PORT ARTHUR — Port Arthur native and NFL running back Jamaal Charles, the Kansas City Chief's 2009 MVP, will be honored by the Port Arthur Historical Society at 1 p.m. Friday, with his induction into the Sports Legends Gallery at the Museum of the Gulf Coast, 700 Procter St. in downtown Port Arthur.

    Charles graduated from Memorial High School in 2005 after a stellar gridiron career that included twice being named 5A All-State, twice winning the Willie Ray Smith Award as Southeast Texas’ top offensive player and being saluted as a Parade High School All-America after his senior season.

    Charles finished off his schoolboy career by playing in the Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio.

    No. 1 among his Memorial highlights was shattering Little Joe Washington’s all-time Port Arthur schoolboy rushing record of 3,995 yards. Charles topped 4,000, by speeding for 2,051 yards and 25 touchdowns as a junior and romping for 2,056 yards and 25 more TDs as a senior.

    His collegiate career at the University of Texas was loaded by highlights, topped by a game his junior season against Nebraska in which he exploded for 216 fourth-quarter yards enroute to a 290-yard total. The rushing total was the most ever against Nebraska and the fourth best single game in UT history. His 216 fourth-quarter yards were only six shy of the NCAA record for most rushing yards in a quarter.

    Despite leaving Texas after three years to enter the NFL draft, Charles departed as the fourth-leading rusher in Longhorn history. He ran for 878 yards as a freshman, 831 as a sophomore and 1,619 his junior year to finish with 3,328 yards.

    Charles also rushed for 36 touchdowns and averaged 6.2 yards per carry for the Longhorns.

    In addition to football, Charles made his mark in an all-too-brief track career at Texas. He won the Big 12 100 meters in 10.23 seconds and went on to finish fifth in the 100 meters in NCAA outdoor track championships. That followed a high school track career which saw him win the 100 meters and 300 meters in the Texas 5A championships.

    Charles  gave up track after his freshman year at Texas to concentrate on football.

    After being taken at the top of the third round in the 2008 NFL draft by the Kansas City Chiefs, he didn’t get a lot of opportunity to play behind starter Larry Johnson his rookie year. His second NFL season also got off to a slow start, but after the Chiefs cut Johnson at midseason Charles made his presence felt in eye-opening fashion.

    He rushed for over 100 yards five times, culminated by a 259-yard explosion in the season finale against Denver. That one set a Chiefs record, was the eighth-highest single game rushing effort in NFL history and was only 39 yards shy of the all-time record.

    Charles finished his second NFL season with 1,120 yards on only 190 carries, averaging 5.9 yards per try. In the process, he became the only player in NFL history to top 1,100 yards in less than 200 carries. He also had a 97-yard kickoff return TD against Pittsburgh, caught 40 passes for 297 yards and a touchdown and finished with 2,342 combined yards rushing, receiving and returning kicks.

    Last Saturday night in Kansas City, he was presented the Chiefs Derrick Thomas trophy as the team’s Chief's MVP for 2009.