 Van Buren in 1948 | |||||||||||||||||||
| No. 15 | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Position: | Halfback | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born: | December 28, 1920 La Ceiba, Honduras | ||||||||||||||||||
| Died: | August 23, 2012 (aged 91) Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 200 lb (91 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||||||
| High school: | Warren Easton (New Orleans, Louisiana) | ||||||||||||||||||
| College: | LSU (1940–1943) | ||||||||||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1944 / round: 1 / pick: 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||||||
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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, through eight NFL seasons he won four NFL rushing titles, 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.