January 10, 1994 Smith accomplishes something no other Cowboy has ever done -- win the MVP award. For the 1993 campaign, he totals 1,486 rushing yards and becomes the fourth running back in history to win three rushing titles in a row. "There are so many great players who have played for the Cowboys, and there are so many great players who are in the league this year," Smith says. "That's why this award is so special."

January 30, 1994 The Cowboys beat the Bills, 30-13, in a Super Bowl rematch. Smith earns the game's MVP honors with 132 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

October 1994

Smith appears in his first movie, playing himself in the children's football flick, Little Giants.

December 19, 1994 The tough-as-nails running back sets a single-season franchise record by scoring his 22nd touchdown of the year -- despite missing all or part of five games due to hamstring injuries.

September 4, 1995

In the first game of the season, Smith gets off to a flying start, taking his first carry 60 yards for a touchdown against the Giants. For the contest he totals 163 yards rushing and four touchdowns, which ties a Cowboys record for most TDs scored by one player in a single game

October 29, 1995

Smith becomes the 20th player in league history to top 8,000 yards rushing when he piles up 167 against the Falcons.

December 25, 1995

Against Arizona, Smith breaks his own record for single-season rushing touchdowns, when he reaches paydirt for the 25th time.

December 1995

When all is said and done, 1995 ends up being Smith's finest campaign as a pro. His 1,773 rushing yards earn him his fourth rushing title in five years. He leads the league in total yards from scrimmage (2,148), rushing attempts (377) and scoring (150 points), and becomes the first non-kicker to lead the NFL in points since Jerry Rice in 1987. All told, Emmitt establishes nine offensive records for the Cowboys.

January 28, 1996 Smith is an NFL champion for the third time in four years, scoring two touchdowns in the Cowboys' 27-17 win against Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX.

October 13, 1996 With 112 yards on the ground against Arizona, Smith tops the century mark in rushing for the 44th time in his career, breaking Tony Dorsett's club record of 43. Smith also scores two touchdowns, No. 100 and 101 for his career, making him the fourth player in NFL history to rush for 100 TDs.

November 28, 1996

After racking up 155 rushing yards against the Redskins, Smith becomes the 12th player in NFL history to top the 10,000 yard mark.

1996

After six years as a pro, Smith becomes a one-man corporation, running four enterprises: Emmitt, Inc., a collectibles and trading-card company; Emmitt Smith Communications Corporation, which sells and leases cellular phones and pagers; Emmitt Zone, Inc., which licenses his name to companies such as Reebok, Starter and Scoreboard; and Emmitt Smith Charities, which handles his humanitarian efforts.

November 9, 1997

With a touchdown against Arizona -- the 117th of his career -- Smith moves past John Riggins into fifth place on the NFL's all-time touchdown list.

November 18, 1998

Smith runs for a season-high 163 yards against the New York Giants and in the process breaks Tony Dorsett's club record (12,036) for rushing yards.

December 20, 1998 Smith becomes the 12th player in NFL history to top 15,000 rushing yards when he burns Philadelphia for 110.

December 27, 1998

Running for career touchdowns No. 124 and 125 against the Redskins, Smith breaks Marcus Allen's (123) NFL record for rushing TDs.

May 15, 1999

At his 30th birthday party, Smith proposes to girlfriend Patricia Lawrence -- a former Miss Virginia and the ex-wife of comedian Martin Lawrence.

January 9, 2000

In a playoff loss at Minnesota, Smith rushes for 99 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. He finishes the day as the NFL's all-time leader in career postseason rushing yards (1,586) and rushing touchdowns (19).

April 22, 2000

Emmitt and Patricia tie the knot in Dallas.

December 10, 2000

With 150 yards on 23 carries against the Redskins, Smith achieves several milestones. He becomes the third player in NFL history to surpass the 15,000 yard plateau (Barry Sanders and Walter Payton are the others) and for the 10th consecutive season eclipses 1,000-yard mark, making him only the third player in history to accomplish the feat, once again joining Sanders and Payton.

September 23, 2001

Thanks to a 14-yard run in the second quarter against San Diego, Smith passes Sanders to move into second place on the all-time rushing list with 15,291 yards, leaving Payton (16,726 yards) as the only man left for Emmitt to hurdle. "Barry should have had this record," Smith says after the game. "He could come back today and still have it, but maybe it wasn't meant for him. Maybe it is meant for me. We don't know. We will see when it's all over."

December 25, 2001

Smith is named the all-time offensive player on USA Today's 20th anniversary high school football team.

January 6, 2002

In the season finale against Detroit, Smith carries the ball 18 times and gains 77 yards to surpass 1,000 rushing yards for the 11th season in a row and break the old mark of 10 set by Sanders. "I wanted to be a consistent back for a long period of time and I think having 1,000 yards over 11 consecutive years has put me in that category," Smith says.

Photographs by John Biever (3), Peter Read Miller (2), Al Tielemans