In the last 100 years, Big Ten football has produced numerous All-Americans and Heisman Trophy winners, but none of them has yet surpassed the record held by Huntington’s Mickey Erehart.

While playing for Indiana University against Iowa on November 9, 1912, Erehart lined up to punt the ball at his own 2-yard-line. Erehart had planned to kick the ball, but saw an opening and ran, outrunning the Iowa defense for a 98-yard touchdown. The effort put Erehart into the Big Ten record book for the longest run from scrimmage, where it remains to this day, only tied by Minnesota’s Darrell Thompson in 1987.

Erehart was one of Huntington’s earliest sports stars as an all-around athlete at Huntington High School.

At Indiana University, Erehart captained the football team and won three letters. He also won two letters in baseball and one in track.

After graduation, Erehart pursued a medical degree at the Western Reserve School of Medicine, and did his internship at Harper Hospital in Detroit. He returned to Huntington and began a medical practice in 1920. He was an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist, and served Huntington until he and his wife, Zoe, retired to Florida in 1960.

Erehart served in World War II in the medical reserve. He also was active in the Huntington American Legion Post 7, the Izaak Walton League and the Huntington County Medical Society. He died April 19, 1982