You really can’t go wrong with a number of selections. It all depends on your taste and the criteria used in making the choice.

You want yards? No one in the history of Texas A&M or the Southwest Conference ever rushed for more (5,012) than Darren Lewis.

You want hardware? The only A&M player ever to be the recipient of college football’s most prestigious individual honor, the Heisman Trophy, is John David Crow.

You want power? No Aggie was a bigger bruiser than George Woodard.

If it’s speed that’s the determining factor, Curtis Dickey would be hard to beat. And if you’re just basing the decision on individual effort, Bob Smith was almost single-handily responsible for willing the Aggies to the 1950 Presidential Cup, rushing for over 1,300 yards in that season and nearly 300 yards in one memorable game against SMU.

You could probably make a case for any of the aforementioned players. But the criteria 12th Man Magazine is using in this series can be broken down to one word: Impact.

Who made the biggest impact among the many great running backs in A&M history? Who changed the game and had the greatest influence on the program?

Put that way, the decision isn’t so difficult. The one running back — the one man, for that matter — who truly put Texas A&M football on the map was Jarrin’ John Kimbrough.

Hero of A&M’s 1939 national championship team, two-time All-American, former movie star and once the recipient of the richest contract in professional football history, Kimbrough is perhaps the biggest name in the storied history of Texas A&M football.

"As far as I’m concerned, John Kimbrough is the legend of Texas A&M football," Crow said. "He’s legendary not only because of what he did individually, but also because he was the leader of the ’39 team that accomplished something that no other team at Texas A&M has ever done.

Kimbrough certainly captivated the nation’s attention like few others in A&M history. And he was definitely the Aggies’ original marquee player.

"John was one of the greatest players in Southwest Conference history, not just Texas A&M," said former TCU great Sammy Baugh, Kimbrough’s longtime companion. "He’s a fine man, a good friend and he was one damn fine football player in his day."

Ironically, Kimbrough almost spent his collegiate days at Tulane. In fact, Kimbrough was awarded a scholarship to Tulane, but once he arrived on the New Orleans campus, the coaching staff decided to turn the powerful, 210-pound running back into a tackle.

It was a disastrous decision that would later come back to haunt the Tulane coaches, who cut Kimbrough early in his first season. Without a scholarship and with no money to enroll in school, Texas A&M brought Kimbrough in during the 1937 season and positioned him as a 10th string running back.

But on the opening day of the 1938 season, Kimbrough got his chance against No. 1 TCU, and he made the most of it.

"TCU was whipping us like tied-up hounds, said the 81-year-old Kimbrough, who resides in Haskell, a tiny West Texas town about halfway between Abilene and the Red River. "A coach grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘You’re a running back. Get out there.’ The only reason I got that chance was because they were whipping us so bad that our coaches didn’t want any of our main guys to get hurt."
Instead, it was the TCU players who would soon experience a hurting. On Kimbrough’s first carry, the TCU tackler could not get up. And on his second carry, another Horned Frog defender remained on the ground.

"When I was getting up, I felt someone pulling me on the arm," Kimbrough said. "I looked around and it was (TCU) coach Dutch Meyer. His face was red, and he was calling me every name you could think of. I just picked him up by his coat and tie and got him eye level with me. I said, ‘Coach, you’re too small to talk to me like that.’ Then he just got off the field."

On that day, a legend was born. Kimbrough went from 10th team to first, and he started every game during the rest of his A&M career. Kimbrough led the ’39 team to a perfect 11-0 record, including a 14-13 win over Tulane in the Sugar Bowl. In that game, which wrapped up the Aggies’ national championship, Kimbrough rushed for 152 yards and both A&M touchdowns.

"John ran right through (Tulane’s) guys," said Tommie Vaughn, the starting center on the ’39 team. "He didn’t ever dance around or try to fake you. He’d just run right over you. He’d get those knees going real high, and you couldn’t stop him."

He appeared on billboard national advertisements, signed with 20th Century Fox to star in two Western movies and signed a $37,500 annual contract with the American Football League’s New York Yankees, making him the highest paid player in both the NFL and AFL.

Kimbrough served in the U.S. Army from 1942-46 as part of the Allied Forces’ Pacific front and returned to play pro football after World War II. He played with the Yankees until 1949, when as a 30-year-old, he suffered a heart attack.

Doctors estimated that Kimbrough had three to five years to live after that first heart attack. That was 47 years ago.

"They’ve been trying to kick dirt on me ever since that first coronary," Kimbrough said. "Then, I really baffled them when I had other heart attacks in 1959 and ’69 and still lived…. But I’m still here, and I just thank God every morning when the sun comes up and I’m around to see it."