Bill McColl obit

Hall of Famer Bill McColl Passes Away

 

He was not on the list.

Bill McColl, a 1973 College Football Hall of Fame inductee and a two-way player at Stanford from 1949-51, passed away Dec. 28. He was 93 and the third oldest living Hall of Famer.

"Bill McColl was a phenomenal player and an even more special human being," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "He used the gridiron to create educational opportunities for himself and his family, and he impacted countless people during his subsequent medical career. He remained a staunch supporter of the NFF and our San Deigo Chapter, and we are extremely grateful for him embodying everything right with the game of football. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this time of loss."

McColl was a two-time All- America End at Stanford (unanimous in 1951 and consensus in 1950), playing on both offense and defense for the Cardinal during the one platoon era. A captain on the 1951 Pacific Coast Conference Championship team, McColl helped Stanford notch a 9-2 record, a final No. 7 AP ranking, and a berth in the Rose Bowl against Illinois. He finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1951 while accumulating 46 receptions for 669 yards and seven touchdowns. 

His three seasons in Palo Alto produced three winning seasons and an overall record of 21-8-3. He was the inaugural recipient of the W. J. Voit Memorial Trophy, which was awarded by the Helms Athletic Foundation from 1951 to 1978 to the outstanding college football player on the Pacific Coast.

A third round NFL Draft pick (32nd overall), McColl played with the Chicago Bears from 1952-59 under a contract that allowed him to complete his medical training at the University of Chicago. McColl could have written one of football's great biographies. He chose, instead, to retire from football, beginning a two-year Presbyterian mission at a leprosy hospital in Korea. It was a far cry from the playing fields of Palo Alto, where Bill McColl had carved history as one of Stanford's greatest players.

McColl represented the American ideal, and his compassionate heart led him with a burning with a desire to contribute to mankind as an orthopedic surgeon. He also ran three times as a Republican candidate from California for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Born April 2, 1930, in San Diego, McColl attended Herbert Hoover High School in his hometown. A high school honors student, he was Southern California's Schoolboy Athlete of the Year in 1948. He won San Diego's Soap Box Derby at the age of 11. He was inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame in 1954 and the San Diego Hall of Champions and the Breitbard Hall of Fame in 1965.

All of McColl's six children attended Stanford, and his sons Duncan and Milt both played football, earning laurels as NFF National Scholar-Athletes respectively in 1976 and 1980.

McColl was drafted in the 3rd Round of the 1952 NFL draft, the 32nd pick overall. He was selected by George Halas's Chicago Bears — for whom he would play his entire 8 year National Football League career.

Switching from his collegiate number 3 to jersey number 83 in the pros, McColl would play in all 96 regular season games of his 8-year NFL career for the Bears. As a professional, he would catch 201 balls for more than 2,800 yards, including 25 receptions for touchdown.

In the 1956 NFL season, McColl threw the longest pass completion of the year (79 yards) in an end around pass against the New York Giants and had the sixth longest reception at 69 yards.

McColl's career year was his seventh in the league, 1958, during which he hauled down 35 passes for 517 yards. McColl's 8 TD receptions in 1958 would place him third among receivers in the league, with only two co-leaders ahead of him with 9 touchdown grabs.

During his time with the Bears, McColl continued his medical education at the University of Chicago Medical School. He would become an orthopedic surgeon and serve in Korea as a Presbyterian missionary doctor from 1962 to 1964. He was recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame with a humanitarian award for his service and was voted one of the 10 Outstanding Young Men of America in 1964 by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce.

In 1970, McColl ran in the Republican primary for a special election to fill California's 24th Congressional District in the eastern Los Angeles County region. The incumbent Republican, Congressman Glenard Lipscomb, had died and the election was to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term. McColl ran a strong campaign and was involved in a close three way race with former congressmen John Rousselot and Patrick Hillings. Rousselot won, defeating McColl by 127 votes.

In 1972, McColl tried for congress again. He had moved to the Pasadena-Burbank-Glendale area, and he ran for the 20th Congressional District seat that was being vacated by retiring Republican Congressman Allen Smith. He finished second in the primary to state Assemblyman Carlos Moorhead, who went on to be elected to congress in November.

McColl made his third and final run for congress in 1982 in the newly created 43rd Congressional District near San Diego. In the Republican primary he once again ran a competitive campaign, but came in a close third to wealthy businessman Johnnie Crean, whom he refused to support due to Crean's false charges, and the eventual winner, Carlsbad Mayor Ron Packard.