Don Zimmerman

Sport: Football

Induction Year: 1975

University: Tulane

Induction Year: 1975

A consensus All-American for Tulane in 1932, Don Zimmerman set nine school records during his career with the Green Wave.

The triple threat halfback was in on 764 plays for a total of 4,657 yards, averaging 6.1 yards per play, and was responsible for 219 points. More importantly, he led the Green Wave to a 25-4-1 record in Tulane’s most successful era.

Broken down by categories, Zimmerman had 2, 369 yards rushing, 924 passing, 24 on pass receptions, 145 on interception returns, 951 on punt returns and 244 on kickoff returns.

As a sophomore, Zimmerman sparked the 1930 Tulane team to an 8-1 record. He scored the first touchdown in the Green Wave’s 28-0 romp past Georgia Tech at Atlanta’s Grant Field with a 22-yard run, and set up another touchdown with a 34 yard run.

He was an excellent passer, too, and was especially effective on jump passes. But he was more productive as a runner, gaining 126 yards rushing in a 27-0 victory over Auburn and 104 in 34-7 rout of LSU that wrapped up a Rose Bowl berth for the 1931 Green Wave.

Zimmerman’s passing proved to be Tulane’s most effective offensive weapon in the Rose Bowl as he threw a touchdown pass to Vernon “Lefty” Haynes and led a drive to another touchdown, but the Green Waves only other serious threat ended with an interception and Southern California was able to hand on to a 21-12 victory.

After the game, Southern Cal coach Howard Jones said Zimmerman and Harry Glover were the finest pair of backs his team had faced all season.

The following year, Zimmerman set school records with 1, 885 yards total offense and a 5.5-yard rushing average. But the Green Wave lost to Auburn and LSU- with  Zimmerman and several others regulars sidelined by a flu epidemic the week of the LSU game.

“Zimmerman was an outstanding star I n 1932, even better than he was in 1931,” legendary sports writer Grantland Rice wrote in announcing his Collier’s Magazine All-America selections. “Weighing 191 pounds, five feet eleven inches in height, he rated as one of the best running backs and possibly the finest passer in Southern Conference history. He also did all the kicking for his team, with triple threat value that few have shown in many seasons. It was Zimmerman who either won or saved game after game for the Green Wave.”

He was one of only two Southern players (center Clarence Gracey of Vanderbilt was the other) selected by the New York World Telegram – which also placed Jimmy Hitchcock were the only Southern players on the Associated Press team.

Henry McLemore, in the story announcing the United Press All-American team (with Zimmerman and Pittsburgh’s Warren Heller at the halfback positions), wrote,  “Zimmerman is probably the finest open field runner the South has seen in the past decade. And , like Heller, Zimmerman is not a player with a single specialty. Tulane called on him this year to not only carry the ball nine out of 10 times, but to do all of its passing, kicking and a great share of its secondary defense work. And Don never failed.

It would be hard to imagine a team with a defense strong enough to check the halfbacks, Don Zimmerman and Warren Heller.”

The consensus selections are running back after all the 1932 All-America teams were announced: Zimmerman (Tulane’s first consensus pick, Hitchcock and Heller.

Zimmerman set school records on both offense and defense, with a career record of3,293 yards total offense that stood for 35 years and a career total of 12 interceptions that no Tulane player bettered for nearly 40 years. He ranked second to Bill Banker in career scoring until Eddie Price passed him in 1949, and still holds the school record of 3,733 yards in all purpose running.

With 27 punt returns in 1931 season and 72 in his three year-career, he set school records that weren’t broken until the 1970s. His career average of 81.7 yards per game was second to Bill Banker’s 93, and they are still 1-2 on the all time- Tulane list.

A gifted, versatile athlete, Zimmerman ranked among the world’s best pole vaulters in track and field. He placed fourth in national AAU meets two years in a row, and won the Southern AAU title in 1933 – beating Matt Gordy of LSU, who was co-champion in both the NCAA and national AAU championships a few weeks later.

The same year, Zimmerman. Gordy and Merle Riegels of Alabama shared first place in the first Southeastern Conference championships as all three cleared 13-3 1/8.

In the 1932 national AAU championships at Palo Alto Calif., (which doubled as the Olympic Trails)Zimmerman came within two inches of wimming a berth on the United States Olympic team. At a time when only one vaulter in the world posed a threat to a third consecutive 1-2-3 sweep for the United States in the Los Angeles Games, Zimmerman cleared 13-8 (which would’ve been good enough for fourth place in the Olympics a moth later) to tie for fourth behind a 13-10 by George Jefferson, who won the bronze medal at Los Angeles with 13-9 ½. The previous year, Zimmerman, Jefferson and Marvin Harvey tied for second in the national AAU meet at Lincoln, Nebraska, with Zimmerman finishing fourth in a jumpoff.

Zimmerman’s personal best in the event was 13-10 ½  – a remarkable achievement in the bamboo pole era, only five years after the 14-foot barrier was conquered for the first time.