Versatile 'Bullet' did it all for the Steelers in '40s
Dec. 24, 1921 -- Feb. 4, 2010Friday, February 05, 2010
By The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/Steelers Hall of Famer Bill Dudley, the only player to lead the National Football League in rushing and interceptions in the same season, died Thursday in Lynchburg, Va., where he had lived since 1951. He was 88.
Mr. Dudley, known as Bullet Bill, may have been the most versatile player in Steelers history -- running and throwing the football, playing defense, returning kicks, punting and kicking.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Bill Dudley"We lost one of the all-time great Steelers," team chairman emeritus Dan Rooney said in a statement from Miami, Fla., site of Super Bowl XLIV. "My father knew Bill very well and admired him as both a player and as a member of society. I became very close to Bill throughout the years. He was a dear friend who will be missed by anyone who knew him."
An All-American at the University of Virginia, Mr. Dudley was the first choice in the 1942 NFL draft and signed a $5,000 contract with the Steelers. As a rookie, he helped the last-place Steelers to a 7-4 record in 1942, the best season in their history at the time, and led the league with 696 rushing yards.
His football career was interrupted by World War II and he spent three years as a B-25 and B-29 pilot in the Pacific. He was discharged in November 1945 and returned to the Steelers for the final three games that season.
In 1946, Mr. Dudley led the league in rushing (604 yards), interceptions (10) and punt returns and was named NFL Most Valuable Player. He set a Steelers record for interception return yardage (242), which stood through the 1991 season. His salary for the season was $12,500.
"He instantly made our team better with his versatility and all-around football skills," Mr. Rooney said.
But the Steelers' demanding single-wing offense, combined with Mr. Dudley's defensive work, took its toll.
He retired at age 25 and denied newspaper accounts that he asked to be traded.
"I was playing 50 minutes a game, had hurt my knee in the last game of the season and I was definitely going to retire," Mr. Dudley said years ago. "I don't think anyone could take that beating.
"I had written a letter to Mr. [Art] Rooney and told him I'm not asking to be traded, but I don't feel I can come back and take the physical beating I had taken."
Mr. Dudley, whose smallish frame (5-10, 176) belied his productivity, nearly missed the opening of his first training camp because the guard at the gate didn't believe he was a football player.
"They had to get the coaches to let him in," wrote the late Pittsburgh Press sports editor Pat Livingston.
Mr. Dudley and former Steelers coach Jock Sutherland seldom operated on good terms and even had a celebrated training-camp spat in 1946 in which the coach chastised Mr. Dudley after an interception for not throwing a better pass. Because all the players wore the same color practice jerseys, Mr. Dudley shot back, "If we had different color jerseys, I would."
"I always thought the coach was the boss, but that doesn't mean you couldn't have a difference," Mr. Dudley said.
Mr. Rooney was unable to coax Mr. Dudley into remaining with the Steelers, even making him an offer at the Kentucky Derby. So he traded him to the Detroit Lions for wingback Paul White and quarterback Bob Cifers.
Mr. Dudley played three seasons with the Lions and two with the Washington Redskins in 1950 and 1951.
He coached at Yale in 1952 and ended his career as a player-coach with the Redskins in 1953. He also coached at Virginia and one season with the Steelers in 1956.
"Bill was truly an NFL and Steelers legend as one of the great players to wear a Steelers uniform," said Steelers President Art Rooney II. "Bill's dedication to the game of football and to the game he loved will never be forgotten."
Mr. Dudley was born Dec. 24, 1921, in Bluefield, Va. He started in the insurance business in Lynchburg in 1951 and later served eight years in the Virginia legislature.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966.
"Being inducted into the Hall of Fame meant a great deal to me," Mr. Dudley said. "But there wasn't the hoopla attached to it then that there is today."
Throughout his career, Mr. Dudley seldom tried to attract attention toward himself.
"I never considered myself a great football player," he said. "I considered myself a good one. I wasn't fast and I wasn't big. Every time I walked onto the field I felt I had something to prove."
Mr. Dudley is survived by his wife of 62 years, Libba, son, Jim, and daughters Jarrett Millard and Rebecca Stinson. Another son, William, died of leukemia at age 6 in 1954.
A visitation for the family is Sunday at Diuguid Funeral Home in Lynchburg. Mr. Dudley will be laid to rest in a service at 11 a.m. on Monday at the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Lynchburg.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his memory to the Bill Dudley Scholarship Foundation (
http://www.billdudleyscholarship.com/).
Bill Dudley, Slow, Small, but an N.F.L. Star, Dies at 88By FRANK LITSKY
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/February 5, 2010
Bill Dudley, who had a Hall of Fame career as one of college and professional football’s most dynamic running backs in the 1940s and early 1950s despite a small frame and a lack of speed, died Thursday. He was 88 and lived in Lynchburg, Va.
His death was announced by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which inducted Dudley in 1966. His son, Jim, told The Associated Press that Dudley had a stroke Saturday and was admitted to a Lynchburg hospital.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
Bill Dudley, who played nine seasons in the N.F.L., was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966.After a stellar career at the University of Virginia, Dudley was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ top draft choice in 1942 and named the National Football League’s most valuable player in 1946 after leading the league in rushing, punt returns and interceptions. (He also played defensive back.) He played nine seasons in the N.F.L., four of them as an All-Pro.
Known as Bullet Bill, he was hardly speedy. In a sprint contest before an all-star game, he ranked 15th among 16 running backs. But in the game, he ran back a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.
Quarterback Sammy Baugh, an N.F.L. contemporary, said Dudley’s running success puzzled him. “We always wondered how he gained as much yardage as he did,” Baugh once said. “But he had that instinct. He would do things that always amazed me, how he could get out of trouble.”
At 5 feet 10 inches, Dudley weighed 150 pounds in high school, 170 in college and 182 in the pros. He entered college at 16 and became a runner, passer, receiver, punter, punt returner, kicker (no steps, just a pendulum swing), kickoff returner and defensive back.
As a 19-year-old senior all-American at Virginia, he led the nation in scoring and all-purpose offense. (He was also vice president of his class.) He was voted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1956.
The Steelers offered him a $5,000 contract after they drafted him in 1942. He went on to lead the league in rushing as a rookie and earn All-N.F.L. honors.
Wartime duty with the Army interrupted his career, but Dudley returned to the Steelers in 1945. Yet after his 1946 M.V.P. season, he announced he was quitting professional football, saying he had been too battered by it and would return to Virginia to become the backfield coach.
Those plans changed in the summer of 1947, however, when the Steelers traded him to the Detroit Lions and he accepted a lucrative offer of $25,000 a year. In his first year with Detroit, Dudley scored 11 touchdowns on one punt return, one interception return, seven pass receptions and two rushes.
He played three years for the Lions and three for the Washington Redskins. He gained more than 8,200 combined yards in the N.F.L., intercepted 23 passes and scored 478 points.
In the 1950s Dudley coached running backs for the Redskins, the Steelers, Yale and Virginia. In 1969, he was a founder of the N.F.L. Alumni Association and in 1976 became its president.
During his playing career, Dudley was a pension and insurance consultant, and into his 80s he worked at his insurance agency in Lynchburg. From 1966 to 1974, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates. Ted Morrison, a fellow delegate, once said of Dudley: “He was direct, unvarnished. Diplomacy was not what he was paid to do.”
William McGarvey Dudley was born on Dec. 24, 1921, in Bluefield, Va. Besides his son, Jim, Dudley’s survivors include his wife of 62 years, Libba, and his daughters, Jarrett Millard and Rebecca Stinson. Another son, William, died of leukemia at age 6 in 1954, The A.P. reported.
Dudley’s football injuries exacted a toll. In his 70s he had both knees replaced.
“I’m just not quite physically qualified for a long stand in the pro game,” Dudley once said, adding that “those Sunday afternoons were just too long for a little guy like me” and that he was “not big enough to take such a beating.”
That was in 1947. He then played six more seasons in the N.F.L.
Bill Dudley Dies; He Was a Star of a Different N.F.L.By TONI MONKOVIC
The Fifth Down
The New York Times NFL Blog
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/index.html
February 5, 2010, 5:45 am
An intriguing obituary today by the Timesman Frank Litsky on Bill Dudley.
Dudley died Thursday at age 88. He was not big or speedy, but managed to become an N.F.L. star in the 1940s and early 1950s. A quotation from Sammy Baugh: “We always wondered how he gained as much yardage as he did. But he had that instinct. He would do things that always amazed me, how he could get out of trouble.”
Andy Barall, who writes about pro football history for the Fifth Down, contributed his thoughts on Dudley and a bygone era:
The N.F.L. we see today is highly specialized. Some teams have one tight end for blocking and another for receiving. Every team has situational pass-rushers and defensive backs. Most teams use a precious roster spot on a long-snapper. It wasn’t always this way.
Many years ago, because rosters were so much smaller, and because unlimited free substitution wasn’t permanently instituted until 1950, N.F.L. players had to play both offense and defense. They had to be versatile. No player helped his team more in as many different ways as Bill Dudley.
After a brilliant career at the University of Virginia, the Pittsburgh Steelers made Dudley the first overall pick of the 1942 draft.
Playing single-wing tailback (the Steelers were the last team to convert to the “T” formation), Dudley led the N.F.L. in rushing, punt return yards and yards per kickoff return as a rookie. He also punted and played defensive back. He later did the place-kicking, too.
Dudley enjoyed his finest season after returning from his service in World War II, in 1946. He became one of only three players (Sammy Baugh and Steve Van Buren are the others) to lead the N.F.L. in three individual statistical categories in one year. He finished first in rushing, interceptions (both the number of picks and yards returned) and punt returns.
Despite winning M.V.P. honors in 1946, Dudley unexpectedly announced his retirement. Accounts differ as to why. Some say it was because of the physical toll the game had taken on him, and others claim it was because of differences with Steelers Coach Jock Sutherland.
Dudley changed his mind after Pittsburgh traded him to Detroit and the Lions offered him a big contract. In 1947, he scored 11 touchdowns — seven receiving, two rushing, one on a punt return, and one on a kickoff return. He also threw two touchdown passes.
Dudley played two more years in Detroit before being traded and finishing his career in Washington in 1953. He led his team in scoring in every year of his nine-year career.
Although he wasn’t particularly fast, Dudley was nicknamed Bullet Bill. He was frequently described by his contemporaries as tough, aggressive and very competitive. He was not exactly known for being a finesse player. Remember, in his era, most players didn’t even wear a face mask. They had to be tough.
Dudley was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966. At his induction ceremony, he said that pro football is “great today, it was great years ago when it was first started here in Canton, and it’ll be greater tomorrow.” (transcript from profootballhof.com)
Bill Dudley was one of the greatest all-around players in N.F.L. history. He was one of the last links to an era now long gone. Careers like his will never happen again.
