Buffs To Relive Rashaan Salaam’s Heisman Season

BOULDER—The University of Colorado Buffaloes will relive the 1994 season of Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam throughout this season, the 20th Anniversary of his historic run to one of the most iconic trophies in all of sports. 

CU has teamed up with Tom Shanahan, a sports writer formerly from the San Diego area, who covered Salaam in high school and kept in touch with him through the years.  Shanahan and Salaam will team up weekly throughout the season for some unprecedented insight of the 1994 season.

The Buffs will also release weekly highlights from each game from the 1994 Season Highlight Film, hosted by Mark McIntosh, the sideline reporter in 1994 and a legend in the Denver Sports TV market. 

Salaam and the Buffs opened the 1994 season against Northeast Louisiana and rolled to a 48-13 victory.  The Buffs scored up seven touchdowns in the game, one in the first, three in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth.  Salaam had three of those scores, one each in the first, second and third quarters.  Salaam’s final stats that game were 24 carries for 184 yards and 3 scores while hauling in three catches for an additional 40 yards, pushing him up over 200 yards of total offense.

The 184 yards at the time was the 19th most in CU history in a game and second most in a season opener, behind a 217-yard performance by Mike Pritchard, filling in for Heisman candidate Eric Bieniemy in 1990, against Tennessee. 

After the game, Salaam said he was “satisfied” with his effort but at the same time “disappointed” that he fumbled twice after having fumbled only once the season before.  “Having 184 yards is a good number but two fumbles sure isn’t cute,” Salaam noted. 

Shanahan has already posted two stories about Salaam on his website, www.shanahanreport.com, the first dated August 18, where Salaam has some reflections of the 1994 season and even puts his top 5 preseason Heisman favorites on paper and discusses each. 

In the next story, released Monday, Salaam reflects on the 1994 Fall Camp prior to the season, where Salaam says he was “in the best shame of my life physically and with confidence.”  He states that during fall camp he had a goal of reaching 1,500 yards. 

Read both posts on Shanahan's website:

August 18: http://www.shanahanreport.com/Article/20th_anniversary%2c_Rashaan_Salaam's_Heisman_season

August 25: http://www.shanahanreport.com/Article/20th_anniversary%2c_Rashaan_Salaam's_Heisman_Trophy_season