Ezekiel Elliott is a household name because of the way he totes the rock. Once upon a time it could have been different; he could have made the world know him as a basketball star.
Elliott was a multi-sport star at John Burroughs School just outside St. Louis, Missouri. While football emerged as his primary sport (in no small part because of all the recruiting attention he received), the Cowboys running back was no bit part player on a basketball court, either.
In fact, Elliott was also a superstar on the track and played for the school’s baseball team. On the track, Elliott was so dominant in the sprints that he emerged as the Gatorade Track Athlete of the Year after sweeping all four Missouri sprint races — the 100-meter, 200-meter, 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter hurdles — in a total time span of fewer than three hours.
Yet it was Elliott’s athleticism that truly stood out in basketball more than anywhere else, as you can see above.
Was Elliott, who stands just 6-foot tall, a bona fide Ohio State basketball recruit? Maybe not, but given his competitiveness and leaping ability, maybe the Buckeyes missed a trick in not running him out on the court once or twice just to see what happened.
