Bobby Joe Green
| No. 89, 88 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Punter | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | May 7, 1936 Vernon, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died | May 28, 1993 (aged 57) Gainesville, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||
| Listed height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||
| Listed weight | 175 lb (79 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | College (Bartlesville, Oklahoma) | ||||||||
| College | Oklahoma (1955–1956) Florida (1957–1959) | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1959 (9th round, 102nd overall pick) | ||||||||
| AFL draft | 1960 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
Playing | |||||||||
Coaching | |||||||||
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| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Bobby Joe Green (May 7, 1936 – May 28, 1993) was an American professional football player who was a punter for 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears. He played college football for the Florida Gators.
Early life
[edit]Green was born in Vernon, Texas, in 1936.[1] He attended College High School in Bartlesville, Oklahoma,[2] and he played high school football for the College High Wildcats.
College career
[edit]Green accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was a punter and halfback for coach Bob Woodruff's Gators teams from 1958 and 1959.[3] As a senior in 1959, he kicked fifty-four punts for an average distance of 44.9 yards—still the Gators' single-season record.[3] Woodruff ranked him and Don Chandler as the Gators' best kickers of the 1950s.[4] His 82-yard punt against the Georgia Bulldogs in 1958 remains the longest punt by a Gator in the modern era.[3] Green was also a sprinter and high jumper on the Florida Gators track and field team. He was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."[5]
Green also appeared on Oklahoma's 1956 National Championship roster.[6]
Professional career
[edit]Green was selected in the ninth round (102nd pick overall) of the 1959 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers,[7] and played fourteen seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears.[8] He played for the Steelers in 1960 and 1961, and then was traded to the Bears, for whom he played from 1962 to 1973.[8] Green was a member of the Bears' 1963 NFL Championship team, and was selected to the Pro Bowl after the 1970 season.[1] Green was one of the last NFL players to play without a face mask and can be seen doing so in the late 1960s.
During his fourteen-season NFL career, Green appeared in 187 games, kicking 970 punts for 41,317 yards (an average of 42.6 yards per kick).[1] He also completed six of ten passing attempts for 103 yards.[1]
Life after the NFL
[edit]Green returned to Gainesville, Florida after his professional football career ended, and started a specialty advertising business.[9] Green also served as a volunteer kicking coach for the Florida Gators under head football coaches Charley Pell and Galen Hall from 1979 to 1989.[9] In May 2019 Green was rated #97 on the Chicago Bears top 100 list.[10]
Green died as a result of a heart attack in his Gainesville home on the morning of May 28, 1993; he was 57 years old.[9] He was survived by his wife Martha Jane and their son and daughter.[9]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 "Bobby Joe Green Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft, College". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved August 9, 2026.
- ↑ databaseFootball.com, Players, Bobby Green. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
- 1 2 3 2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide Archived April 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 152–153, 181 (2011). Retrieved August 29, 2011.
- ↑ Tom McEwen, The Gators: A Story of Florida Football, The Strode Publishers, Huntsville, Alabama, pp. 210–211 (1974).
- ↑ F Club, Hall of Fame, Gator Greats. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
- ↑ "Bobby Green". soonerstats.com. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
- ↑ Pro Football Hall of Fame, Draft History, 1959 National Football League Draft Archived September 29, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
- 1 2 National Football League, Historical Players, Bobby Joe Green. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 Sam Dolson, "Ex-Gator Bobby Joe Green dies of heart attack, The Gainesville Sun, Sports Weekend, p. 2 (May 29, 1993). Retrieved June 25, 2010.
- ↑ "Ranking best Bears of all time: Nos. 76-100".
- 1936 births
- 1993 deaths
- American football punters
- Oklahoma Sooners football players
- Chicago Bears players
- Florida Gators football coaches
- Florida Gators football players
- Florida Gators men's track and field athletes
- National Conference Pro Bowl players
- Sportspeople from Vernon, Texas
- Pittsburgh Steelers players
- Players of American football from Oklahoma
- Track and field athletes from Oklahoma
- 20th-century American sportsmen