Bill Willis dies
Posted by Mary Schmitt Boyer November 28, 2007 19:23PM
Categories: Browns
Gene Fekete still remembers the first time he met Bill Willis.
It was in the fall of 1940, the opening game of the high school football season. Fekete was a senior running back for Findlay. Willis was a senior defensive lineman for Columbus East.
"The only recollection I have of that game is that we had a fifth man in our backfield -- and it was him," Fekete said with a chuckle.
Willis, a Hall of Fame middle guard with the Browns who also was Ohio State's first black football All-American, died Tuesday evening from complications following a stroke suffered on Thanksgiving. He was 86.
"As great a football player as he was, he was three times as good a dad," his son Will Willis Jr. told The Columbus Dispatch.
Willis' speed and quickness revolutionized the position of middle guard. But, more significantly, he helped break the color barrier in professional football. Signed by Paul Brown in 1946, a year before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, Willis became the first African-American in the All-America Football Conference and was among the first in the modern era of professional football, along with teammate Marion Motley, who signed with the Browns shortly after Willis.
When Willis was inducted in to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977, he asked Brown to present him.
"Paul, I am honored to have you to be my presenter today because, after all, that's the way it began 31 years ago," Willis said in his induction speech. "I have always said that Paul Brown changed my life. If it had not been for PB, I am certain I would not be here receiving this honor today. It was he who afforded me the opportunity to play pro football when it was not the popular thing to do. I was the first black to play in the All American [Football] Conference, and Paul arranged for me to play without fanfare. He simply gave me the opportunity to make that ballclub of his."
Brown was well aware of Willis' abilities by that time, having coached him at Ohio State. Although Willis was a standout athlete in football and track for Columbus East, he didn't think he had the money to attend Ohio State. His high school coach, Ralph Webster, graduated from the University of Illinois and was trying to get Willis a scholarship there. But when Brown became the coach at Ohio State in 1941, Webster figured Willis would be better off staying in Columbus.
Indeed, Willis played on offense and defense and was a key figure on the Buckeyes' 1942 championship squad. He attended the 65th anniversary celebration of that squad earlier this fall and on Nov. 3, he had his No. 99 jersey retired. In spite of failing health, he was able to attend the game, riding in a golf cart to midfield for the ceremony.
"It was kind of a miracle he was able to go to the Ohio State game that day," his son, Clem Willis, recalled. "It was quite a joy for him to see some of the old-timers."
After graduating from Ohio State, Willis became football coach and athletic director at Kentucky State, an all-black school in Frankfort. Although his team lost only two games, Willis missed playing football so much that he decided to have knee surgery in an effort to make it to the pros. He was en route to Montreal in the Canadian Football League when Brown called and invited him to try out for the Browns in the new AAFC.
