When
Damon Martin of
Poland (Maine) returned a fumble 107 yards for a touchdown last week in a 48-25 win over Madison, it prompted the question from MaxPreps reader Miguel Cyr: "Is there a record for longest fumble return?"
Good question.
Martin's 107-yard return found its way into the national spotlight when MaxPreps highlighted it in a top plays segment (see the video embedded in the article). The return was one of three on the night for Martin, who also had a 56-yard interception return and a 44-yard fumble return to go along with 5-yard and 15-yard scoring runs on offense.
Where Martin's 107-yard return ranks on the state level is an easy question to answer. Nobody knows. Maine does not have an official state record book. Answering the question on a national level gets a little trickier.
About 40 of the 50 states have state association football record books or record books by non-association affiliated websites. Less than half of those record books have "longest return" categories. Even those that do have those categories don't necessarily have "longest fumble return." The NFHS record book also does not have any "longest return" categories and neither does the MaxPreps National High School Football Record Book.
Until now.
After some research via the aforementioned state football record books and a deep dive into Newspapers.com, MaxPreps has come up with, what is believed to be, the longest all-time plays in seven categories.
It should be noted that high school football prior to 1912 was played on fields that were 110 yards long, thus allowing for returns of up to 119 yards and offensive runs and passes of up to 109 yards. Newspaper accounts in the early 1900s also did not use first names in stories on a regular basis and accounts of the long returns were often vague with little description.
Here's a look at the longest plays of all-time.
Longest run from scrimmage
While we didn't find any runs from scrimmage of 109 yards, we did find two runs of 108 yards.
In Texas on Oct. 21, 1910, Neal of
Navasota ran 108 yards for his team's only touchdown in a 5-5 tie game against
Bryan (touchdowns were worth five points back then). The article in the Houston Post did not specify the type of run Neal made.
A year later, on Nov. 10, 1911, Guy Lee of Volkmann (Boston, Mass.) ran 108 yards for a touchdown in a 17-0 win over Browne and Nichols. Volkmann eventually merged with Nobles and Greenough School.
Two players were found with runs of 107 yards. Ballard of
Santa Ana (Calif.) had a "107-yard run" in a 29-6 win over Whittier on Dec. 6, 1907. Meanwhile Broderick of East Minneapolis ran for 107 yards in a 23-0 win over Central Minneapolis on Oct. 28, 1904.
Longest pass from scrimmage
Only one player was found to have caught a 109-yard pass. On Oct. 28, 1910 in a 35-5 win for Grant County (Okla.) over Byron, Slaughter reportedly caught a "delayed pass" (likely a screen pass) and went 109 yards for the score.
Longest fumble return by offense
One of the more unique plays in high school history occurred in California on Oct. 10, 1969. Cubberly (Palo Alto) quarterback Terremere Field threw a backward pass to running back Chris Fleming but the ball went over Fleming's head and landed on the ground.
Play stopped and Fleming even kicked at the ball in disgust, putting it into the end zone. However the whistle had not blown and the officials were not picking up the ball. Cubberly's center Art Kuehn alertly retrieved the ball one yard away from the back of the end zone and made his way upfield. According to an account in the Peninsula Times Tribune, no one noticed the 235-pound center had the ball.
"No one noticed him until he was at midfield," Cubberly coach John Second said. "By then it was too late."
Longest kickoff return
At least three players have returned kickoffs 110 yards for touchdowns. The first was by Walt Eckersall of
Hyde Park (Chicago, Ill.). One of the top players in the country in 1902, Eckersall returned a kickoff 110 yards in a win over Chicago South. A few years later while playing at the University of Chicago, Eckersall also had a 107-yard kickoff return.
In November of 1910, St. Mary's Institute defeated
St. Xavier (Cincinnati, Ohio) behind a 110-yard kickoff return by Hart.
The third 110-yard kickoff return came from Captain Kincaid of
Chelsea (Mass.), who returned the kick on Nov. 18, 1904, in a 6-0 win over Mechanics Arts in Massachusetts.
Longest interception return
While we found at least 20 accounts of players returning interceptions 109 yards for a touchdown, we did find one 110-yard interception return.
In the final 15 seconds of a game between
Laurens (S.C.) and Greenwood on Oct. 15, 1910, Todd, the Laurens fullback, reportedly intercepted a Greenwood pass and ran 110 yards with it, but he did not score.
Instead, the Greenwood center caught Todd near the 5-yard line. Laurens scored on the next play to make the final score 17-5.
109-yard runs
On a sidenote, there are a number of players who reportedly had 109-yard runs. While officially these were all 99-yard runs, they all involved the runner retreating deep into the end zone before breaking loose for the long run.
Red Harp of
Pineville (Ky.) ran 109 yards from short punt formation on Nov. 8, 1933 in 6-0 win.
Mullins of
Woodford County (Versailles, Ky.) ran 109 in punt formation in 33-6 win over College of Bowling Green on Nov. 8, 1935.
Cal Stukel of
Gregory (S.D.) had a 109-yard run while attempting a pass deep in his own end zone in the final 20 seconds of a 21-14 win over Vermillion on Oct. 24, 1958.
Perry Mason of
Monroe (Mich.) tied Wyandotte 6-6 when he ran nine yards behind own goal, dodged the secondary and went 109 yards for the touchdown.
Jerome "Cowboy" Szafran of St. Joseph (Oil City, Pa.) took the center snap deep in end zone and went 109 yards for the touchdown on Sept. 20, 1940.
Loy Dale Wright of
Wasco (Calif.) scored both touchdowns in a 13-13 tie with the Bakersfield Reserves on Nov. 14, 1941. He had a 109-yard run when he took the ball in punt formation and raced to the end zone. He also added an 85-yard interception return for a score.
Angelo Errichetti of
Camden (N.J.) led his team to a 19-13 win over New Brunswick when he took the ball from short punt formation and went 109 yards on Nov. 14, 1945.
Florian Helinski of
Hurley (Wis.) took the snap one foot from the back of the end zone on Oct. 21, 1949, to score the winning touchdown in a 26-20 victory.
Harold Jacobs of
Tucumcari (N.M.) had a 109-yard run in a 21-14 win over Artesia on Sept. 17, 1949.
Lindon Crow of
Corcoran (Calif.) ran 109 yards from short punt formation in a 22-14 win over Dinuba on Oct. 14, 1950. Crow went on to play 10 years in the NFL and made the Pro Bowl three times.
Then there is the story of Jimmy Kishaba of
Farrington (Honolulu, Hawaii). In a 39-7 loss to
Punahou (Honolulu) on Nov. 12, 1955, Kishaba was back to return a kickoff when the kick deflected off his hands at the goal line. From there the ball bounced off the goal posts (goal posts were at the goal line, not the back of the end zone then), and rolled to the back of the end zone.
Kishaba retrieved the ball, avoided an army of Buff ‘N Blue defenders, was hit several times, eluded other tackles, found his way to the far sideline and was off on a 109-yard touchdown run.
Except that Kishaba gassed out around the 20 yard line and was caught at the one-foot line by the Punahou kicker. Kishaba got the ball on the next play, but the Punahou defense pushed the tired Farrington running back several yards. Farrington did score on the next play but Kishaba did not carry the ball.
Longest fumble return by defense
The two longest plays in high school football history are believed to be 115-yard fumble returns.
In Kansas,
Louisburg defeated
Paola 16-0 in November of 1903. Breck McCarter had the big play as he "secured the ball and made a 115-yard run." Based on the context of the story, it is believed that "secured the ball" refers to a fumble recovery by McCarter.
Finally, in a game played Oct. 15, 1906, Ricker (Litchfield, Maine) was driving toward Calais' end zone when it fumbled on the five-yard line. Anderson of
Calais (Maine) picked up the loose ball and "made a brilliant 115-yard run up the field securing the first touchdown," according to the Bangor Daily News. Ricker ended up winning the game, however, 10-6.
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Thus the answer to Cyr's original question is yes, and it looks like it happened in Litchfield, just 50 miles and nearly 118 years to the day away from Martin's "Play of the Week" fumble return in Poland.
