TACOMA, Wash. - Throughout the spring semester GoLutes.com will highlight the five individuals and two varsity four crews from the PLU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2020 that will be inducted on March 12. Today's installment features football standout Anthony Hicks who graduated in 2000 with a degree in theatre.

Anthony Hicks could easily be remembered as one of the greatest players the Pacific Lutheran football program has ever seen.

The star running back for the 1999 national championship team holds numerous program and NCAA records to this day.

That's not how he wants to be remembered, though.

"It's about humility and humbleness," he said. "When you have a kid you coached who has moved on and has a family now and still calls you because you made that big of an impact on their life – that is the thing you can't put a price tag on."

Hicks graduated from Tumwater High School and went to the University of Washington to play football as a running back.

During his freshman year two-a-day practices, he was talking to a former teammate who was at PLU. The teammate told Hicks he couldn't wait to get to practice.

"We were sitting in our dorm waiting until the last second to go to practice," Hicks said. "We hated it. It was miserable. Something clicked right there. I would be stretching on the UW turf in the stadium, closing my eyes, hoping and praying I would open my eyes and be at PLU to play for Frosty."

That happened after two tumultuous years at Washington. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Hicks rushed for 903 years in 1998, leading PLU to the Northwest Conference title and trip to the playoffs.

"When we did our national championship run, it had nothing to do with winning it all," he said. "Our goal and focus was we wanted to be together one more week. For most seniors there was no more football after that.

"So, to be together every week we had to be victorious on the scoreboard. So, that is what we did for the next five games and lo and behold, the final game was the national championship."

In 1999, he set still-standing single season records in rushing yards (1,633), touchdowns (27) and points (162). He was second team All-America and scored 11 of his touchdowns during PLU's playoff run that included five consecutive road wins.

"I gave up millions of dollars and playing in the NFL to go play for Frosty," Hicks said. "I've been coaching ever since. A lot of Frosty disciples go on and coach because that is what Frosty wants – to keep spreading the word like gospel."

Hicks finished his career with 2,536 rushing yards, averaging 6.8 yards per carry. He holds the record for most touchdowns in a single NCAA playoff run. He also led the 1999 team in rushing yards and receiving yards.

After graduating with a degree in theater, he was a speaker for a company called "Bigger, Faster, Stronger." He would spread the Frosty gospel to other coaches far and wide, teaching that success isn't just in winning or the Xs and the Os, but in how you help raise up the young men in your charge.

"When I went to my first full-time coaching job at Rainier, I took two playbooks," he said. "One was Xs and Os and one was The Inner Game.

"I presented them and then put down the Xs and the Os and said this isn't important. It is secondary to the Inner Game. If we focus on the kids and maturity and raising men of character we will get the Xs and the Os and winning as a byproduct."

That model of coaching has earned Hicks plenty of wins in his 25 years of coaching, with stints at Rainier, Washington HS, Tumwater, Timberline, Capital and now Bellarmine Prep.