SAD NEWS: Texas A&M star player has been confirmed dead
Darren Lewis, the all-time leading rusher for Texas A&M, passed away on Friday due to cancer, the university said. He was fifty-five.
How the university found out about Lewis’s passing was not disclosed.
Lewis is still the greatest rusher in Southwest Conference history and a two-time All-American. During his four seasons with the Aggies, he gained 5,012 yards of total running experience. His two best seasons were 1,692 yards in 1988 and 1,691 yards in 1990.
He was selected to his first All-America team in 1988 and won the Southwest Conference Player of the Year award. That season, he trailed only 2,628 yards in total rushing from Barry Sanders as the nation’s top rusher.
Nicknamed “Tank,” Lewis shattered the Southwest Conference career rushing record set by SMU’s Eric Dickerson, who ran for 4,450 yards, and was tied for seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1990. He was named an All-America selection twice that season.
The Chicago Bears selected Lewis in the sixth round of the 1991 NFL draft, and he spent three seasons with the team. When he tested positive for drugs at the league’s combine, his stock dropped in the draft.
Lewis, a native of Dallas, attended Carter High School, a prominent local school, before attending Texas A&M. For the Aggies, he had the two best rushing seasons until Trayveon Williams broke his record in 2018 with 1,760 yards gained on the ground.
At the end of his college career, Lewis had 5,012 career running yards, good for sixth place on the NCAA’s all-time rushing list.
After the Bears selected him in the draft, he never tested positive. He ran for 431 yards in 33 games, five of which he started.
After leaving football, Lewis battled a cocaine addiction, went through a divorce, and lost his home. He has served multiple jail terms; the most recent one occurred in August 2014, when he entered a guilty plea to three counts of armed robbery in the Dallas region and was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.
After receiving a cancer diagnosis while incarcerated, he was granted permission to escape to obtain treatment. He just started receiving hospice care, according to multiple
