With the first overall pick in the 1978 NFL Draft, the Houston Oilers selected Earl Campbell, the Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Texas. The rest, as they say, is history.

In a controversial decision made on Thursday, July 16th, the Tyler ISD school board voted 7-0 in favor of changing the names of both John Tyler High School and Robert E. Lee High School, due to the racism that many citizens believed was connected to the names of the two schools.

Now that the Tyler ISD school board has decided to rename the two high schools, the next stage of this process begins: finding names to replace the current names of John Tyler High School and Robert E. Lee High School. But what should the new names of these high schools be?

For John Tyler High School, I believe that the answer is clear: Earl Campbell High School.

Campbell is widely considered one of the greatest players in the history of the National Football League. His NFL jersey number, 34, has been retired by the Houston Oilers (currently the Tennessee Titans). On top of his legendary career in the NFL, Campbell is also considered one of the greatest college football players of all time. His college jersey number, 20, has been retired by the Texas Longhorns in recognition of his incredible college career with the University of Texas.

Earl Campbell’s legendary collegiate and NFL careers have both been immortalized within their associated Hall of Fames. Campbell was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1990, as well as the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991. Campbell also has a number of other impressive accomplishments, including (but certainly not limited to) the following:

5x Pro Bowl (1978-1981, 1983)

3x First-team All-Pro (1978-1980)

NFL Most Valuable Player (1979)

3x NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1978-1980)

Bert Bell Award (1979)

NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year (1978)

3x NFL rushing yards leader (1978-1980)

2x NFL rushing touchdowns leader (1979,1980)

Tennessee Titans No. 34 retired

Titans/Oilers Ring of Honor

NFL 1970s All-Decade Team

NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team

Heisman Trophy (1977)

Davey O’Brien Memorial Trophy (1977)

2x First-team All-American (1975, 1977)

Texas Longhorns No. 20 retired

 

Rankings:

Campbell has also been listed in a number of various rankings by well-respected critics, including the following:

Ranked 33 on The Sporting News’ list of the 100 greatest football players (1999)

The highest-ranked player for the Houston Oilers franchise

Ranked 55 by NFL Network: The Top 100: NFL’s Greatest Players (2010)

Earlier this year, ESPN also ranked Campbell as the 7th greatest college football player of all time.

On top of all of these amazing awards, Earl Campbell further etched his name into the history books in 1979, when he became the first player in Texas Longhorns history to have his jersey number retired.

On September 9, 2006, a nine-foot-tall bronze statue of Campbell was unveiled in the southwest corner of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Earlier this week, the University of Texas announced that the aforementioned stadium’s name would be changed to honor Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams, another Longhorns great.

The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award, which is given to the best offensive player in NCAA Division I with Texas ties, was also named in Campbell’s honor. Notable winners of this award include quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray.

However, Campbell’s accomplishments are not solely associated with college and professional football. In 1973, Campbell, under Coach Corky Nelson, Campbell led John Tyler High School to a perfect 15-0 season. This earned John Tyler High School a spot in the coveted Texas 4A State Championship. In the championship game, Campbell ran the football 32 times for a staggering 164 yards and two touchdowns.

Thanks largely to this astounding performance by “The Tyler Rose,” Campbell and his fellow Lions won the championship 21-14 against Austin's Reagan High School. This legendary victory propelled Campbell into the national spotlight. He was named Mr. Football USA later that year. Needless to say, he was heavily recruited by a number of colleges, before eventually deciding to play football for the Texas Longhorns.

It is also worth noting that the city of Tyler has already named a highway after Campbell: Earl Campbell Parkway, located on the southwest side of town. This shows that it is certainly not out of the question for the city of Tyler to name something in honor of “The Tyler Rose.”

With all of this in mind, it is rather surprising that everything within the Tyler city limits has not been named after Campbell. With the exception of Earl Campbell Parkway, the great Tylerite’s name is largely absent from the city.

To this day, Campbell is still active within the Tyler community. He is widely considered one of the greatest Tylerites in the city’s long history.

Taking all of this into consideration, I believe that changing the name of John Tyler High School to Earl Campbell High School would not only honor the career of one of the greatest professional athletes of all time, but also the town that raised “The Tyler Rose.”