Record Run
On Friday nights in Knox, Indiana, the stadium lights did more than shine on a football field. They revealed something special unfolding in a small town where an extraordinary season was turning into history.
By the time the band struck its first note at each game, the stands were no longer simply full. They were alive.
“Everything stopped for that football game,” Athletic Director Neill Minix says. “The whole community every Friday night.”
What happened during the 2025 season was historic. Long after the final whistle of each game and the stadium lights dimmed against the autumn night sky, something more lasting remained.
By the end of his senior year, Myles McLaughlin had rushed for 11,839 career yards, breaking Indiana’s career rushing record. In a single season, he set a national rushing record with 4,846 yards and scored 71 rushing touchdowns. He was named Indiana Mr. Football, earned Gatorade Player of the Year honors and was recognized as a MaxPreps Player of the Year.
The numbers are staggering.
Yet when asked what he hopes people remember about him 20 years from now, Myles does not talk about statistics. Instead, he says he hopes people remember the kind of person he was and the way he treated others.
“The person,” he says. “How I treated people. I don’t ever want to be someone who treats others the wrong way. Just the person I am.”
Long before statewide headlines and national recognition, a little boy was competing against older kids in youth leagues. From the beginning, Myles rarely played strictly within his own age group. His parents, Josh and Suzann McLaughlin, placed him in Pop Warner football when he was very young, and he often competed a year or two above his grade level. His competitiveness appeared early. He was strong through the legs, comfortable absorbing contact and unafraid of physical play even as a 4-year-old on the soccer field. Football was also part of daily life at home, where Myles often sat beside his father watching games and asking questions that revealed an unusually deep understanding of the sport for someone his age.
Josh coached Myles through Pop Warner and middle school, and athletics became a natural part of family life. Suzann says sports had long been woven into both sides of the family. Josh himself once held Knox’s career rushing record, a mark that stood for years before Myles surpassed it during his sophomore season — a remarkable passing of the torch between father and son and an early sign that something special was unfolding. Suzann’s grandfather also played college football before returning home to North Judson to run the family’s Fingerhut Bakery. Athletic ability ran through the family, but so did perspective. Suzann says the most important lesson in their home had nothing to do with statistics or awards. Above all else, she wanted her son to grow into a good human being, while Josh frequently reminded him that improvement comes from humility and hard work.
By high school, Myles had already established himself as a natural running back. As Knox’s offense evolved, the coaching staff began shaping much of the game plan around his unique abilities, placing him in a hybrid RB/QB role within an old-school Single Wing offense, a system built on power running and a dominant offensive line. In that direct-snap quarterback position, sometimes described as a wildcat-style role, the ball began in Myles’s hands on nearly every play. The offense depended on his vision, instincts and toughness as a runner, and he embraced the responsibility fully. It was not a traditional quarterback position, and that distinction had the potential to affect recruiting offers. For Myles, however, the focus remained where it had always been: doing whatever the team needed.
For Myles, football has always remained simple.
“It’s 11 guys,” he says. “There’s not just one guy. Eleven people have to do their jobs to make everything work, so that’s why I feel like the team is more important than one person.”
When people suggest that he carried the team, he quickly redirects the credit, explaining that the offensive line created the opportunities and the defense made the stops that allowed the team to succeed.
On the stat sheet, his performance was remarkable, but inside the locker room expectations never changed. Head coach Russ Radtke says Myles was treated exactly like every other player. If the team was cleaning, sweeping or picking up equipment, he was doing the same work. At home, those standards carried over as well, and even as records began to accumulate, nothing about the expectations around him relaxed.
Radtke says what spectators saw on Friday nights was only a small part of the preparation behind it. Much of the work happened quietly during the week, in film sessions and long practices where details mattered. According to Radtke, Myles approached those hours with the same focus he showed under the lights, studying defenses carefully and preparing himself to recognize opportunities before the play even began.
Josh McLaughlin says his son often logged far more time studying film than most players, bringing home scouting reports and spending hours learning defensive tendencies. At home, Myles and his father frequently watched football together, breaking down formations and discussing strategy. Before his senior season, that preparation intensified. Josh says the offseason leading into that final year was when Myles truly sharpened his focus. Summer workouts began early, and the training schedule rarely slowed. During basketball season, he would finish practice and drive nearly an hour for specialized speed training, then return home and repeat the process days later.
There were no crowds for those workouts and no headlines for the extra hours — only repetition, discipline and the quiet determination to improve.
The physical toll of football has been real at times. During a game against Culver Academy, Myles dislocated his kneecap but quickly reset it and continued playing. An earlier challenge came during his sophomore year, when a fractured ankle was discovered after he had already been competing through the injury. Suzann says her son has always struggled with sitting out, and missing time has never come easily to him. Asked how he endured the season physically, Myles answered calmly that trainer Ashley Whitcraft worked carefully to keep him healthy, and that rest, hydration and proper nutrition helped him maintain his strength throughout the year. That conditioning continues to serve him well as a three-sport athlete, and Knox fans recently saw those results again on the basketball court.
His outstanding play on the football field began drawing national attention early in the 2025 season, and with each passing week that attention continued to grow nationwide. Suzann says there were moments when the sudden spotlight felt surreal for their family, and at times she and her husband would simply look at each other and ask what exactly was happening in their lives. Recognition arrived quickly as NFL star Rob Gronkowski publicly predicted Myles would break the national rushing record, Derrick Henry sent a voice message of encouragement, and Peyton Manning mailed a signed photograph. Hearing his name mentioned alongside players he had admired for years felt almost unbelievable to him.
“Definitely crazy,” Myles says. “Something like that I never would have expected. It was surreal.”
Social media brought both praise and criticism, but Myles says he tried not to dwell on it, explaining that although he occasionally saw comments when people tagged him online, the noise mostly served as motivation rather than distraction.
Minix watched the excitement build week after week as the season progressed. What began as strong local support gradually grew into something larger, drawing attention from across the region as Knox’s remarkable season continued to develop. Children began approaching Myles in hallways and gyms, and Minix even recalls his own daughter wearing a Knox hoodie to class at Indiana University when someone asked if she knew the now-famous running back.
The school eventually organized an autograph night that drew nearly 200 people, and even after games, long after many players had left the field, Myles often remained behind signing programs and taking pictures with young fans. He says he remembered what it felt like to be a young fan hoping for a moment with someone you admired, and he wanted to make sure he took the time to meet as many people as he could before leaving the field.
Even amid the excitement of a record-breaking season, another part of Myles’s life remained quietly important. As a freshman, he began volunteering in Knox High School’s applied skills classroom, assisting students with developmental disabilities. He explains that several older students he admired were involved in the program, and their example encouraged him to step into the classroom and help as well.
Over time he assisted with math, daily life skills and everyday classroom activities. One friendship in particular became especially meaningful. Myles recalls helping a student named Carson work toward graduation and says watching Carson walk across the stage was one of the most meaningful moments of his high school years.
For Suzann, those experiences mattered just as much as any touchdown. When asked what it feels like to spend time helping students in the classroom, Myles says the experience simply reflects who he is and how much he enjoys helping others. Because of those experiences, he now plans to major in special education and says that if he becomes a teacher, that is likely the path he will follow.
Knox is a Class 3A school competing against larger programs throughout its conference, yet for one unforgettable season, the town moved together in a shared rhythm of Friday nights. One semifinal game drew more than 17,000 online viewers, something Minix says he had never seen before. Myles says the crowds throughout the season were some of the largest he had experienced in high school, and although he often blocked out the noise while focusing on the game, certain moments broke through — especially the interception that sealed a regional championship and sent the stadium crowd into a roar.
Myles has committed to continuing his football career at Murray State University, and his father says his son understands that the next level will demand the same humility, discipline and work ethic that shaped him in Knox. When asked what he hopes his college coaches understand about him beyond football, Myles says he simply hopes to be someone they can depend on.
The lights in Knox will shine again next fall, and traffic will thin along Main Street as the stadium lights glow once more against the autumn night sky.
There will be new players taking the field, new games to play and new moments for the town to celebrate. When people in Knox talk about the 2025 season years from now, the conversation may begin with the numbers before eventually turning to something deeper.
They will remember the way Myles McLaughlin carried himself — the respect he showed others, the humility he maintained and the quiet way he chose to lead.
Under those Friday night lights, that may be the record that lasts the longest.
