Memorials

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Texas, NFL great Tommy Nobis dies at 74

[I met Mr. Nobis, at the Tommy Nobis Center, banquet, a few years ago. He could barley walk. He was a class act.

The Nobis Center https://nobisworks.org/
Nobis Works envisions supportive communities where people with disabilities are afforded the opportunity to work.

My sister was employed there. At the banquet, they honored her with employee of the year. Sadly she died in 2010. ]

By Reid Laymance, Houston Chronicle Updated 12:17 pm, Wednesday, December 13, 2017

http://www.chron.com/sports/texans/article/Texas-NFL-great-Tommy-Nobis-dies-at-74-12427738.php

Tommy Nobis, one of college football’s and the NFL’s greatest linebackers, has died at the age of 74.

Nobis, who played in high school at San Antonio Jefferson, averaged nearly 20 tackles a game in his college career at Texas (1963-65).

At Texas, he played center and middle linebacker as part of Darrell Royal's defense that harassed Navy's Roger Staubach in the 1964 Cotton Bowl and stopped Alabama's Joe Namath inches short of pay dirt in the 1965 Orange Bowl.

"I'd like to have seven Nobises," Royal once said. "But that wouldn't be fair."

As a senior despite being slowed by a knee injury, he won the Outland Trophy for the best lineman in the country and the Maxwell Award for college’s best player.

After UT, Nobis was a prime target in the AFL-NFL signing skirmishes. He was drafted by both the Atlanta Falcons (NFL) and Houston Oilers (AFL).

Astronaut Frank Borman radioed in from Gemini 7: "Tell Nobis to sign with Houston."

But Nobis opted for the NFL and the expansion Falcons. He was the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1966, averaging 21 tackles a game, and he was a five-time Pro Bowl selection and three times a first- or second-team All-Pro.

"He was the team," said Jerry Rhea, a fellow Texan who was for years the Falcons' athletic trainer. "He was the face of the franchise. We weren't winning, but he was a winner."

Nobis died Wednesday morning at home with his wife at his side, after an extended illness, the Atlanta Falcons confirmed.