GumboBC

He was Jake before there was a Jake.

Stan Humphries is the forgotten quarterback from Louisiana. If you ask sports fans from Louisiana to name their top-10 quarterbacks from their home state, it's very doubtful the name Stan Humphries will come up. But, Stan was Jake Delhomme before there was a Jake Delhomme.

Stan Humphries:

A native of Shreveport, a city that produced pro quarterbacks like Terry Bradshaw and Joe Ferguson, Humphries earned All-America honors at Southwood High School after passing for nearly 3,500 yards and 34 touchdowns in two seasons. Heavily recruited, he signed with LSU.


However, Humphries transferred to ULM prior to the 1986 season and immediately brought firepower to the Indian offense. In 1986, he guided the Indians to a second place finish in the Southland Conference, passing for 1,773 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior.


That was just a prelude to what Humphries would do in 1987. As a senior, he passed for 2,622 yards and 18 touchdowns to earn All-America honors and Louisiana Player of the Year. But what Humphries did for his team in big games is what is best remembered. In four playoff games, he threw for 1,397 yards (349.3 yards per game) and 11 touchdowns. In a second round playoff win over Eastern Kentucky he completed 33-of-51 passes for a then school-record 486 yards which included 372 yards of total offense in the second half as the Indians won 33-32.


In the National Championship game, Humphries completed 26-of-43 passes for 436 yards in guiding ULM to its 43-42 win over Marshall in Pocatello, Idaho.


In two years, Humphries had amassed 4,395 passing yards and 29 touchdowns at ULM, numbers that still rank fourth all-time. Currently, his marks of 300-yard games (six) and 250-yard passing games (13), continue to stand as school records.


That standout career led to Humphries being drafted in the sixth round by the Washington Redskins in 1988. What followed was a 10-year NFL career that included 81 starts in 88 games; 1,431-of-2,516 passing (56.9 percent), for over 17,000 yards and 89 touchdowns. And he continued to show the ability to make his teammates better, guiding his teams to a 50-31 (61.7) record during his starts and quarterbacking the Chargers to two Western Division titles (1992, 1994) and one AFC Championship (1995).


Humphries was out of football for a year when he agreed to coach for the first time at his alma mater. It's a decision that he has enjoyed.


Humphries was inducted into the ULM Hall of Fame in 1994 and in 1995 became one of only two players to have their ULM numbers retired.

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Unfortunately, Stan would never lead the Chargers back to the playoffs after his 1995 loss to the San Francisco 49'ers and would be out of football altogether in 1998.

San Diego- Stan Humphries 1995
1995 San Diego Chargers 282 478 59.0 3381 7.1 17 14 – 1995 Super Bowl Loser.
2003 Carolina Panthers 266 449 59.2 3219 7.1 19 16 – 2003 Super Bowl Loser.

kenpersons

Stan Humphries would have been on my list, no doubt. He was tough as nails. Wasn\'t it concussions that did him in? Has there been a top ten quarterbacks from Louisiana topic? Care to start one? Would it be quarterbacks born in Louisiana, or QB\'s that played college there, how would you stipulate those eligible?

GumboBC

Well, lets see, Ken

You\'ve got: Terry Bradshaw, Bert Jones, Joe Ferguson, Doug Williams, Stan Humphries, Bobby Hebert, Tim Rattay, Patrick Ramsey, Jake Delhomme, Kordell Stewart.

Man, that was tough!! I\'m sure I left someone out and probably put a couple that shouldn\'t be on there??

Oh, Peyton and Eli Manning.

[Edited on 11/7/2004 by GumboBC]

kenpersons

Tim Rattay and Luke McCown are two of my all time favorite quarterbacks from Louisiana, being they played at La Tech and lit it up while there. But Rattay was born in Ohio, and McCown in Texas, I think. And are we talking NFL productivity can it be just college?

GumboBC

Let\'s say the criteria has to be:

a.) they have to be raised in Louisiana

Or

b.) they had to play their entire college career in Louisiana.

[Edited on 11/7/2004 by GumboBC]

kenpersons

And if it\'s either born in Louisiana or played college/pro ball in Louisiana, there\'s also YA Tittle, and I don\'t know where he was born but I just learned he played at LSU.

If you look at college career only then Tommy Hodson deserves a mention as does Herb Tyler and Shaun King (you can say what you want about the schedule, Tulane undefeated was a great accomplishment).

If Hal Mumme keeps it up in Hammond then sooner or later he\'ll put a candidate on the list but there\'s no telling how long that will be.

And if you don\'t have to be born in Louisiana to be on the list, you forgot Archie.

It\'s not a question of whether or not the Saints will win the Super Bowl this year. It\'s a question of which Saint will be the MVP of the game.

What do you mean I\'m not supposed to snort the granola?

kenpersons

D\'oh, you posted that while I was editing mine. Ah well.