Doak Walker
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40 free Doak Walker trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Doak Walker was college football's golden boy of the late 1940s: a do-everything SMU back who ran, passed, caught, kicked and punted his way to the Heisman Trophy, then helped turn the Detroit Lions into NFL champions before walking away at the height of his fame. This quiz covers the whole story: his Dallas boyhood, his college years and the crowds he drew, his seasons in Detroit, his life after football in Colorado, and the national award that carries his name, along with some of the stars who have won it. It is written for college football fans, Lions and SMU supporters, and anyone who has watched the Doak Walker Award being handed out each December and wondered about the man behind it.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which football stadium is nicknamed 'The House That Doak Built' after the crowds Doak Walker drew?
Cotton Bowl
The Cotton Bowl gained about 30,000 seats while Walker played home games there for SMU. He liked to joke that he never got a single blister helping to build it.
Q 02Which Hall of Fame quarterback was Doak Walker's teammate in high school and again in Detroit?
Bobby Layne
Bobby Layne played for rival Texas while Walker starred at SMU, and decades later he presented his old friend for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Q 03The Doak Walker Award, presented by SMU, honors college football's top player at which position?
Running back
Running back is the only position considered, and each winner takes home a bronze sculpture of Walker himself.
Q 04Which Texas-born soft drink company teamed with SMU in 1989 to create the Doak Walker Award?
Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper was created by a pharmacist in Waco in the 1880s and went on sale a year before Coca-Cola.
Q 05Doak Walker was in which year of college when he beat Charlie Justice for the 1948 Heisman Trophy?
Junior
A junior that season, Walker also finished third in the Heisman voting as a sophomore in 1947 and again as a senior in 1949.
Q 06In both his first and last NFL seasons, 1950 and 1955, Doak Walker led the league in which category?
Scoring
Scoring came from everywhere for Walker, who ran, caught passes and kicked. His 128 points as a rookie were then the second-highest season total in NFL history.
Q 07Why did Doak Walker retire from the Detroit Lions at just 28, straight after a Pro Bowl season?
A business career
A business career beckoned: an electrical contractor offered Walker the same salary the Lions paid. He said he wanted to leave with his teeth and both knees intact.
Q 08Which Texas Longhorns star swapped his No. 34 for Doak Walker's old number in a 1998 tribute game?
Ricky Williams
Ricky Williams had befriended Walker after winning the 1997 award named for him, and he went on to take the Heisman Trophy later that season.
Q 09Doak Walker was born in Dallas in 1927 on which holiday?
New Year's Day
New Year's Day 1948 was Walker's 21st birthday, and he spent it playing for unbeaten SMU in a bowl game that ended in a 13–13 tie.
Q 10As a boy living near the SMU campus, Doak Walker worked at the school's football games doing what?
Selling popcorn and peanuts
Selling popcorn and peanuts put young Walker inside the stadium where he later starred. His father, a teacher and coach, took him to SMU games on Saturdays.
Q 11Which team did Doak Walker's SMU tie 13–13 in a 1948 bowl game that broke a color line in Texas?
Penn State
Penn State refused a request to leave its two Black players at home, and one of them, Wallace Triplett, caught the tying touchdown.
Q 12Which Dallas-area high school produced Doak Walker and, decades later, quarterback Matthew Stafford?
Highland Park
Highland Park reached the Texas state final in 1944 with Walker in its backfield, and Stafford, like Walker, went on to star for the Detroit Lions.
Q 13Doak Walker served as a radio operator in which service in 1945, just before enrolling at SMU?
Merchant Marine
The Merchant Marine released Walker in late 1945, and within days he was playing for SMU. The Army then drafted him, which cost him the entire 1946 season.
Q 21Which Big Ten school's players won the Doak Walker Award four times between 2012 and 2019?
Wisconsin
Wisconsin won it through Montee Ball, Melvin Gordon and two-time honoree Jonathan Taylor in that stretch, adding to Ron Dayne's trophy from 1999.
Q 22LaDainian Tomlinson won the 2000 Doak Walker Award while starring for which Texas university?
TCU
TCU's Tomlinson had rushed for 406 yards in a single game the year before, then a Division I record, and the school later retired his No. 5.
Q 23Which Alabama star won the Heisman Trophy and the Doak Walker Award in the same 2015 season?
Derrick Henry
Derrick Henry ran for 2,219 yards that season, breaking Herschel Walker's SEC record on the way to a national title with the Crimson Tide.
Q 14Which player-of-the-year honor did Doak Walker win in 1947, a year before his Heisman?
Maxwell Award
The Maxwell Award is named for Robert 'Tiny' Maxwell, a Swarthmore player turned sportswriter. Walker won it while placing only third in that year's Heisman vote.
Q 15Which team did Doak Walker's Detroit Lions beat in both the 1952 and 1953 NFL Championship Games?
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns lost both times to a Walker big play: his 67-yard touchdown run broke open the 1952 game, and his extra point won the 1953 rematch 17–16.
Q 16Which Notre Dame end beat Doak Walker to the 1949 Heisman, then joined him on the Detroit Lions?
Leon Hart
Leon Hart is one of only two linemen to win the Heisman, and in a 1952 playoff against the Rams he caught a 24-yard touchdown pass thrown by Walker.
Q 17Which jersey number did Doak Walker wear at SMU and with the Detroit Lions, who retired it in 1955?
37
37 was the number of Walker's boyhood SMU hero, Harry Shuford. In college he kept it by luck: it was the only jersey left that fit him.
Q 18Which Olympic ski racer did Doak Walker marry in 1969 after meeting her as a ski school student?
Skeeter Werner
Skeeter Werner raced for the United States at the 1956 Winter Olympics and later founded a ski school in her Colorado hometown. The couple eloped to Las Vegas.
Q 19In which Colorado ski town, his second wife's hometown, did Doak Walker live for almost 30 years?
Steamboat Springs
Steamboat Springs was Walker's home until 1998, when a skiing accident there left him paralyzed. He died eight months later, aged 71.
Q 20After an injury-hit 1949, Doak Walker asked which magazine to give his All-American spot away?
Collier's
Collier's answered by naming Walker its 1949 Player of the Year for Sportsmanship instead.
Q 24Darren McFadden won the Doak Walker Award in both 2006 and 2007 while starring for which SEC school?
Arkansas
Arkansas saw McFadden become the first sophomore to win the award, and he finished second in the Heisman Trophy vote in both of those seasons.
Q 25Which USC star won the 2005 Doak Walker Award alongside a Heisman Trophy he later forfeited?
Reggie Bush
Reggie Bush gave up his Heisman in 2010 during an NCAA investigation into improper benefits, and it was formally reinstated 14 years later.
Q 26Which Washington Huskies star became the very first winner of the Doak Walker Award in 1990?
Greg Lewis
Greg Lewis was also the Pac-10's offensive player of the year in 1990, though his NFL career lasted just two seasons with the Denver Broncos.
Q 27Which Boise State star won the 2024 Doak Walker Award and finished runner-up for the Heisman Trophy?
Ashton Jeanty
Ashton Jeanty led the FBS in rushing yards and touchdowns that year, then went sixth overall to the Las Vegas Raiders in the 2025 NFL draft.
Q 28Which scrambling quarterback entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame alongside Doak Walker in 1986?
Fran Tarkenton
Fran Tarkenton had retired only eight years earlier, while Walker waited three decades because some voters felt six seasons were too few.
Q 29In which now-defunct league did Doak Walker's SMU win back-to-back titles in 1947 and 1948?
Southwest Conference
The Southwest Conference lasted from 1914 to 1996, and Walker was named to its all-conference team in each of his four seasons.
Q 30Besides football, Doak Walker earned varsity letters at SMU in which two other sports?
Basketball and baseball
Basketball and baseball were only part of it: in high school Walker had been a five-sport athlete, adding swimming and track.