Senior running back Mike Mayhew will leave North Carolina  A&T  State University football program the proud owner of the all-time rushing record, with a Top 10 ranking in the MEAC for career rushing yards and the school’s all-time rush attempts record.

“One memory that I always keep with me is of my old position coach, George Ragsdale,” said Mayhew about the N.C. A&T Sports Hall of Famer and one of the best running backs in school history.

“He really helped me out a lot as far as becoming a young man on and off the field.  His favorite saying was, ‘You’ve got to be like a duck.’  It means when people talk stuff about you and everything, you’ve got to let it just roll off your back like the water does when a duck washes itself.”

That advice has served Mayhew well over the past few years.

As the season winds down, Mayhew has felt the bitter sweetness of leaving what has been a major part of his life over the last four years and of achieving the goals he set for himself as a freshman – a degree in sports science and fitness management and the program’s all-time rushing record.

“That was my whole goal when I came in was to go get that record,” he said.  “I looked up all the research about what I needed – how many yards it would take, who had it, and everything.  I said in my mind that before I left A&T I wanted to be the all-time leading rusher.” 

While that was his goal, Mayhew had to wait before stepping out onto the field to start to claim that record.  He was academically ineligible his freshman year, and said sitting out that first season was powerful motivation.

“That one year just knowing that I had friends out there on the field and friends in other universities playing, I was the only one sitting, that kind of hurt my pride a lot,” Mayhew said.  “But at the same time it pushed me to just keep moving forward in getting out there.”

Mayhew became eligible and signed a four-year full scholarship in the 2009-10 school year.  Even the quickest of peaks at the record books are enough to show just how successful he has been since.

Mayhew, the reigning Co-MEAC Player of the Year, became the program’s all-time rusher on Sept. 27 against Morgan State, breaking the record held by Maurice Hicks for 11 years, with an 8-yard carry in the second quarter.

He became the first Aggie and 12th player in MEAC history to record 3,000 yards in a career on Oct. 13 against Howard with a season-best 138 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Mayhew is 112 yards shy of finishing his career eighth on the MEAC’s all-time rushing list.  

“He’s been a true champion in so many ways, an outstanding player and an outstanding person.  Mike’s done so many of the right things during his career and we’re happy for him and proud of him,” said A&T head football coach Rod Broadway.   

“He’s got to be one of the best players in this league. Week in and week out, he’s getting his shoulder pads down, he’s getting behind them, he’s running hard, he’s making plays for us.  And he’s doing that with a patched-up, beat-up offensive line that’s not really blocking as well as we’d like for them to.  So he’s creating a lot of the yardage on his own.”  
Mayhew will likely end his career with more than 750 carries in more than 40 games played.