Houston’s All-Time Team: Alonzo Highsmith 
Alonzo Highsmith
Position: Fullback
Team: Houston Oilers
Years: 1987-1989
Career: If things had happened differently, Alonzo Highsmith might have been a perennial All-Pro fullback. His brief time in Houston made an impact but a strike, a holdout, injuries and a new offense conspired to limit his effectiveness.
The Oilers traded up in the first round with Buffalo to secure Highsmith with the third overall pick in the 1987 draft. Highsmith was a rare combination of speed and size coming out of the University of Miami. The Columbia Blue hadn’t seen a back of his ilk since Earl Campbell’s halcyon days. Where they differed: Highsmith could block with devastating skill. Of course, he would be sharing the backfield with a halfback during the Jerry Glanville era and was not the feature back in the offense. But, at 6’1" and 235 pounds, he was the equal of just about any linebacker he met at the point of attack.
Alonzo held out of his first training training camp and was still unsigned when the 1987 season began. The impasse wore on, made worse by the players’ strike that saw replacement Oilers take the field for three games. Highsmith wasn’t signed and in uniform until the ninth game of the season.
Because he had missed camp, Highsmith saw limited action even though Glanville was eager to see what his top draft choice could do. He ran the ball 29 times for 106 yards and caught four passes for 55 yards, scoring twice.
The Oilers drafted Lorenzo White the following spring and the Oiler backfield became crowded with White, Highsmith, Mike Rozier and Allen Pinkett. In addition, the Oilers were opening up the offense, allowing Warren Moon to throw more often. Alonzo contributed 466 yards rushing and two touchdowns, along with twelve receptions that year. He was also slowed by knee injuries.
The 1989 campaign would be the best of his career. Highsmith scored six times, rushed for a team-high 531 yards and caught 18 passes.
But 1990 meant changes and the biggest was the hiring of Jack Pardee and the installation of the run-n-shoot offense. Unfortunately for Alonzo, there was no fullback in Pardee’s offensive scheme, and thus, with only one back in the formation, a change in the backfield was needed. Highsmith was not as suitable to this new job as White and Pinkett so he was traded to the Dallas Cowboys for a second-round pick. Further knee injuries limited him to nine games with the Cowboys before he was cut and signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He retired after the 1992 season.
If Alonzo is bitter about how his NFL career went, he doesn’t show it.
“I got the most out of football and life," he told the Miami Herald last year. "I would even take all the injuries again.”
With his football career over, Highsmith turned to boxing and entered the ring as a heavyweight, compiling a 27-1-1 record with 17 knockouts. However, he was treated more like a novelty than as a serious boxer and he put away the gloves in 1999 to work as a scout for the Green Bay Packers, a position he still holds while trying to master still another sport — golf.
Alonzo wants to eventually earn his PGA Tour card. And it would be no surprise if Highsmith hits a golf ball as hard as he used to hit defenders.
Houston Highlight: No doubt when he was with the Miami Hurricanes, Alonzo dreamed of what it would be like to play in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins. It never happened, but he got to showcase his talents against them in 1989. With the Oilers leading 5-0, Highsmith took a handoff from Warren Moon and swept right into the end zone untouched for a three-yard score. He carried eleven times for 53 yards while blocking for Lorenzo White who added another 97 yards. The 39-7 rout was one of the worst in Don Shula’s Hall-of-Fame career.
Alonzo Highsmith’s career stats YR ATT YDS AVG TD REC YDS TD 1987 29 106 3.7 1 4 55 1 1988 94 466 5.0 2 12 131 0 1989 128 531 4.1 4 18 201 2 Totals 251 1,103 4.4 7 34 387 3 
Alonzo Highsmith 
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