Toby Gerhart's football life was reminiscent of "Varsity Blues." He remembers running on to the field as a five-year-old water boy for Norco High School in Southern California. The entire town would seemingly shut down every fall Friday for Norco's games. Toby's father, Todd, became the school's head coach, and Toby got to play for his old man.
 
"I always wanted to wear blue and run out Friday night for Norco football," Gerhart said. "So obviously my parents are a huge influence."
 
Gerhart dreamed big and won big. He set the California state record for career rushing yards (9,662), and he signed with Stanford, where he played both football and baseball. He persevered through a one-win season as a freshman, and he exited The Farm as one of the greatest players in Cardinal history, having helped elevate the program to heights once deemed impossible.
 
Now Gerhart can call himself a College Football Hall of Famer, the 20th player in Stanford history to accomplish the feat.
 
"I think Stanford in general is such a special place, from friends to classmates, especially as we started to make that run of being better," Gerhart said. "Seeing the student body energized about football was something special.
 
"My last year, the 'Toby' signs and the Heisman signs and chests painted with my name, it was truly a special time for Stanford, and there's no place like Stanford. (During) my recruitment, I just felt like Stanford was the place for me from a personality perspective, from an intellectual perspective, from a people perspective. Like, those are my people, and it was truly, truly a special experience."
 
He had committed to and played for the Walt Harris regime before helping coach Jim Harbaugh establish a new culture during his sophomore year. Stanford improved its win total every year with Gerhart on the roster, going from one win to four, from five wins to eight. That run helped lay the foundation for a Cardinal program that became synonymous with the phrase "Intellectual Brutality," as it went on to win 11 or more games in five of its next six years, making major bowl games in each of those five years and winning two Rose Bowls and an Orange Bowl.
 
None of that happens without bedrocks like Gerhart, who twice broke the Stanford single-season rushing record during his career, posting 1,136 yards in 2008 before exploding for 1,871 rushing yards (and 28 rushing touchdowns) in 2009.
 
"My running back coach Willie Taggart" is a huge influence, Gerhart said. "Coach Harbaugh came in and really changed the program and wanted to grind people into submission and run it down their throat and be a power offense, which suited my style. Coach (David) Shaw was there as well as the offensive coordinator, and Greg Roman was the run game coordinator, so a great staff around us that really changed the mentality of Stanford football and really allowed (them) to feature me as a running back, so I'm grateful for that.
 
"And obviously I had great teammates along the way, a great offensive line, they called themselves the Tunnel Workers Union. One of our lineman's dad was a miner, a tunnel worker, and so he just used that as an example of grab their hard hats and their lunch pails, and they go to work every day and don't look for the glory and get the things done to open the holes for me to run and (we) just adopted that mantra. So, there's a ton of people who contributed to it along the way, and (Andrew) Luck and (Richard) Sherman and all the guys I played with at Stanford that really started to change that program. So (it's) a testament to my teammates and my parents and my coaches."
 
Gerhart counts two favorite memories from his Stanford career: A 55-21 win at USC in which the Cardinal ran the ball on 13 straight plays in the fourth quarter, and a 45-38 win over Notre Dame two weeks later in which he rushed for three touchdowns and threw for one more.
 
Gerhart finished as the Heisman Trophy runner-up after that game, becoming the first player in a stretch of five different years (featuring four different players) in which a Cardinal player finished as the Heisman runner-up between 2009-17.
 
"It was such a great way to close out our home season," Gerhart said. "A sold-out stadium, nationally televised game, and Brent Musburger was just like, 'This is Toby's Heisman moment.' And so that game will live in memory of walking off the field for the last time at Stanford and beating Notre Dame in a great game."
 
TOBY GERHART: UP CLOSE

• Named a unanimous First Team All-American in 2009, claiming the Doak Walker Award as the nation's best running back and finishing second in the Heisman Trophy voting.
• Led the nation in points (178), touchdowns (29), rushing attempts (343), rushing yards (1,871) and rushing touchdowns (28) in 2009.
• Finished his career with 671 rushes for 3,522 yards and 44 touchdowns as well as 39 receptions for 395 yards.
• Played for coaches Walt Harris and Jim Harbaugh.
• Becomes the 20th Stanford player in the Hall.