William Shakespeare (football)
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| Position: | Halfback / Punter |
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| Personal information | |
| Date of birth: | September 27, 1912 |
| Place of birth: | Staten Island, New York |
| Date of death: | January 17, 1974 (aged 61) |
| Place of death: | Cincinnati |
| Career information | |
| College: | Notre Dame |
| Career history | |
| * Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |
William Valentine "Bill" Shakespeare (September 27, 1912 – January 17, 1974) was an American football player. He played at the halfback position, and also handled punting, for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football teams from 1933 to 1935. He gained his greatest acclaim for throwing the winning touchdown pass as time ran off the clock in Notre Dame's 1935 victory over Ohio State, a game that was voted the best game in the first 100 years of college football. Shakespeare was selected as a consensus first-team All-American in 1935 and was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983. Sharing the same name as "The Bard of Avon", Shakespeare earned nicknames including "The Bard of Staten Island", "The Bard of South Bend", and "The Merchant of Menace."
Shakespeare was born on Staten Island, New York. His father, Valentine Shakespeare, was a New York City firefighter and the captain of Fire Company 163. The family claimed to be direct descendants of the famed writer William Shakespeare. The younger Shakespeare became a star football player at Staten Island's Port Richmond High School. He showed particular talent as a punter and later told reporters that he had trained his pet fox terrier to retrieve his punts as he practiced his technique.
He enrolled at the University of Notre Dame in 1932, the year after the death of the school's legendary football coach Knute Rockne. He played for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football teams in 1933, 1934, and 1935, and was selected as a consensus All-American in 1935.
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