Kenneth Hall held the national high school football record for career rushing yardage for 60 years. So it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that his Sugar Land (Texas) team holds the national record for most average yards rushing per game with 606.2 yards per game in 1953.
Hall reportedly ran for 11,232 yards in his career, a national record that lasted until Derrick Henry of
Yulee (Fla.) broke the record in 2012 with 12,124 yards. As a senior on the 1953 team, Hall rushed for 4,045 yards, which also set a national record for yards rushing in a season.
According to the National Federation of High Schools record book, Sugar Land (now
Fort Bend Dulles), also holds the record for most average yards per game thanks to 7,274 total yards in a 12-game season.
There are, however, questions surrounding the Gators' record-breaking total. For one, Sugar Land's season totals or average never appear in any news article or record book until nearly 35 years after the fact. For that matter, Hall's 11,232 yards never officially appeared in any publication until Bill McMurray published the Texas High School All-Time Sports Record Book in 1972.
Record Book: Averaging rushing yards per game — season
A look at articles from the Houston Chronicle in 1953 show complete stats for four of Sugar Land's games. In those games, the Gators are listed with the following rushing totals: 305 yards against Katy, 399 yards against Barbers Hill, 284 yards against Chester and 213 yards in the regional final against Magnolia.
That's a total of 1,201 yards in four games, or a 300-yard rushing average. The Gators would have needed to average 795 yards in the remaining eight games in order to finish the year with a 606-yard average for the season.
Unfortunately, complete stats in the other eight games never appeared in the Chronicle. The record also does not appear in McMurray's record book, so it's a record that was submitted to the NFHS record book at some point in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Who submitted it and the corroboration for the record are unknown.
That being said, we will continue to recognize Sugar Land as the record holder until further evidence determines otherwise.
If Sugar Land doesn't hold the record then
Scio (Ore.) would hold the mark. Holders of four of the top five single season team rushing totals in the state, Scio racked up 555 yards per game during an 11-1 season in 2015.
Third on the list is
Harrells Christian Academy (Harrells, N.C.), which averaged 546 yards per game in 2012. That total included an average of 755 yards per game over the final four games of the season. One of those games was an 104-80 loss to
Davidson Day (Davidson, N.C.) in which Harrells gave up a national record 837 yards passing.
