College Career
Willis was small for a lineman at 202 pounds, and despite signing up to play for Brown he was initially expected to focus on track and the 60-yard and 100-yard dashes. Brown, however, brought him onto the football team as a sophomore in 1942. Willis played middle guard, a defensive position opposite the center. That year, the Buckeyes posted a 9–1 record and won the Big Ten Conference. The team was voted national champion by the Associated Press, a first for the school.
Before the following season, scores of Ohio State players left the school to join the military as American involvement in World War II intensified. Willis volunteered for the U.S. Army, but was classified as 4-F, or only available for service in case of a national emergency, due to varicose veins. With many stars gone, however, Brown fielded a team composed mostly of 17-year-olds who were not yet eligible for military service. The "Baby Bucks", as they were called, fell to 3–6, although Willis was named a first-team All Conference selection in the Big Ten.
By the 1944 season, Brown had joined the military and was coaching a team at Great Lakes Naval Training Station outside Chicago. Under his substitute, coach Carroll Widdoes, the Buckeyes completed an undefeated season. Willis was named to the United Press International and Look magazine All-America teams. He played in the 1944 College All-Star Game at Chicago, and was named the game's outstanding player.
Read more about this topic: Bill Willis
Famous quotes containing the words college career, college and/or career:
“In looking back over the college careers of those who for various reasons have been prominent in undergraduate life ... one cannot help noticing that these men have nearly always shown from the start an interest in the lives of their fellow students. A large acquaintance means that many persons are dependent on a man and conversely that he himself is dependent on many. Success necessarily means larger responsibilities, and responsibilities mean many friends.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Generally young men are regarded as radicals. This is a popular misconception. The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates. The radicals are the men past middle life.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)