Lee Roy Selmon - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lee Roy Selmon was a Hall of Fame

Pro Football Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...

NFL 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...

defensive lineman.

Early life

Selmon was the youngest of nine children of Lucious and Jessie Selmon, raised on a farm near Eufaula, Oklahoma

Eufaula, Oklahoma

Eufaula is a city in McIntosh County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,639 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of McIntosh County.-Geography:Eufaula is located at ....

. A National Honor Society

National Honor Society

The National Honor Society is a recognition program for high school students in grades 10-12 in the United States and in several other countries...

member at Eufaula High School

Eufaula High School (Eufaula, Oklahoma)

Eufaula High School is a secondary school in Eufaula, Oklahoma, U.S.A. operated by Eufaula Public Schools. It serves grades 9 through 12.-References:...

, he graduated in 1971.

College career

Selmon joined brothers Lucious

Lucious Selmon

-Collegiate career :Selmon came to Oklahoma from Eufaula High School in 1970, and played nose guard for the Oklahoma Sooners for both Chuck Fairbanks and Barry Switzer. He was a consensus All-American in 1973, and was named Chevrolet/ABC National Defensive Player of the Year, Big 8 Conference...

and Dewey Selmon

Dewey Selmon

Dewey Selmon is a former football linebacker. He played collegiate football at Oklahoma . He went on to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the San Diego Chargers in the National Football League....

on the University of Oklahoma

Oklahoma Sooners football

The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma . The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association...

defensive line in 1972. He blossomed into a star in 1974, anchoring one of the best defenses in Sooner

Oklahoma Sooners football

history. The Sooners were NCAA Division I-A national football champions in 1974 and 1975. Selmon won the Lombardi Award

Lombardi Award

The Rotary Lombardi Award is awarded annually to the best college football lineman or linebacker. The Lombardi Award program was approved by the Rotary Club in Houston in 1970 shortly after the death of Vince Lombardi. The committee outlined the criteria for eligibility for the award, which...

and the Outland Trophy

Outland Trophy

The Outland Trophy is awarded to the best United States college football interior lineman by the Football Writers Association of America. It is named after John H. Outland. One of only a few players ever to be named All-America at two positions, Outland garnered consensus All-America honors in...

in 1975. OU Head Coach Barry Switzer

Barry Switzer

Barry Switzer is a former football coach, active in the college and professional ranks between 1962 and 1997. He has one of the highest winning percentages of any college football coach in history, and is one of only two head coaches to win both a college football national championship and a...

called him the best player he ever coached, and College Football News
College Football News
College Football News is a magazine and website published by College Football News, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. News coverage includes scores, statistics, rankings, and reports on college football games. Analysis includes comparisons between teams, predictions of game outcomes and...

placed him as the 39th best college player of all time. He was known as "The Gentle Giant." In the fall of 1999, Selmon was named to the Sports Illustrated NCAA Football All-Century Team.

Selmon was named a consensus All-American in 1974 and 1975 by Newspaper Enterprise Association. His long list of achievements, in addition to the Vince Lombardi Award

Lombardi Award

and the Outland Trophy

Outland Trophy

, includes the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete, GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American and Graduate Fellowship Winner National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.

His brothers Lucious

Lucious Selmon

and Dewey

Dewey Selmon

also were All-American defensive linemen for Oklahoma

Oklahoma Sooners football

, and played on the same defensive line together in 1973. The trio is still regarded as the most famous set of brothers in OU

Oklahoma Sooners football

history.

The 1996 Walter Camp "Alumnus of the Year"

Walter Camp Alumni of the Year

The Walter Camp “Alumni of the Year” award is bestowed by the Walter Camp Football Foundation on a worthy individual who has distinguished himself in the pursuit of excellence as an athlete, in his personal career and in doing good works for others. He must be an individual who has exhibited...

was voted to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.

Statistics

Season		Tackles		Sacks		TFL
	UT	AT	TT	Sack	YdsL	TFL	Yds
1972	5	6	11	3	16	1	?
1973	37	20	57	9	49	2	?
1974	65	60	125	18	71	1	?
1975	88	44	132	10	48	4	?
Career	195	130	325	40	184	8	?

All statistics courtesy of the official website of the Oklahoma Sooners

Professional career

Tackles
1976	24
1977	110
1978	92
1979	117
1980	97
1981	73
1982	58
1983	71
1984	100
Total	742

Sacks
1976	5.0
1977	13.0
1978	11.0
1979	11.0
1980	9.0
1981	6.5
1982	4.0
1983	11.0
1984	8.0
Total	78.5

In 1976 Selmon was the first player picked in the NFL draft, the first-ever pick for the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...

. He joined older brother, Dewey, who was a second round pick of the Bucs. In his first year Selmon won the team's Rookie of the Year and MVP awards. Selmon went to six straight Pro Bowl

Pro Bowl

In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...

s and was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1979. Buccaneer assistant Abe Gibron

Abe Gibron

Abraham Gibron was an American football coach and player. He is best remembered for his tenure as head coach of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. He played in the NFL as an offensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Bears...

said, "Selmon has no peers" at defensive end, while former Detroit Lions

Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...

coach Monte Clark

Monte Clark

Monte Dale Clark was an American football player who served as head coach for two National Football League teams: the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions.-College career:...

compared him to "a grown man at work among a bunch of boys". A back injury made the 1984 season his last, and the Bucs retired his number, 63, in 1986. He is a member of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame

Florida Sports Hall of Fame

The Florida Sports Hall of Fame is an association dedicated to honoring athletes with outstanding achievement in sports in Florida. It has expanded its goals to include encouraging physical fitness among Florida's citizens through the example of its honorees.The FSHOF was founded by the Florida...

. In January 2008, Selmon was voted by a panel of former NFL players and coaches to Pro Football Weekly
Pro Football Weekly
Pro Football Weekly is an American sports magazine, founded in 1967, that covers the National Football League...

's All-Time 3-4 defensive team along with Harry Carson

Harry Carson

Harold Donald Carson is a former American football inside linebacker who played his entire professional career for the NFL's New York Giants...

, Curley Culp

Curley Culp

Curley Culp is a former professional American football player. An offensive and defensive lineman, he played college football at Arizona State University, was the NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion while at ASU, and played professionally in the American Football League for the Kansas City Chiefs...

, Randy Gradishar

Randy Gradishar

Randy Charles Gradishar is a former college and professional American football linebacker who played in the 1970s and 1980s. Randy Gradishar is currently the Director of Corporate Communications for the Phil Long Dealerships in Colorado...

, Howie Long

Howie Long

Howard "Howie" Matthew Moses Long is an American former National Football League defensive end and actor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000...

, Lawrence Taylor

Lawrence Taylor

Lawrence Julius Taylor , nicknamed "L.T.", is a Hall of Fame former American football player. Taylor played his entire professional career as a linebacker for the New York Giants in the National Football League...

and Andre Tippett

Andre Tippett

Andre Bernard Tippett is a former American football linebacker who played for the New England Patriots of the NFL. Currently, he is the Patriots' Executive Director of Community Affairs. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.-Personal life:Tippett was born in Birmingham,...

. He was the first player to be inducted into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Ring of Honor on November 8, 2009.

After football

Selmon stayed in Tampa, Florida

Tampa, Florida

Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

, working as a bank executive and being active in many charities.

From 1993-2001 Selmon served as an assistant athletic director at the University of South Florida

University of South Florida

The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...

under Paul Griffin. When Griffin moved on to take the same position for the Georgia Tech

Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...

Yellow Jackets

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

The Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that play for the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. The teams have also been nicknamed the Ramblin' Wreck, Engineers, Blacksmiths, and Golden Tornado. There are 8 men's and 7 women's teams that...

, Selmon stepped up and took over the athletic department.

As the USF Athletic Director, Selmon launched the football program, spearheaded the construction of a new athletic facility and led the university's move into Conference USA

Conference USA

Conference USA, officially abbreviated C-USA, is a college athletic conference whose member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports...

and then into the Big East Conference

Big East Conference

The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...

. Citing health issues, Selmon resigned as the USF Athletic Director in 2004. He assumed the role as president of the USF Foundation Partnership for Athletics, an athletics fund-raising organization.

The Lee Roy Selmon Expressway is named for him, as is a chain of restaurants. The chain, Lee Roy Selmon's, was named one of the 10 best sports bars in America in 2009. Its motto is "Play Hard. Eat Well. And Don't Forget to Share."^{http://cityguides.msn.com/citylife/cityarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=18491453&page=2}

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame

College Football Hall of Fame

The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...

in 1988 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Pro Football Hall of Fame

in 1995. To date, he is the only Hall of Famer to have earned his credentials primarily in Tampa Bay.

Death

Selmon suffered a massive stroke on September 2, 2011, which left him hospitalized in extremely critical condition. His restaurant initially released a statement announcing his death; however, this was later confirmed to be false. In fact, at one point his condition was said to be improving.

On September 4, 2011 Selmon died at the age of 56 from complications of the stroke. Visitation was scheduled for the following Thursday at the Exciting Central Tampa Baptist Church. The funeral was held the next day at Idlewild Baptist Church. Former teammates, the current Buccaneer team, the USF football team, other members of the NFL, and the general public attended. His final service and internment will happen at a to be announced later date in Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

. The USF football team will wear a #63 decal on their helmets for the 2011 season, as will the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both teams conducted a ceremony to honor Selmon the weekend following his passing.

External links

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