Barry Sanders at 50: Here are 20 tales about No. 20 you might not know

Dave Birkett | Detroit Free Press

No. 20 is turning 50.

And as Barry Sanders, the greatest running back in Lions history — and maybe the best professional athlete in the history of Detroit sports — hits the half-century mark, now seems like the perfect time to reflect back on his career.

From his superhuman runs to his small acts of kindness and unassuming ways, Sanders left an impression on everyone around him and everyone who saw him play.

We reached out to a few dozen of Sanders' former teammates, coaches and colleagues to get their favorite Sanders stories. Most are from Sanders' 10 years in Detroit, many you've never heard before. Here are 20 tales about No. 20's amazing career.

Taxi-cab confession

Sanders surprised just about everyone when he retired from the NFL on the eve of training camp in 1999, but it turns out his decision to leave the game wasn't a complete secret.

"We’re going out to play the Ravens (in the last game of the 1998 season) and we go grab something to eat and he’s like — we’re in the back seat of the cab; this is before Uber, right? We’re in the back seat of the cab and he says, ‘Man, I’m done.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ 'Yeah, I’m done. I’m not playing anymore.’

"For me, I was kind of taken back and I don’t know if he shared that with any of the other guys on the team, but I was assuming at the time, I’m assuming I was the only one that knew it. But it really didn’t register.

"So we’re sitting there talking and he says I’m not as into it as he once was, and he alluded to (head coach) Bobby Ross was one of the issues as to why. And so he’s like, ‘Well, you know I’m not feeling your boy.’ I’m like, ‘Who are you talking about?’ He’s like, ‘Bobby.’ ‘Coach Ross?’ ‘Yeah.’ And so we go onto the restaurant, and I’m thinking to myself, 'I guess this is it.'

"But I’m young, I’m in my third year so my career’s just getting under way and so I didn’t really think that much about it until later on like, 'That was his last game.' And I know the fans are going to be upset, the teammates are going to be upset, but I kind of had to put all into perspective and say that he’s going off on his own terms, like everybody wants to do, and this is his life and it’s not a selfish decision because this man worked his tail off to become the player that he was, and he’s brought everyone a lot of memories and he’s won a lot of games for the franchise, so he has every right to do so. So for me, I just ordered the chicken fingers and kept it moving."

— Ron Rice, Lions safety (1996-2001)

Waiting game

Sanders indicated to multiple other teammates during the 1998 season that he was considering retirement. He finally made it official by faxing a statement to his hometown paper. And while the timing was a bone of contention for some, it might not have been entirely his own doing.

"I told him, I said, 'Look, if you retire,' – cause I talked to him on the phone, cause we were at home, it wasn’t even camp yet. I said, 'If you retire, do me a favor. Wait till the last minute cause that means they have to give me a chance to start. And they won’t go out and get somebody else.' And he said, 'OK, I’ll let you know, I’ll let you know, I’ll let you know.' Shortly later he told me that he was retiring.

"I don’t know (if he waited as a favor to me). I would like to think he did."

— Ron Rivers, Lions running back (1994-99)

First impressions

Sanders signed his rookie contract days before the Lions' season opener in 1989. Still, he made a memorable debut Sept. 10 of that year, running for 71 yards and a touchdown on nine carries in a loss to the Phoenix Cardinals.

“When Barry came to camp so late his rookie year, I think it was like three or four days before our first regular season game. And (head coach) Wayne (Fontes) told me, take him down into the stadium and, quote, teach him the plays. So I put some big bags out and I said Barry, two, four, six, eight, here, just the numbers, and here’s what we look at and so on. And had no intention of putting him in a football game.

"So we’re playing the game, getting our ass beat, and in the third quarter Wayne calls me up and says, ‘Let’s put Barry in.’ I said, ‘God dang, Wayne, he only knows three plays.’ And he said, 'OK, well call those.' So we did, and I think he made 70-some yards.

"John McKay had an old saying and Wayne followed it pretty good: Don’t coach the great ones too much because you don’t want to tamper down their talent. And (his talent) was pretty obvious."

— Dave Levy, Lions assistant coach (1989-96)

Pull the plug

Of course, the Lions had an inkling Sanders was going to be pretty good. He set the NCAA rushing record in his final season at Oklahoma State and won the Heisman Trophy.

"We’re in Tokyo (for a game against Texas Tech) and they’re announcing the Heisman. ... The mechanics of that were crazy in that originally we planned to — when they made the announcement, when the Downtown Athletic Club was physically going to make the announcement, it was early in the morning in Tokyo. We’re playing about a 1 o’clock game over there, and we originally thought we had arraigned for whatever affiliate it was to send their truck to the hotel.

"Well, we’re informed that mechanically that wasn’t possible so we’re asked to get Sanders (to) downtown Tokyo at about, I don’t know what it was, probably 7:30 in the morning their time or whatever it was. It was early. Put it this way, Sanders was a hard sleeper, and of course we’re playing a game and I’m pretty sensitive about disrupting his routine and all that. And what we did was, the offensive linemen and the fullback were (his) buddies and they got a big kick out of it. I said, 'Y’all get him up, get him down here and we’ll get extra limos and take all y’all down here to this thing in downtown Tokyo.'

"So they get him down there. Like I said, it was still dark. We’re parading through downtown Tokyo in I don’t know, three or four limos, have no idea where we are, obviously. Get to the whatever building it was. They had somebody out there waiting for us. We all get on the elevators, ride up and it’s still dark. And so they had breakfast and all the stuff ready for the crew and those offensive linemen got way more of a kick out of it than Sanders did. He didn’t particularly want to be there, really. So I said, 'We’ve got to get back for pre-game meal. We’ve got pre-game meal coming up here, we’ve got to go play a game.' So they put us in a little room and Bob Costas is going to come in and he’s just going to announce it, he’s going to show (me and Barry), let Barry say thank you and then you guys are out of here. Good enough. I said we haven’t got time to do (an interview) or anything.

"So we’re sitting there in the room, and so the guy comes on. I remember it was like C. Peter Lambos, the guy that was the chair of the Heisman Trust comes on and says, 'The 1988 award winner is Oklahoma State, Barry Sanders.' That’s that picture they show him, and he kind of cuts his eyes over at me and kind of nods and says thank you and then I hear Bob Costas in my ear saying, 'Well, stay tuned. After this break we’ll come back with an interview from Barry Sanders and his coach.' Well, that wasn’t part of the plan. So I just kind of, there was a bunch of plugs in the wall so I just kind of reached down and pulled them out. And that ended that deal.

"If you would have said 'Barry you can sleep until 10 o’clock or go get the Heisman,' he probably would have picked sleep."

— Pat Jones, Oklahoma State coach (1984-94)

He got game

Sanders was an unlikely star at Oklahoma State, a lightly recruited running back out of Wichita North who picked the Cowboys over Tulsa and Iowa State. He also fashioned himself as quite the basketball player.

“When I was recruiting him it was during the start of basketball season. ... He was playing basketball but he was gimping a little bit because he had just twisted his ankle in the last football season, so he was out there bouncing the ball around by himself before practice started. I was sitting up in the stands up on the bleachers and I said, 'Barry, can you dunk it?' He said, ‘Well, yeah.’ I’m going, ‘Nooo.’ He was barely 5-8, and so (he) backs off. I said, 'Well, you got that bad ankle.' He said, 'It’ll be OK.' So he started right above the cone up there and dribbled and he can dunk. And I’m going, 'Oooh. I think we’re going to take this kid.' I already made up my mind we were, but I didn’t realize he had that kind of vertical."

— George Walstad, Oklahoma State assistant (1983-94)

'Send them the highlights'

Sanders was a bit of a trailblazer, leaving school early as part of the first group of underclassmen who were granted "hardship" exemptions for the NFL draft.

"Barry decided to challenge the NFL on their rule of not allowing juniors to enter the draft. Before he could play for the Lions he had to first be drafted and before that time juniors couldn’t be entered in. We sat down with him to map out a legal strategy so that the NFL would change their minds. So we sit down with Barry, 'Here’s what we’re up against, and if we lose this petition then you can’t play. You have to do something else because once you sign with an agent you can’t play collegiately. So we’ll get this petition ready, we’ll file it.'

"So Barry said, ‘Well, let me ask you this: They’re not questioning whether or not I can play, are they?’ I said, 'No.' He said, 'Oh, OK. Then I’m sure that they’ll let me in, and if not just send them the highlights.' And I just thought that was typical Barry, like, 'You guys aren’t serious? You’re not going to keep me out because of some artificial rule. Take a look at the highlights.' "

— David Ware, Sanders' agent

First-and-10

Sanders entered the final week of his rookie season neck-and-neck with the Chiefs' Christian Okoye for the rushing title. The Lions had a special phone line installed in the press box to monitor Okoye's carries, and when Okoye's game in Kansas City ended, Sanders trailed by just 10 yards. But given the chance to pile up yards late in a win over the Falcons late, Sanders declined an offer to re-enter the game.

"He rushed for (158) yards and then they pulled Barry out of the game and you look up at the scoreboard and Christian Okoye just finished their game in Kansas City and is (10) yards ahead of Barry for the rushing title in the NFL. And Wayne Fontes and some people came, ‘Barry, you want to go in and get your (11) yards, get your title?’ He just said, ‘No, let the other guy play.’ I mean, think about that. There’s got to be a pretty nice bonus attached to winning the rushing title, and he says, 'No, let the other guy go ahead and play.'

"I went up to him myself. Wayne went up to him. When I sat next to him I said, 'Hey Barry, you sure you don’t want the rushing title? He goes, ‘Nah, that’s OK.’ I’m like 'OK, that’s Barry.' He wasn’t one to love the limelight. He was not that kind of a guy. He’d rather see someone else shine. That’s truly the humility and the humbleness of Barry Sanders. And I get tickled just talking about him because I just love the guy."

— Bob Gagliano, Lions quarterback (1989-90)

Watch this

At the team hotel before that 1989 season finale against the Falcons, Sanders went room-by-room to surprise each of his offensive linemen with a gift — only one of his blockers always cabbed to games early with Chris Spielman and nearly missed out on the thank-you of a lifetime.

“Before the game, Barry came by and I was sitting in my locker with my music on. He threw a box at me and I threw it in the top of the locker and I never even knew what it was till after the game. Some teammates said, 'Hey, did you see what Barry gave you?' I totally forgot about it and almost left it in the locker room in Atlanta, a Presidential Rolex watch. I took that thing out after I went back to my locker and went, 'Oh my gosh.' It was just stuffed in the top, I just threw it in the top of the locker and probably would have left it, but it was a really special gift and it expressed how Barry was as a person and his appreciation and gratitude and it was a really cool moment as well. So that Atlanta trip had a couple of those special Barry moments in it.

“Special guy and we were lucky in Detroit to experience his career."

— Ken Dallafior, Lions offensive lineman (1989-92)

Must-see TV

It wasn't just during his rookie season that Sanders took care of his linemen.

“I know in (1994), he rushed for close to 1,900 yards, I can’t remember the exact number. I think it was 1,880-something (1,883 yards). But for all the starting linemen he wanted to get us Rolexes. And myself, Doug Widell and Lomas Brown, the three of us were all building houses during that year, so the three of us got together and went to Barry and said we’ll save you a little money. Lomas already had a Rolex, Doug and I did not see ourselves really needing a Rolex, and we approached him and said, 'Why don’t you just buy us big-screen TVs for the homes we’re building and we’ll call it even.' And that’s what he did. He bought everybody else Rolexes and got us great, big fancy Mitsubishi big screens, the best money could buy. Of course, you needed a truck back then to haul them cause they weighed so much. I’m sure Doug and Lomas enjoyed theirs like I did mine, but mine finally gave out. So that’s the only regret I’ve got is I should have got a Rolex cause I’d still have that memory."

— Dave Lutz, Lions offensive lineman (1993-95)

Shoe game

While Sanders spent lavishly on others, he rarely did so on himself. Teammates joked he never wore clothes he didn't get free from his Nike contract, and even some freebies he turned down.

“Some guys can have that kind of stardom and it can change him. It never did with him. I can remember being at a minicamp in Florida, I think we were in the Tampa-St. Pete area in minicamp and we had some extra time, so he and I went to do a little shopping. Just kind of walking the mall and doing a little shopping. We had a chance to sit down and eat. And of course it’s hard to eat when you’re with him. People looking and you can hear all the murmuring. Folks were hesitant to come over and ask for autographs. A few people did, and of course he obliged.

"So we went on to do some more shopping and we went into like a sporting goods store. So we were looking around and of course one of the workers recognized who he was and the manager comes out, and the manager says to him, ‘I’ll tell you what, if you see anything in here you like, you can pick it out, you can have it.’ He said, ‘But I would love it if you did one thing for me. Let me have your shoes and you sign them.' He had on a regular pair of old K-Swiss sneakers from that time. And well, we were looking around and looking at shoes and I was like, 'Barry, I really like those.' And he was like, ‘Yeah, you like them?’ I was like, 'Yeah, they’re nice. You should get them.'

"So of course, the guy was going to let him have the shoes and I think the shoes were probably about $180, sneakers. So I was like, 'Barry, if it were me, I’d have those shoes.' So Barry goes, 'Nah, I kind of like the ones I have on.' So he just signed a pair of shoes from the store for the guy and kept his shoes and was jut like, 'Nah, I like these.' I just thought that was so cool cause he could have taken the shoes and whatever. He was like, 'Nah, I like my shoes. Here I’ll sign something for you.' He’s just that kind of guy."

— Carl Painter, Lions running back (1988-89)

The impostor

One of Sanders' big splurges came on a used Jaguar, a car one teammate joked he might still have today.

"My most memorable story is the day I didn’t have my car. So I was young, maybe my second year there and I’m waiting for my car to be shipped out there. And I go, 'Barry, man, I need a car, bro. I need a car.' He said, 'I’ll let you use the Jaguar.' I said, ‘What?’ 'Yeah, I’ll let you use the Jag. You can use the Jag. It’s not a big deal.’ I said, ‘The big boat?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you can ride in the boat.’

"So I’m driving, I’m driving down the street, coming out of practice. Maybe 20 minutes from the house or 10 minutes from the house and I get pulled over. I said, ‘Damn, what did I do?’ I said, ‘Man, was I speeding or something?’ And he’s like, ‘Man, you look a little different.’ I go, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he goes, ‘You’re not Barry.’ I said, ‘No, I’m Ron.’ I think he was pulling me over to get his autograph. I just thought it was the funniest thing. I said, ‘Man, I almost gave somebody your autograph, bro, for you.’"

— Ron Rivers

'He cared'

Off the field, Sanders had his own, quiet way of being there for people in times of need. Example 1:

"(He) was the (second) visitor I had when I was in the hospital (with a spinal cord injury). The (second teammate to visit). Barry came in, Barry didn’t say much, he came in, he sat down, ate a bunch of chocolate for about 10, 15, 20 minutes, looked at me as best he could, me sitting with my halo, and smiled and nodded and walked out.

"You know what that showed? He cared. And he knew I wasn’t one of them kind of guys that needed your hand held or anything like this, he does things by example. And that’s a class act, in my opinion."

— Mike Utley, Lions offensive lineman (1989-91)

Hug it out

Example 2:

"I had about 10 to 12 guys that (I was friends with who) had cerebral palsy. Some of them had wheelchairs, some of them could walk. They’d come to see me like on a Monday and Barry was lurking around or something. But anyway, one of them had a birthday up at the Main Event (restaurant at the Silverdome). I didn’t ask Barry, I didn’t say anything to him. I guess he found out, he’d always talk to them, and he showed up there. The guy’s name was Kyle, and Kyle, he was so appreciative. His arms and legs didn’t work but his mind was sharp. Barry came over, gave him a little hug and he was off and out of the Main Event.'

— Ron Hughes, Lions scout/executive (1982-2001)

Barry on the big screen

Sanders was a captivating runner, as even defensive players attest.

"What I vividly remember is we would come off, the defensive line, and you’d sit on the bench, you’d be taking a blow, and (defensive line coach) Lamar Leachman, God rest his soul, he’d be sitting there and he’d be barking all the orders for the next series. So he’s barking all these orders, barking all these orders, barking all these orders, and he’d look up and not one freaking person was looking at him. We were all looking at the Jumbotron looking at Barry. And he’d start (yelling), ‘Look at me! Look at me!’ And we’d be going, 'We’ve got to see this. This is a show, man. This is a show he’s putting on right here.' Cause you didn’t want to be the guy almost like to miss the next great run, as crazy as that sounds."

— Marc Spindler, Lions defensive lineman (1990-94, 97-98)

'He's magnificent'

Sometimes, even coaches were mesmerized by Sanders' greatness.

"We had hired Marc Trestman to coach our quarterbacks and Marc had never seen Barry play or anything of that nature. We got into the game and the first carry of Barry, Marc starts going, ‘Oh my God. My God. What? What?’ I said, ‘Marc, are you all right? What’s wrong?’ I’m on the phone with him. ‘Are you OK? Is everything all right?’ ‘Coach,’ he said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that in my entire life.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Barry. He’s great. He’s magnificent.’ I said, ‘Well, welcome to the Barry Sanders fan club cause he is fantastic and magnificent.’

"From that point on I didn’t get any more reaction from him cause he was alert on the phone and realized what happened to him. But true story. And of course Barry was — I don’t say anything when I say he made a wonderful contribution to our program to anybody else who had the good fortune to coach him. Very, very special. Wonderful. I’ve never coached a player where I felt like every time he touched the ball he would score. I never felt that way, but we did. He was that kind of player."

— Bobby Ross, Lions coach (1997-2000)

Extra, extra

As talented as he was, Spindler and others said Sanders' work ethic is truly what set him apart.

"It was the last week of the ’96 season and we were finishing the year at San Francisco on a Monday night, and it was Friday and were flying out Saturday. ... Right before practice I got a call from (Associated Press writer Dave Goldberg) in New York that Barry had been selected All-Pro again, another unanimous selection to the All-Pro team. And they were going to release it I believe around 5 o’clock that afternoon. So I was asked to get a couple quotes from Barry to use in the story. So I ran down to the locker room and it was before practice, he was getting ready to head out, and I told him and he said, 'OK, I’ll get you right after practice.' So we agreed to meet right after practice.

“Practice ends and Wayne was doing some media on the field and was dealing with that and then I came into the locker room looking for Barry. By that time a lot of the guys had left already for the day and Barry’s clothes were still in his locker, so I checked the training room, meeting rooms, couldn’t find him. Then I thought, he’s not back out on the field doing an interview? So went back out and the field was empty. So now I’m thinking maybe he forgot. I’ve got to help with these quotes for the story that’s running later that day. ... So I walked down the tunnel again toward the field, and then for some reason I decided to check our weight room, which was underneath the stands right off the tunnel and I opened the door and I could hear the weights in the weight room. And there’s one guy in there. And it’s Barry. He’s getting a workout in.

"He said give me a half hour, 45 minutes, whatever it was. I said, 'OK, I’ll come back down.' So I get back down there a few minutes ahead of time of when he said he’d be done, and the locker room is dark by this time, there’s nobody around. So I go down to the (weight) room, it’s dark. So I go back and check his locker, his clothes are still in there and now I’m convinced he’s just hiding or he headed home. ... So I just decide to walk out onto the field, just through the doors. It’s the last week remember, and it’s this dark, cold, dreary, gray day, so by this time all the lights in the Silverdome are turned off. They have safety lights on so it has a real eerie atmosphere. And I walk through the tunnel door and there’s a single solitary figure running gassers on the field, Barry Sanders. ... To me, that's the greatness of Barry Sanders."

— Bill Keenist, Lions' public relations executive/team historian (1986-present)

Bottomless pit

Along with his work ethic, Sanders was famous among teammates for his prodigious appetite.

"The dude can eat. I don’t really understand or know if people understand just how much that man can consume. So you know he used to come over to my house every Thanksgiving and my ex-wife used to set out a spread, and I remember this one particular Thanksgiving, Barry came over and he got there a little late, but when he came to the house he had a box of ice cream sandwiches, and it was either a box of 12 or six, but when he walked in the house there was only two of them left. And I’m looking at him and I’m like, 'What in the world?' I said 'OK, he’s not going to be ready to eat so we might as well proceed to eat without him.'

"Do you know he sat down and he ate with us like he had never eaten. I mean, it’s just unbelievable the appetite this guy has. He was like a stray. Once you feed him, it’s hard to get rid of him. Every time you turn around, there’s Barry at the house, ready to eat. So I just kind of remember how he used to eat me out of house and home, especially when he first got to Detroit. When he didn’t really have family, he used to be over there all the time eating."

— Lomas Brown, Lions offensive lineman (1985-95)

Sleeping beauty

Sanders also was known for his ability to dose off anywhere. In the locker room before games, on the plane for road trips and in meetings watching film. Painter said he carried an ice pack to meetings to put on Sanders' neck in the event he fell asleep, and Gagliano said he and Sanders took naps in a darkened training room before games.

"Barry used to be like almost comatose before games and getting ready for games. So a lot of times on my way out for the game, we would have to wake him up cause he would be laying by his locker and he would be knocked out. He would be asleep. And I’m talking about everybody else is getting their juices revved up and you’re ready to go and Wayne done gave you this power speech and you’re trying to tear the walls down, and you’ve got No. 20, the little fella, the midget, he’s laying over there with a towel over his head, knocked completely out. I mean, he’d be out so much we’d have to go by and shake him, ‘B, it’s time to go.’

“So I just set that up to tell you, there was one particular game, and I can’t remember it, but you know how Barry always used to come to the sideline and he would never take his helmet off. One particular game, he was sitting there on the sideline asleep. With his helmet on. I promise you, you can ask four or five guys. You can ask Kevin Glover, you can ask Brett Perriman. He was on the sideline sitting on the bench asleep during an NFL game. And I’m talking about, it wasn’t the first half of this game. I think we were in the second half of this game and this man is sitting on the bench asleep with his helmet on. It was just unbelievable how he could take it from zero to 60 just like that."

— Lomas Brown

'Golden feet'

Sanders became the third player in NFL history to run for 2,000 yards in the final game of the 1997 season, and naturally he gave one of the game's most coveted artifacts to a teammate.

"I have the shoes that he rushed for 2,000 yards in. And I had him sign them, at his locker, take them off, sign them, date them, and I have those, so that’s probably my most coveted prize of my career. My Pro Bowl jerseys and all that’s cool, but I got Barry Sanders’ 2,000-yard shoes that he rushed in, that came off of the man’s golden feet.

“He was probably so excited about the 2,000 I could have probably handed him a check and said, 'Hey man, sign this check.' But I know everybody was very jubilant and it was exciting. It was kind of twofold because of what happened with Reggie (Brown suffering a spinal cord injury), but I remember, I just kind of casually leaned over cause he was only a couple lockers down and said, 'Hey man, let me get those shoes.' And he kindly took them off and I had him sign them like a fan, because I became — I’m a Barry fan. And him sign it big-eyed like anybody else. And he signed them and gave them to me and I felt honored. And to this day, just have them and I really protect them."

— Herman Moore, Lions wide receiver (1991-2001)

Why Detroit?

Sanders was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004, and while the day was about him, he still did his best to stay in the background.

"He wasn’t only elusive on the field, he was elusive in public. Because that guy could hide in a crowd better than anybody I’ve ever seen. ... We went to his Hall-of-Fame induction and we went up to Canton and it was the day before the actual induction so they had all the former Hall-of-Fame winners on risers in front of the Hall, and then one by one the new inductees came up. And (John) Elway came in a limousine, and (someone else) came in a limousine. They all came in limousines. And all of a sudden they’re standing there and you could hear them say, ‘Where’s Barry?’ And pretty soon, here comes Barry, walking up the hill all by himself, and he stands in the front row with these other guys. And the women in front of us behind the ropes said to her husband, ‘Who’s that little guy? What’s he doing in there?’ Those are some of the memorable things. I’ll tell you what, he was absolutely a perfect gentleman to my assistant and myself. He never gave us a problem."

— Kent Falb, Lions trainer (1966-2000)

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!