Dan Birdwell was an American college and professional football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 player. A defensive lineman, he played collegiately for the University of Houston

University of Houston

The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...

 and professionally for the Oakland Raiders

Oakland Raiders

The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

 of the American Football League

American Football League

The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...

 from 1962 to 1969. He was the starting left defensive tackle with Tom Keating (American football)

Tom Keating (American football)

For the famous art forger of the same name, see Tom Keating.For the priest and author of the same name see Thomas Keating.Thomas Arthur Keating is a retired American collegiate and Professional Football player...

 on the right side for the 1967 AFL Champion Raiders with their 13-1 win-loss record and on the losing side in the second AFL-NFL World Championship game

Super Bowl II

The second AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, later to be known as Super Bowl II, was played on January 14, 1968 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida....

. In that season, the front four of Birdwell, Keating, Ike Lassiter

Ike Lassiter

Ike Lassiter is a former American college and professional football defensive lineman. He is an alumnus of St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he received a Bachelor's Degree in physical education...

, and Ben Davidson

Ben Davidson

Benjamin Earl Davidson is a former collegiate and professional American football player between 1961 and 1972, most notably in the American Football League with the Oakland Raiders from 1964 through 1969, and for the NFL Raiders from 1970 through 1972. He had also played in the NFL for the league...

combined for impressive totals of 67 sacks and 666 yards lost.

Birdwell is credited with the following quote regarding the necessary mindset to play professional football: "You have to play this game like somebody just hit your mother with a two by four."

Birdwell died of a massive heart attack at age 37 on February 14, 1978.