Hall Of Fame

They called him Bullet.

Bullet Bob

He'd already established himself as the World's Fastest Human at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. He was supposed to run in the 100 meter dash. Somehow, he'd gotten to the track with only one shoe. Somebody loaned him a shoe so that he could run his race, but it didn't fit. It didn't matter Not to Bob Hayes. He blazed down the track to a gold medal in world record time anyway. It kind of makes you wonder what he could have done.

Just a few days later, the world got a glimpse of what might have been. The event was the men's 4X100 meter relay. The French team had been talking trash. (When are they ever going to learn?) French anchor Jocelyn Delecour told American Paul Drayton that there was no way they would win. "All you have is Hayes," he said. It seemed he was right. The American team trailed the French by an estimated 8 yards (it was only 3 if you ask the French) when Bob Hayes got the baton. It was in that final leg that he showed the world why he would later be nicknamed Bullet. Passing the Frenchman as if he were standing still, Bob Hayes ran his 100 meter leg in an incredible 8.6 second time. Winning the race. Earning another gold medal. Setting another world record. Drayton would later find Delecour and tell him, "All we needed was Hayes."

Now, lots of men win Olympic gold medals. Lots of men win Superbowls.

But to this day, only one man has ever won both. That man was Bob Hayes. That's because he could do something very few track stars can do. Bob Hayes could play football. And he could play well. By the time he retired, he held just about every receiving record for the Dallas Cowboys franchise. Most of them are still standing. His 71 career touchdowns--not even Michael Irvin could top that. His 8 catches in a single game by a rookie--it was tied by Jason Witten in 2003, but not broken. His 13 touchdowns in a season--that one stood for 37 years until Terrell Owens caught 15 in 2007.

Bullet's primary weapon was his speed. He was fast. Really fast. How fast was he? So fast that one year at the Pro Bowl, everyone was passing the time running races. All the guys who thought they were fast were pitting themselves against the great Jim Brown. They all wanted a chance to beat the running back legend. But no one would race Bob Hayes. No one wanted to.

How fast was he? So fast that Cowboys running back Duane Thomas recalled in a TV interview, "We were running this play, and I took the hand off and was running up the field. Up ahead of me was Bob Hayes. He was running sideways, kinda directing traffic. And he was still running faster than me. SIDEWAYS."

Speed like that is amazing to behold, but it presented opponents with a problem. In those days, defenses almost exclusively played man to man coverage. Nobody could cover Bob Hayes. Even the great Mel Renfro, a Hall of Famer himself, said, "I was the best cover guy in the league. I could cover anybody--except Hayes."

Nobody could cover Hayes. Nobody. His presence on the field was enough to leave stadiums buzzing with excitement, and defensive coaching staffs scratching their heads in bewilderment. How were they to contain Hayes? Nobody knew. They would have to come up with a completely different style of defense to deal with a Bullet. Eventually, they did.

You know that double coverage Terrell Owens had so much trouble with last year? Thank Bob Hayes.

You know the bump and run coverage that jams receivers at the line of scrimmage? Thank Bob Hayes.

You know the three man zone coverage Pittsburgh used against Jason Witten which led to that last interception that was returned for the game clinching touchdown? Thank Bob Hayes.

Before Bob Hayes came along, none of these defensive schemes were in use. He made them necessary. In the words of the great Michael Irvin, lots of men have played in the Pro Bowl. Lots of men have won the Super Bowl. Only one man changed the way the game was played.

At long last, that one man is finally getting the recognition he so richly deserves. At long last, Bob Hayes will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall Of Fame. He is finally going to Canton. He is finally going

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* Information for this article was found in various sources around the internet, including DallasCowboys.com, Wikipedia, and NFL.com. Additional information was found in interviews on History Of The Dallas Cowboys, and NFL America's Game The Dallas Cowboys Collection, produced by NFL Films.