Did you know a Humboldt State University alum recently hung up his cleats a five-time champion regarded as the best quarterback in his league’s history? No? Well, that’s probably because the league in question is the somewhat obscure Indoor Football League.
Chris Dixon, an Oakland native who led the Lumberjacks to an 8-12 record in two years as a starter in 2003 and 2004, announced his retirement from the Indoor Football League last month. About a week later, the IFL’s expansion franchise, the Billings Wolves, tapped Dixon to become their next head coach.
For those unfamiliar with the IFL, Dixon is something of a big deal, having thrown for more than 25,000 yards and 600 touchdowns in his eight-year career, which saw him win five championships and take home three MVP trophies. Word that Dixon was returning to the Sioux Falls Storm earlier this year to finish up his career was met with unabashed revelry, with one story on examiner.com saying it was the football gods’ answer to fans’ prayers and referencing Dixon as “perhaps the most electrifying and prolific quarterback to ever wear a jersey in the IFL.” If you find yourself skeptical of that statement, check out the following highlight reel, which is complete with a host of touchdowns, trash talking and one line dance with cheerleaders.
Despite limited team success, Dixon posted a solid career at HSU, one that earned him all-conference honors in 2004 and a spot in HSU’s record book for most completions in a game (41, against Southern Oregon in 2003). But Dixon went undrafted by the National Football League and failed to catch on with a team, leading him to his storied IFL career.
Dixon’s IFL resume is so impressive, in fact, that it begs the question of whether he’s had the best pro sports career of anyone with Humboldt ties? Sure, Rey Maualuga and John Jaso have reached the pinnacles of their respective sports but neither has been called the most electrifying to don a jersey. If you’re looking at stats and wins as a means of comparison, you might have to drift to another slightly obscure sport to find a parallel to Dixon’s success: professional bowling.
Walter Ray Williams Jr., born in 1959 in Eureka, currently holds the all-time standard Professional Bowlers Association record for career titles (47) and total earnings ($4.4 million!), and remains active on the tour. And, if that doesn’t impress you, consider that Williams is also a nine-time world champion in the game of horseshoes.
If you know a Humboldtian with a more impressive sports resume than either Williams or Dixon, let’s hear it: Post a name in the comments section and let the debate begin.
This article appears in Busted.
This article is ridiculous. Dixon is obviously a great player at the IFL level but to say he had the best professional sports career of anyone with Humboldt ties is naive, uninformed and lazy. He plays in the IFL which isn’t even the highest level of indoor football. That would be the AFL where with a little digging you would find Maurice Purify, whose accomplishments at a higher level of competition easily outdo Dixon’s not to mention Purify has played in the NFL.
Back to Jaso and Maualuga, these guys are playing at a level where Dixon didn’t just go un-drafted, he didn’t get a sniff. They are putting together very respectable careers at the peak of competition, Dixon’s career can’t compare.
Mo Charlo, the Iorg brothers, Ned Yost, Bob Wilson, Billy Olson, Mike Pigg, Austin Nicols, Fred Hooks, just to name a few…do some more research you shouldn’t make bold statements just to make bold statements, use a little logic and have enough background knowledge to realize that the IFL barely qualifies as professional sport.
As for the bowler, he’s definitely the best bowler to ever come out of Humboldt, bowling isn’t a sport and bowlers aren’t athletes but good for him.
You’re welcome, hope you had a good day at school.
As the Bard once quoth:
“‘Tis better to have gaps in one’s knowledge of sport
Than to be a smug prick of the condescending sort.”