Willie Daniel (1986) - Hall of Fame

Willie Daniel

Induction:
1986
Class:
1959

William “Willie” Paul Daniel played football and ran track at Mississippi State from 1957 to 1959.

The Macon, Mississippi native was a defensive back for the Bulldogs and went on to play 9 seasons in the NFL after going undrafted. He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Rams.

After being undrafted, he worked as an assistant football coach in Cleveland, Mississippi, before joining the NFL. According to his wife Ruth, He received wide publicity when an irate parent became physical with him because the coach didn’t play his son in a game. When approached by the Steelers to turn pro, he quickly changed his mind about being a coach, joking that “Pro-ball wouldn’t be any rougher than this.”

His professional career took off quickly, and he spent nine years with the National Football League, where he gained a reputation as a speedy defensive back. The Pittsburgh newspapers listed him as one of the prize rookies of the year in 1961. In 1986, he was inducted into the Mississippi State Sports Hall of Fame. He spent six years with the Pittsburgh Steelers and three years with the Los Angeles Rams until a knee injury forced him to retire in 1969.

After he retired from the NFL, Daniel opened the Willie Daniel Athletic Club in 1970, offering weights, aerobics, massage therapy, a sauna, steam baths, karate, and a nursery for children. In 1975, he built the first of two racquetball courts, which led to the formation of the Mississippi Racquetball Association.

Willie found the time to give back to his community. He coached and sponsored Starkville junior baseball teams as well as the Starkville Open Football League. He served as chairman of the annual Oktibbeha County Cancer Crusade, which became the first county in Mississippi to triple its annual contribution quota. He was a member of the Mississippi State “M” Club, Bulldog Club, “Old Dawgs” Club, and the National Football League Players Association. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Starkville, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the Savage Bible Class, where he served as President. He was one of the original members of the Starkville Kiwanis Club and the Starkville Country Club, where he made the club’s first “hole-in-one” in 1975.

Willie and his wife, Ruth, raised three children: Sandra (husband Jeff), Kent (wife Evalin), and Richard.

He passed away in 2011, and his family donated a portion of his brain for CTE research, where he became a part of a state-of-the-art research project at Boston University being conducted on football head injuries.