Fresh off the undefeated 1995 season, I am sure that Gamp and his coaching staff were beginning to think about the 1996 season. In a previous article highlighting the accomplishments of one of Malvern’s undefeated teams, I stated that the halfback combo of Toby Booker and Derrick Downs was the best halfback combo in the annals of MP football history. With graduation, these two dynamic players were going to leave a huge hole in the backfield and probably would be difficult to replace…..then along came Chris Downs….. Who knew? Chris was a reserve on the 1995 team. His numbers were modest as he usually got into the game once it was well in hand and Thunder and Lightning had pummeled another opponent. In a shout out to an MP coach and one of the all-time great guys, the late Jimmy the Jet knew. Jimmy was Gamp’s forever assistant. He always had an encouraging word for the players and was well known for his stories. If you have been around the MP program over the last 40 years you know who “The Jet” was. His last name is not needed. As he always did, the Jet was coaching the JV team in 1995 and he had a chance to watch Chris play in multiple games. Jimmy knew that Chris had the makings of something special. As it turned out, over the next two years, special was a vast understatement.

The program and Malvern Prep will miss Vincent “Jimmy the Jet” Panetta.

Let me get this out of the way early. Chris Downs is the best running back in MP football history. If you read Get Me a Six Pack-Running Backs you have already seen his name prominently displayed in the Malvern record books. You can also get an appreciation of the number of very good running backs Malvern has had over the years. Chris stands at the head of the class. So, what made him so unique? According to legendary offensive coordinator and Malvern institution Joe Sells, it was vision and anticipation. Chris was able to read defensive movements and make cuts before players closed in on him. It was as if Chris could see things before they happened. “Sellsy” said Chris was the best he had ever seen at doing it. And just like Jet, Joe Sells has been around a very long time. He pretty much has either coached it, diagrammed it or scouted it all. If Joe says it, you can absolutely believe him.

If you want to add icing to his cake of accomplishments, Chris is only 1 of 8 Inter-Ac players to reach the career rushing mark of 3000 yards. This is a best of the best kind of list and Chris is #1. Not a bad finish for a player who in his sophomore year carried the ball 17x for 165 yards. Good call Jet!

Below is the list of players

Chris played in 21 games over his junior and senior season. He was only held in check in 3 of them. It is astounding to think that over the 503 carries he gained, on average, 8 yards a carry (career chunker). In the remaining 18 games he rushed for over 100 yards 6x, over 200 yards, an incredible 11x and 300 yards once. In 1996 Chris was just beginning to warm up as he split it down the middle with 4 games over 100 yards and 4 games over 200 yards. In his senior year he blew it out, rushing for over 2000 yards in the season. His breakdown was 2- 100 yard games, 7- 200 yard games, yes I said 7; and his Thanksgiving best, a 308 yard game against Carroll. In that game he also had a school and league record 6 TDs. This was all in a two year period when everyone in the stadium knew he was going to get the rock. In these games MP was 15-3 and proves the football saying, when you can run the ball well you have a very good chance of winning, especially if Chris Downs has the ball in his hands.

The games looked like this.

Looking at these numbers I am guessing that GA and PC were very happy to see Chris leave Warren Avenue. The GA total was 56 carries for 547 yards and a 9.7 yard average. Chris torched the Quakers for 490 yards on 49 carries. That math is easy even for me- 10 yards a pop. It was in the Penn Charter game that Chris broke the Inter-Ac career rushing record held by Dave Stilley from Haverford School. Okay, let me re-phrase that. The ENTIRE Inter-Ac was happy to see Chris vacate the football field. His two year demolition of the league adds up like this- 193 carries for 1,797 yards, a 9.3 yards per carry average and 22 TDs on top of it all. As much as Chris antagonized the IA his favorite day and opponent might have been Thanksgiving and Archbishop Carroll. In these two games, in addition to rushing for 459 yards, he scored 9 times on runs of 44,5,6,31,11,8,3,26 and 3 yards.

If you were curious how his best games stacked up with the rest of the top IA performances, here you go.

(An as an aside, it is nice to see that no Malvern defense showed up on this list of top performances)

Chris was the leading rusher in the city in 1997. His game average for the year was 199 yards and his two year average was 184 yards a game. Busy guy. Speaking of busy, his 53 TD career total was 50 rushing, 2 receiving and 1 kickoff return. Yeah, Germantown Academy actually kicked off to him. What were they thinking? I am a special teams coach and I can tell you I would have not kicked the ball in the same area code as Chris Downs. Second option would be to kick the ball out of bounds and hope MP took the ball at the 35 yard line. Guarantee you that my Head Coach would have given me an earful on the sidelines as he watched Chris romp 87 yards to paydirt.

As you might imagine with his success, Chris set multiple Inter-Ac records. They are as follows:

Career rushing- 4045 yards

Season rushing- 2198 yards

Season TDs- 31, 29 rushing, 1 receiving, 1 kick-off return

Season Rush TDs- 29

Game TDs- 6, tied with Matt Blewitt GA

Points Season- 190

With records come multiple post season and post career recognitions. Because there were so many I hope I got them all.

All Inter-Ac 1996,1997

**LEAGUE MVP 1997**

1st Team All City, 1996,1997 Daily News

1st Team All Area, 1996,1997 Philadelphia Inquirer- *same backfield with Arlen Harris from Downingtown.

1st Team All Decade All Inter-Ac 1990-1999

**PLAYER OF THE DECADE All Inter-Ac 1990-1999**

1st Team All Decade All-City- 1990-1999

1st Team 30 Year All Malvern Prep team

1st Team 35 Year All Inter-Ac

1st Team 40 Year All Inter-Ac

1st Team 50 Year All Inter-Ac

3rd Team 50 Year All-City

Some perspective here. The 1st team RBs were Kevin Jones O’Hara ’00, Eddie Gaskins Frankford ’87, Blair Thomas Frankford ’94. The 2nd team RBs were Curtis Brinkley West Catholic ’03, D’Andre Swift SJP ’16 and Jerry Butler Washington ’04. Kevin Jones, Blair Thomas, Curtis Brinkley and D’Andre Swift all went onto the NFL. Career rushing marks were Brinkley for 7,413 yards, Gaskins for 6,122 yards and Jones for 5,728 yards. D’Andre Swift rushed for 4,273 yards. His yards could have been significantly more but he never really got the touches until playoff time. If a bunch of guys in front of you went to the NFL I would say that you are in pretty good company. I could make the argument that Chris could have been 2nd team as his career rushing yards were over 1000 more than Butler but being top 9 is certainly a reflection of his talent and his career marks. Keep in mind too that this list is pulled from every single running back whoever played in the Catholic League, the Public League and the Inter-Ac from 1970.

Well, there you have it. Any questions? Like many Malvern players, if you had the chance to catch Chris Downs in a game you were treated to quite a show. With the change in high school offenses from run to pass I am betting that many of Chris’s school and league records will stand for a very long time. Congratulations Chris Downs, the best of the best Malvern Prep running backs.

More to come……………

06.22.21

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