The Greatest Natural Born athlete ever?

I was only 8 years old when Herschel Walker stood the NCAA football world on its head in 1980. To be honest with you at that age football for me was nothing more than an afterthought in my weekend routine growing up. But as I grew older and became an avid fan of Georgia Bulldog Football I found myself wanting to know everything I could about it. The tradition, the players, the coaches, the record books, the legends, the stories, the fans, the redcoats, the chapel bell, Herty Field, and the like. The 1980 season unlike any other up until the Destiny's Dawgs of 2002 was the modern day centerpiece in Georgia's fine football legacy. The centerpiece of this team was a young freshman from Wrightsville,GA who went by the name Herschel Walker.

Lets face it, in 1980 there where not year round conditioning programs in-place in college football for the most part. There were no personal trainers, multi-million dollar weight rooms or anything even close. But yet when Herschel arrived on campus it looked like he had been sent back from the future. Here he was this specimen of a human being, born with a true gift way ahead of his time. He was a man among men, look at some of the game tapes from 1980 and see for yourself. Or just simply look at the above picture which to me is the most startling picture of all the Herschel pictures in existence. He looks so out of place in that picture it aint even funny.

Certainly there have been some great backs that have played the game at both levels. Jim Brown comes to mind as another guy who arrived into the NFL way ahead of everyone else from an athletic standpoint. Bo Jackson, Lionel Little Train James, Gale Sayers, Walter Peyton, Barry Sanders, Earl Cambell, Tony Dorsett, and many many others made their mark on the position as well. But I would argue that none of them did it with the brutal smoothness and glide that Herschel Walker did from 1980-1982. He is in my opinion the Greatest Natural Born athlete ever.