1945, Van Buren led the NFL in rushing yards for the first time, and also led the league in scoring, yards from scrimmage, and kickoff return yards. He set an Eagles single-season record with 15 rushing touchdowns, a mark that stood until 2011. His 18 total touchdowns broke Don Hutson's league record by one, set three seasons earlier. He again had the longest kickoff return of the season, this time with a 98-yard return touchdown against the Giants. In that game he also rushed for 100 yards and two more touchdowns as he scored all of the Eagles' touchdowns in the 28–21 loss. At least six major publications named him a first-team All-Pro for the season, including the Associated Press and United Press.
By 1946, Van Buren was considered one of the best players in the league. Before the season, he signed a three-year contract to remain with the Eagles, dispelling rumors that he planned to join the rival All-America Football Conference. He returned just five punts in the 1946 season, but ran one of them back 50 yards for a touchdown against the Boston Yanks in the final game of the year. It was the last punt Van Buren returned in his career. He finished the season with 529 rushing yards, third-most behind leader Bill Dudley of the Pittsburgh Steelers and rookie Pat Harder of the Chicago Cardinals. He was named a first-team All-Pro by the New York Daily News and a second-team All-Pro by the United Press.
After the Eagles' loss to the Steelers during the 1946 season, Eagles coach Greasy Neale gave Dudley high praise during a conversation with Steelers coach Jock Sutherland. Sutherland then offered to trade Dudley to the Eagles. In return he wanted Van Buren, but according to Les Biederman of The Pittsburgh Press, "before [Sutherland] finished the second syllable of that name, Neale had fled the table."
1947–1949: Three straight rushing titles Van Buren claimed his second rushing title in 1947, which was the first in a string of three straight. His 1,008 rushing yards broke the single-season record of 1,004 set by Beattie Feathers with the Chicago Bears in 1934. He was no longer returning punts for the team, as the role was taken over by halfback Bosh Pritchard, though he still returned kickoffs. His 95-yard kickoff return touchdown against the Washington Redskins in the first game of the season was again the longest kickoff return by any player that season, as well as the last kick return touchdown of his career.
The Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers both finished the 1947 regular season atop the Eastern Conference with an 8–4 record, so the two teams met for a tiebreaker game to determine the conference champion. During the week before the game, the Steelers ran workouts concentrating on a means of stopping Van Buren's running. In the game, the Steelers' defensive line held Van Buren to 45 rushing yards and no rushing touchdowns, but he scored the game's first touchdown on a 15-yard reception from quarterback Tommy Thompson. The Eagles won with a 21–0 shutout, setting them up to face the Chicago Cardinals in the NFL Championship Game, the first championship game appearance in franchise history, and it would be on Van Buren's 27th birthday. Against the Cardinals' "Million Dollar Backfield", Van Buren was held in check, as the Eagles were defeated 28–21 in a back-and-forth contest. Van Buren did score a touchdown, though, becoming the first player in NFL history to score a touchdown in a championship game on his birthday. This wouldn't be repeated until Super Bowl LIX over 77 years later, when fellow Eagle Cooper DeJean intercepted Patrick Mahomes, and returned it for a 38-yard touchdown.
The 1948 season was the second straight that Van Buren led the league in carries, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, and yards from scrimmage. In week 3, in the first quarter against the New York Giants Van Buren scored his 39th career rushing touchdown, surpassing Ernie Nevers as the all-time leader. That game—a 45–0 shutout win—was the first in an eight-game winning streak for the Eagles in which they scored 275 points total and allowed 49. The team finished the regular season with the best record in the Eastern Division and were to meet the Chicago Cardinals again for the league championship.
1948 NFL Championship Game Having posted similar offensive statistics in the regular season, the Eagles and Cardinals were expected to play a tight game. Played in a blizzard at Philadelphia's Shibe Park, the game's only score was a fourth quarter rushing touchdown by Van Buren from five yards out. The 7–0 win gave the Eagles their first league title. Van Buren finished with 98 yards on 26 carries, though he nearly missed the game entirely. Thinking the game would not be played in the blizzard, he remained home until coach Greasy Neale called him and told him the game was still on. He had to catch three trolleys and walk six blocks in order to make the game on time. "I looked out my bedroom window that morning, saw the snow and went back to bed," he later explained. "I was sure the game would be postponed."
1949: Career rushing title and second championship By 1949, Van Buren's annual salary was $15,000. Despite the Eagles franchise struggling financially the previous season, Neale was willing to pay him more, but Van Buren declined. "I could have gotten a good deal more," he said. "But you acted a little different when your team lost money." He came into his sixth NFL season needing 104 rushing yards to break Clarke Hinkle's career record of 3,860, which he set after ten seasons with the Packers. Van Buren passed Hinkle's mark against the Detroit Lions in the second game of the season, and by the end of the year had broken his own single-season record as he rushed for 1,146 yards. He became the first running back in NFL history to achieve three consecutive rushing titles. Jim Brown twice, Earl Campbell, and Emmitt Smith have since managed the feat. The Eagles clinched the Eastern Division title in the tenth game of the season with a win over the Steelers. With Pittsburgh's defense designed to stop him, Van Buren ran for 205 yards on 27 carries, setting an Eagles single-game franchise record for rushing yards that stood for over 60 years. The Eagles won their final two games and advanced to their third NFL championship game in as many seasons.