Eddie LeBaron obit

Original Cowboys quarterback Eddie LeBaron dies at 85

He was not on the list.

Eddie LeBaron Jr., the first quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, a college football Hall of Famer and a war hero, has died. He was 85.

The University of Pacific said LeBaron died of natural causes Wednesday.

The 5-foot-7, 160-pound LeBaron quarterbacked the Cowboys for most of their first three seasons before being replaced by Don Meredith after the first game of the 1963 season. LeBaron retired at the end of the 1963 season.

LeBaron enrolled at the College of the Pacific in Stockton as a 16-year-old. He played college football for the Tigers under Amos Alonzo Stagg and Larry Siemering from 1946 to 1949, lettering all four years and achieving All-American honors as a senior.

LeBaron, who received the Davey O’Brien Legends Award in Fort Worth in 2013, played 11 seasons in the NFL, including his first seven with the Washington Redskins, the team that drafted him in the 10th round in 1950 out of Pacific. He threw for 13,399 yards and 104 touchdowns and was selected to four Pro Bowls. He also played one season with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.

He later served as general manager for the Atlanta Falcons from 1977 to 1982 and was the league’s Executive of the Year in 1980. He also served on the NFL’s Competition Committee.

At Pacific, LeBaron finished sixth in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy. He was known as a deceptive ball-handling quarterback who tricked opposing defenses with his spinning moves in the backfield.

His pro career was delayed for two years while serving as a U.S. Marine in the Korean War. He was wounded twice and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for heroism.

His passing yardage puts him 149th among all quarterbacks in NFL history — better than names such as Super Bowl starters Vince Ferragamo and Tony Eason and San Francisco 49ers star Frankie Albert.

He is survived by his wife Doralee, sons Edward “Wayne” III, Richard and William, and five grandchildren.

 

Some of his football associates include: 

George Preston Marshall, Curly Lambeau, Harry Gilmer, Johnny Williams, Hugh Taylor, Sammy Baugh, Charlie Justice, Paul Lipscomb, Laurie Niemi, Dick McCann, Julius Rykovich, Wayne Millner, Herman Ball, Gene Brito, Don Doll, Bill Dudley, Chuck Drazenovich, Sam Baker, Joe Kuharich, Rob Goode, Billy Wells, Al Dorow, Ralph Guglielmi, Joe Scudero, LaVern Torgeson, Dick Stanfel,  Dick James, Don Bosseler, Al DeMao, Dick Evans, Leo Elter, Volney Peters, Jim Podoley, John Carson, Jim Schrader, Johnny Olszewski, Bill Anderson, Bob Toneff, Emil Karas, Richie McCabe, Bill McPeak, Tom Landry, Clint Murchison Jr., Jim Doran, Don Meredith, Duane Putnam, Dick Bielski, Billy Howton, Tex Schramm, Don Perkins, Chuck Howley, Bob Lilly, Jerry Tubbs, Jim Myers, Dick Nolan, Don Bishop, Frank Clarke, Lee Folkins, Pettis Norman, Cornell Green, Red Hickey, Lee Roy Jordan and Gil Brandt.

Robert Walker obit

Obituary: Ottawa animator Bob Walker was nominated for Academy Award

He was not on the list.



For as long as anyone can remember, Bob Walker doodled: cartoon figures, faces, animals, Mad Magazine characters.

As a teenager, Walker covered his bedroom walls with doodles. His parents would sometimes paint over them just to give their son a new canvas on which to work.

“He was always drawing, drawing, drawing,” said his older sister, Sandra Walker, an Ottawa teacher. “That was his passion.”

Walker, who grew up in Ottawa and graduated from Gloucester High School, translated that passion into a career as a Walt Disney studio layout artist and director — a career that culminated with a 2003 Academy Award nomination for the animated feature Brother Bear, a film that earned more than $250 million worldwide.

Walker, who recently retired from the film industry, died suddenly at his California home last week from a suspected heart attack. He was 54.

“He was just a down-to-earth, quiet, thoughtful guy who cared about the people around him,” said his younger brother, Jim. “He was unassuming: he went through life with untied shoes, jeans and a T-shirt.”

Bob Walker always knew he wanted some kind of career in the art world. After graduating from Gloucester, he pursued a liberal arts degree at New York’s St. Lawrence University. One year later, he transferred to Oakville’s Sheridan College upon discovering the school offered a degree in animation. (The much-acclaimed program was launched in the early 1970s with some of the equipment that had been used to produce Rocket Robin Hood, a made-in-Canada animated TV series.)

After Sheridan, Walker was hired at what was then one of the country’s premier animation studios: Atkinson Film-Arts in Ottawa. For five years, Walker worked on animated TV shows such as The Raccoons and Dennis The Menace; he left the firm — part of Crawley Films — just before it shut down in 1989.

Luckily, Walker had heard about a new Walt Disney animation studio being opened in Bay Lake, Florida. His father, an Ottawa car dealer, gave his son an old van that he drove to Florida to apply for the job. “He had a portfolio under his arm, went into the Disney trailer, and they hired him on the spot,” said Jim Walker.

The studio, built inside a Disney theme park, was originally designed so that visitors could watch through glass walls as animators did their work. That plan didn’t last long, since the animators didn’t take kindly to being viewed like zoo animals.

Walker started as a layout artist on Roller Coaster Rabbit, a Roger Rabbit short, and later became head of layout for the Florida studio, overseeing scenes for feature films such as The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Mulan (1998) and Lilo & Stitch (2002).

Although Walker was involved in some of the biggest animated films of the era, he wasn’t one to boast. “He was so humble: you had to pull anything out of him,” said Sandra Walker. “He was a man of few words, but when he was listening to you, he made you feel like you were the only one there.”

In 2003, Walker launched his directing debut. His Disney bosses warned him that he would have to talk more often in his new role.

“They said, ‘Bob, you’re ready to take this leap but you’re going to have to speak, you’re going to have to tell people what to do,’ ” recalled his brother, Jim.

Brother Bear, co-directed by Walker, was nominated for an Academy Award in the best animated feature category.

The film that Walker and Aaron Blaise co-directed, Brother Bear, tells the story of an Inuit boy, Kenai, who takes on the form of a bear after killing the animal. The film, which featured the voices of Hollywood stars Joaquin Phoenix, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, was nominated for an Academy Award in the best animated feature category. It lost that year to Pixar’s Finding Nemo.

Walker recently retired to California to spend more time with his nine-year-old daughter and to work on his golf game, while also pursuing with more personal art projects.

“He just filled the room in a quiet, unassuming way,” said his sister. “He was so much fun to be around.”