Selmon during his playing career
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No. 63 | |||||||||
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Position: | Defensive end | ||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||
Date of birth: | October 20, 1954 | ||||||||
Place of birth: | Eufaula, Oklahoma | ||||||||
Date of death: | September 4, 2011 | (aged 56)||||||||
Place of death: | Tampa, Florida | ||||||||
Career information | |||||||||
High school: | Eufaula (OK) | ||||||||
College: | Oklahoma | ||||||||
NFL Draft: | 1976 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1 | ||||||||
Career history | |||||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Tackles: | 742 |
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Sacks: | 78.5 |
Fumbles forced: | 28.5 |
Player stats at NFL.com |
Lee Roy Selmon (October 20, 1954 – September 4, 2011) was an American football player and college athletics administrator. He played college football as a defensive tackle at the University of Oklahoma, the youngest of three Selmon brothers to play football there.
He was a consensus All-American in 1975 and a member of consecutive national championship teams for the Oklahoma Sooners in 1974 and 1975.
Selmon was selected by the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the first overall pick in the 1976 NFL draft. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons, from 1976 to 1984, all with the Buccaneers.
Selmon joined the athletic department at the University of South Florida in 1993 and served as the school's athletic director from 2001 to 2004. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995.
Selmon was the youngest of nine children of Lucious and Jessie Selmon, raised on a farm near Eufaula, Oklahoma. A National Honor Society member at Eufaula High School, he graduated in 1971 after playing football through high school. His two older brothers also played football and went to Oklahoma University, which he attended and where he graduated.
In 1972, Selmon followed his brothers Lucious and Dewey Selmon in playing on the defensive line at the University of Oklahoma. He blossomed into a star in 1974, anchoring one of the best defenses in Oklahoma Sooners football history. The Sooners were national champions in 1974 and 1975. Selmon won the Lombardi Award and the Outland Trophy in 1975. Oklahoma head coach Barry Switzer called him the best player he ever coached, and College Football News placed him as the 39th-best college player of all time.