Honored posthumously as a football pioneer, Frank Mordica was one of the greatest running backs in Vanderbilt history. And on Nov. 18, 1978, he authored a performance of such staggering dominance that it might have left even Grantland Rice at a loss for words.
Facing Air Force, which was then coached by former Vanderbilt assistant coach and future Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Parcells, Mordica rushed for 321 yards and five touchdowns. More stunningly, he needed just 22 carries to set an SEC single-game rushing record that was unequaled until 2007. He finished the game fewer than 40 yards short of the NCAA single-game record, despite sitting out the final three minutes as Vanderbilt ran out the clock.
“We had people on our bench pleading with me to leave Frank in the game, let him carry the ball every time and get the record,” Vanderbilt head coach Fred Pancoast said at the time. “I think he could have done it too. As it was, the game ended with us on the goal line. But I looked across the field at Parcells standing over there with his beaten team. I knew his agony. I just couldn’t do it.”
Accounts of the game suggest Commodores fans had more luck getting their hands on him than Air Force defenders, coming away with his tearaway jersey as he left the field afterward.
The Tallahassee, Florida, product was anything but a one-game wonder. He earned SEC All-Freshman honors in his debut season, then led the team in rushing as a sophomore. He paced the team on the ground again in 1978, but this time he piled up 1,065 rushing yards—becoming the first Commodore runner to top 1,000 yards in a season. He nearly got there again in 1979, even without the benefit of a single-game record along the way. He finished his Vanderbilt career with 2,632 rushing yards, a program record that stood for 33 years.
“He was fast, had great feet, good vision and easily one of our best players,” former Vanderbilt assistant coach and Tennessee head coach Phil Fulmer told The Tennessean in 2015. “He was a really neat person, a smart guy and a very team-oriented guy. I enjoyed being around him.”
A two-time All-SEC selection, Mordica was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the 1980 NFL draft. He returned to Vanderbilt to complete his Peabody degree in health and physical education in 1981. He subsequently served 30 years in the U.S. Navy, including on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, and retired with the rank of master chief petty officer.
