Willie Burden was a star running back with Calgary for eight years from 1974 to 1981. He is best remembered for his one monster season in 1975 when he carried the ball 332 times for 1896 yards with another 231 yards receiving on 36 catches and another 360 yards on kickoff returns. Burden was named a Western All-Star, a CFL All-Star and was also the Outstanding Player in the CFL that season. This was Burden's second season in the league and you would think he would be well on his way to many more outstanding seasons, but he had only one other 1000+ rushing season and one other Western All-Star honour, both coming in 1977. What happened? The Stampeders discovered another outstandng running back in James Sykes, and he became the number one ball carrier while Burden was used more as the blocking fullback and as a passing threat out of the backfield. Burden's rushing totals dropped to 627, 658 and 423 yards in 1978 through 1980, but his pass receptions climbed in each of those seasons from 31 to 42 to 49. In his final season, Burden was limited to only 8 games or half a season due to injures and while he had only 95 yards rushing, he did catch 22 passes in that half season putting him on track for another 40+ reception season. Wilie Burden was elected to the Candanian Football Hall-of Fame in 2001.
Willie Burden passed away on December 4,2015.
Former NC State star found dead
| Year | Team | GP | TC | Yds | Avg | TD | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | CAL | 16 | 94 | 541 | 5.8 | 3 | 71 |
| 1975 | CAL | 16 | 332 | 1896 | 5.7 | 10 | 40 |
| 1976 | CAL | 13 | 181 | 962 | 5.3 | 7 | 35 |
| 1977 | CAL | 16 | 220 | 1032 | 4.7 | 3 | 47 |
| 1978 | CAL | 15 | 160 | 627 | 3.9 | 2 | 23 |
| 1979 | CAL | 13 | 145 | 658 | 4.8 | 5 | 19 |
| 1980 | CAL | 16 | 87 | 423 | 4.9 | 2 | 23 |
| 1981 | CAL | 8 | 23 | 95 | 4.1 | 0 | 28 |
| Year | Team | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | CAL | 13 | 106 | 8.2 | 0 | 25 |
| 1975 | CAL | 36 | 231 | 6.4 | 5 | 52 |
| 1976 | CAL | 43 | 363 | 8.4 | 2 | 51 |
| 1977 | CAL | 63 | 611 | 9.7 | 2 | 42 |
| 1978 | CAL | 31 | 307 | 9.9 | 1 | 54 |
| 1979 | CAL | 42 | 373 | 8.9 | 3 | 33 |
| 1980 | CAL | 49 | 495 | 10.1 | 3 | 53 |
| 1981 | CAL | 22 | 183 | 8.8 | 4 | 14 |
| Year | Team | KOR | Yds | Avg | TD | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | CAL | 1 | 37 | 37 | 0 | 37 |
| 1975 | CAL | 16 | 360 | 22.5 | 0 | 33 |
| 1976 | CAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1977 | CAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1978 | CAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1979 | CAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1980 | CAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1981 | CAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Year | Team | F | FL | OFR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | CAL | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 1975 | CAL | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| 1976 | CAL | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 1977 | CAL | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| 1978 | CAL | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| 1979 | CAL | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 1980 | CAL | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 1981 | CAL | 0 | 0 | 0 |
