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I expect most sports fans who'd choose the top college running backs of all times would most likely name those who've achieved their fame within the past ten years. Maybe some self-appointed experts who are at the advanced age of 30 would allow for college halfbacks and fullbacks who are still remembered by today's fans because of making news as pro players and continuing their celebrity in following years, names like, heaven help us, O.J. Simpson.

However, as great as many college football runners are today, including those heading for lucrative pro careers and places in the Hall of Fame, I'd like to confine my choices to my selection as greatest from other eras. Today's stars certainly don't need any more kudos from a hopelessly nostalgic old guy. I go back many, many years of watching college football, and admit it is extremely tough to make fair comparisons of star runners of today with those of two, three or four generations ago. Of course, the most blatant difference is because racial discrimination was in full control for most of those years. History shows the shameful fact that there were very few black college players, or indeed black college students, before World War II.

Greats on my list and who belong on any line-up of greatest running backs are Jackie Robinson, who was named All-American at UCLA in the 1930s, and later became a baseball immortal. I'd add Paul Robeson of Rutgers, who also won All-American honors in his 1920s college days, and later became an internationally renowned entertainment star as both a great actor and magnificent singer.

After years of struggle and racial discrimination, black college athletes have come a long way. Their domination in basketball is almost total, as well as those who excel as running backs in college football. The reasons are many, starting with better economic conditions and improved nutrition in their growing years at home. Some questionable, but effective reasons for black athletes to excel in college football include heavy competition in college recruiting of top black high school athletes, blatant commercialization of college sports and deliberate easing of academic requirements for participants in the top money-making enterprises for colleges' income, basketball and football.

The old clich about level playing fields are not often realities in today's college football. For instance, students ... real students ... with strict and time-consuming academic and military schedules, such as at West Point and

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