Willie Wood, who was neglected within the N.F.L. draft but forged a Corridor of Fame job as 1 of professional football’s best defensive backs, enjoying on five Inexperienced Bay Packers championship groups from the nineteen sixties, died on Monday in Washington. He was 83.
His Loss of life, at an assisted dwelling facility, was introduced from the Packers.
Wood was uncovered to own dementia in 2006 and had obtained monetary aid from a joint N.File.L.-gamers’ union fund aiding previous players with that situation. He had also gone through many orthopedic functions. In March 2012, when his indigenous Washington named a block of N Street, the place he experienced when lived, as “Willie Wood Way,” he attended the ceremony inside of a wheelchair.
Participating in for that Packers from 1960 to 1971, Wooden did not have A lot speed and was only 5 feet 10 inches tall and a hundred and eighty kilos at very best. But he was An excellent tackler, normally hitting opponents round the ankles when he wasn't intercepting passes or batting them down. Roaming the secondary at free of charge security, he was swift to dissect performs and acquire towards the ball. He was also a league-foremost punt returner.
A essential determine from the Packers’ dynasty designed by Coach Vince Lombardi, Wooden was a primary-workforce All-Professional 5 moments and was selected for eight Professional Bowl game titles. He was inducted in the Professional Football Corridor of Fame in 1989 and chosen to its all-10 years staff in the sixties.
Wooden produced a match-turning play in the first Tremendous Bowl, in January 1967, if the Packers, champions in the N.File.L., satisfied the Kansas Town Chiefs, winners on the American Soccer League title.
With all the Packers main by only 14-ten during the 3rd quarter, Wooden intercepted a go from Len Dawson and ran it back again 50 yards to your Chiefs’ five-lawn-line, putting together a touchdown that sent the Packers on their own strategy to a 35-10 rout.
“That Participate in seemingly altered the temperament of the game,” the Chiefs’ coach Hank Stram mentioned. “Following that we just broke down.”
Wooden performed inside of a Packer defense that provided his fellow Hall of Famers Herb Adderley at cornerback, Ray Nitschke at Center linebacker and Willie Davis and Henry Jordan on the line.
Even though Nitschke called the defensive signals, Wooden could seemingly intimidate him.
“I hate to miss out on a deal with,” the Packers’ offensive guard Jerry Kramer quoted Nitschke as acquiring reported in “Distant Replay” (1985), written with Dick Schaap. “I'm sure if I do, I’m gonna have a soiled search from Willie. He’ll kill you with that appear.”
Within the University of Southern California, Wood was a operate-oriented quarterback who also played from the secondary sometimes. No staff picked him during the 1960 draft. He was relatively quick for Qualified soccer and not especially impressive like a passer, and like a black quarterback he performed a position that, at the time, was reserved for white gamers. Wood thought he could make The professionals as a security, and he wrote to quite a few N.F.L. groups seeking a tryout. Only Lombardi was intrigued, as well as the Packers signed him.
“Lombardi realized I was modest,” Wooden remembered, “but I'd significant shoulders plus a seventeen-inch neck. Lombardi appreciated that.”
Wooden became a starter in his 2nd period, changing Emlen Tunnell, one of the early black stars in the N.File.L. Tunnell was shortly to retire as a Packer just after forging a Corridor of Fame career Along with the Giants.
“I accustomed to sit all over and quiz Em continuously,” Wooden explained to David Maraniss for his Lombardi biography, “When Satisfaction Nonetheless Mattered” (1999). “He taught me to anticipate what would transpire.”
William Vernell Wooden was born on Dec. 23, 1936, in Washington and became a highschool soccer star. He was recruited for U.S.C. by Al Davis, the long run owner and coach in the Oakland Raiders, who was an assistant While using the Trojans at enough time. He performed at U.S.C. for three seasons and was a co-captain like a senior.
Wooden performed on Packer groups that received N.File.L. championships in 1961, ’sixty two and ’65, defeating the Giants twice as well as the Cleveland Browns; they then captured the 1st two Tremendous Bowls, beating the Chiefs after which the Oakland Raiders, 33-14.
He had forty eight profession interceptions, like a league-major nine in 1962. He was the N.File.L.’s major punt returner in 1961, with a mean of 16.1 yards for each return, and ran back again two punts for touchdowns that period.
Wood was afterwards an assistant coach for the San Diego Chargers. He was employed with the Philadelphia Bell of the whole world Soccer League in 1975 as the first black head coach in contemporary Professional soccer. The W.F.L. shortly folded, but Wood became a head coach again, With all the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts in 1980 and ’81. He later owned a Washington building firm.
Wood’s survivors contain two sons, Willie Jr. and Andre; a daughter, LaJuane; and a sister, U.S.C. stated.
Wood was a design of durability, playing in 166 consecutive video games to the Packers. But because the a long time handed, he underwent knee and hip replacements, surgery to fuse vertebrae in his neck and also a lower-back Procedure.
In October 2002, right after 4 big functions while in the earlier few years, he was going for walks having a cane. As he informed The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Like a lot of other players, I used to be dealt a foul hand.”
Aimee Ortiz contributed reporting.