I’ve watched a lot of football in my life.

I’ve seen some unbelievable WPIAL running backs come through Western Pennsylvania. I’ve watched future NFL players, All-Americans and guys who could completely take over a Friday night.

But when somebody asks me about the best running back duo I’ve ever seen? I don’t have to think very long.

DeWayne Thompson and Vic Strader at Penn Hills.

And to me, their names will always be connected.

You can’t mention DeWayne without me thinking about Vic. You can’t mention Vic without DeWayne coming right behind it. They were different runners, different personalities and eventually took different paths after Penn Hills.

But during the mid-1990s? They were a package.

And I don’t think people today fully understand how good those two were.

 

Two 1,600-Yard Backs in the Same Backfield

Start right there.

In 1995, Penn Hills went 15-0, won the WPIAL Class AAAA championship and then won the PIAA state championship.

DeWayne Thompson rushed for 1,699 yards and 25 touchdowns. Vic Strader rushed for 1,600 yards and 17 touchdowns.

On the same team.

Think about that.

We’re not talking about one featured back getting 1,600 yards while another guy occasionally came in to give him a break.

Penn Hills basically had two feature backs. Two guys capable of being the main man. Two guys defenses had to account for. And neither needed 30 carries every Friday night to put up numbers.

That’s what makes their individual statistics even crazier. They were splitting the football with each other.

 

I’ve Always Wondered What Their Numbers Would Have Looked Like Apart

This is something I’ve thought about over the years.

What if DeWayne Thompson had been the only great running back in that Penn Hills backfield? What if Vic Strader had been somewhere where he got almost every carry? What would those numbers have looked like? How much bigger would each name be historically?

Because when you’re sharing carries with another Division I-caliber running back, somebody is taking yards and touchdowns away from somebody.

Not intentionally. That’s just football.

If one guy has 25 carries, the other guy can’t have those same 25 carries.

Put either one of those dudes in a backfield by himself and we’re probably talking about some ridiculous individual seasons.

Instead, they sacrificed some statistics because Penn Hills had something more valuable: Two killers in the same backfield.

 

They Had Been Doing It Together Since They Were Kids

That’s another reason the combination worked.

This wasn’t two star running backs thrown together in high school and asked to figure out how to share the football.

They grew up together. They played midget football together. They had already been sharing the backfield before Penn Hills.

When I talked to DeWayne about it, he told me there was never an ego problem between them. If Vic was rolling, DeWayne could stand on the sideline and genuinely enjoy watching him. If DeWayne came in and broke one, Vic was rooting for him.

They pushed each other. There was competition, but it was healthy competition.

That’s rare.

Especially when you’re dealing with two teenagers who both know they’re good enough to be the star.

 

And They Were Different

That’s what made the combination so dangerous. You weren’t watching the same running back twice.

DeWayne brought his style. Vic brought his.

Thompson could punish you and had the speed to finish runs. Strader was electric. DeWayne himself described Vic to me as being “like a magician with the ball in his hands.”

That’s coming from the guy who was sharing carries with him. Think about how much respect you have to have for another running back to say that.

Defenses couldn’t relax when Penn Hills substituted.

Usually when the starting running back comes out, everybody gets a little break. Not against Penn Hills. One Division I back came out and another one came in.

Good luck.

 

That 1995 Team Was Built for Them

People who only know modern football might look at the passing statistics from that team and think there’s a typo.

There isn’t.

Penn Hills quarterback Len Gilmer attempted only 57 passes the entire 1995 season.

Fifty-seven.

Penn Hills didn’t need to throw it all over the field. Why would you?

They had a tremendous offensive line and Thompson and Strader behind it.

Everybody knew Penn Hills wanted to run the football. Everybody prepared to stop the run. Everybody loaded up to stop the run.

And Penn Hills ran it anyway.

That’s old-school Western Pennsylvania football. We’re going to tell you what we’re doing.

Now stop it.

Nobody did.

 

15-0. WPIAL Champions. State Champions.

This is what separates them from simply being two great backs with great statistics.

They won everything.

Penn Hills finished 15-0 in 1995. They beat Upper St. Clair 20-13 for the WPIAL Class AAAA championship. Then they beat Lower Dauphin 35-14 to capture the PIAA championship.

That Penn Hills team remains one of the greatest football teams in school history and, in my opinion, one of the greatest WPIAL teams ever.

And Thompson and Strader were right in the middle of it.

They weren’t putting up numbers for an average team. They were the running back combination for an undefeated state champion.

 

Then Came 1996

And this is where the story gets even more interesting.

Penn Hills brought so much talent back that USA Today ranked us No. 1 in the country to start the 1996 season.

Not No. 1 in the WPIAL. Not No. 1 in Pennsylvania.

No. 1 in the United States.

The defending state champions had won 19 straight games, and among the returning players USA Today specifically pointed to were Division I prospects Ron Graham, DeWayne Thompson and Vic Strader.

That’s how Penn Hills football was viewed nationally.

People today hear Penn Hills was No. 1 in the country and sometimes don’t understand how serious that was.

This was before social media.

There weren’t a million websites creating rankings. If USA Today had your high school sitting at No. 1 in America, you had a football team.

 

1996 Is the Great “What If?”

This is where I think history changed the way Thompson and Strader are remembered.

Penn Hills didn’t repeat. Woodland Hills won the WPIAL Class AAAA championship in 1996.

And because Penn Hills didn’t win another WPIAL and state championship, I don’t think that two-year run gets discussed nationally the way it would have if they had finished the job again.

Imagine the alternative.

Penn Hills wins back-to-back WPIAL championships. Back-to-back PIAA championships. The 1995 team goes 15-0. The 1996 team starts the season No. 1 in America and finishes with another championship.

Now we’re having a completely different historical conversation.

That group becomes one of those teams people around Pennsylvania talk about forever. And Thompson and Strader probably become even bigger names when people discuss the greatest backfields in state history.

That’s how thin the line can be between being remembered as great and becoming almost mythical.

 

DeWayne Became a Fab 22 Player

Thompson eventually earned a spot on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s 1996 Fab 22.

Look at some of the names on that team.

LaVar Arrington. Mike McMahon. Kevan Barlow. William Peterson. Jason Murray. Matt Gavrish. And DeWayne Thompson.

That’s serious company.

He went on to play Division I football at Rutgers.

Vic was also a major college prospect and earned all-state recognition during his Penn Hills career.

Again, these weren’t just two good high school running backs who benefited from a dominant offensive line. These were legitimate college-level athletes sharing the same position in the same backfield.

 

Sometimes Sharing the Spotlight Makes History Forget

That’s probably the biggest reason I wanted to write this.

When one running back dominates every carry, his name becomes the story. Every Saturday morning the newspaper says: 28 carries, 225 yards. 32 carries, 280 yards. Four touchdowns.

Week after week. People remember those individual numbers.

Thompson and Strader didn’t have that luxury. They had to share the carries. They had to share the touchdowns. They had to share the headlines.

And ultimately, they had to share the legacy. Maybe that kept either one from accumulating some crazy 2,500-yard season.

But to me, it makes what they did together even more impressive.

Because there was enough talent in that backfield for two stars, and somehow it worked.

 

You Can’t Say One Name Without the Other

That’s how I’ll always remember them.

DeWayne and Vic. Vic and DeWayne. Penn Hills. Mid-90s. Hand the ball off and watch one of them go.

For people from my generation who were around Penn Hills, those names immediately take you back to a certain time.

Friday nights packed with people.

That old-school Penn Hills mystique. A physical defense. A huge offensive line. Neil Gordon on the sideline. And two Division I-caliber running backs taking turns beating up defenses.

I’ve seen plenty of great running backs since then. I’ve seen plenty of teams with multiple weapons.

But I’ve never seen another running back combination that made the impression on me that those two did.

And if Penn Hills finishes the job again in 1996? Maybe the rest of Pennsylvania remembers them the way people from Penn Hills already do.

But championships or not, I know what I watched.

DeWayne Thompson and Vic Strader were the best high school running back duo I’ve ever seen.

And more than 30 years later, I still can’t bring up one without bringing up the other. Some names in sports just belong together.

These two always will.