Nicknamed "The Silver Streak" his rookie year, Billy Sims went right from his status as the No. 1 player selected in the 1980 NFL collegiate draft to NFL Rookie-of-the-Year by rushing for a Detroit Lions club-record 1,303 yards and scored 16 touchdowns to led the NFL in scoring.
Billy Sims rushed for more 1,000 yards in 3 of his 5 seasons, missing only in the strike shortened 1982 season and 1984 when he played just the first seven games before his career ending injury. Only one other back in Lions history had even a single 1,000 yard season, Steve Owens (1,035 in 1971). Sims became Detroit’s all-time leading rusher in his final performance in 1984 with 103 yards rushing against the Vikings, giving him 5,106 yards for his career, which placed him one yard ahead of No. 2 all-time rusher Dexter Bussey at season’s end (Bussey retired that season). Sims had a club-record 24 regular season 100-yard rushing games and another club-record of eight 100-yard days in 1981, the year he set the Lions’ single season rushing record with 1,437 yards. He was third among all-time Lions runningbacks in rushing attempts with 1,131. At the time his career ended Sims held the club record for touchdowns in a season with 16 in 1980.
