Waddy Young

September 14, 1916, that’s the birth of Waddy Young, a former end for the University of Oklahoma who played in the late 1930s.

He went professional and played in the NFL for the Brooklyn Dodgers football franchise, and played in the National Football League’s very first televised game on October 22, 1939.

This brave man left pro football on his own accord to become a pilot for the United States and flew one of America’s B-24 Liberator bomber planes over the skies of Europe during World War II.

He logged over 9,000 hours in the air fighting the Nazis, and he later volunteered to go to the Pacific theater to fly against the Japanese pilots flying the B-29 Superfortress.

Unfortunately, we lost this hero on January 9, 1945, as his plane crashed over the skies of Tokyo while trying to assist a fellow US Pilot whose plane was in distress. The two planes ended up crashing and killing all on board both aircraft.

The National Football Foundation recognized Waddy Young as they placed him in the College Football Hall of Fame in the 1986 induction ceremony