Pro Football: My Son the Quarterback

Son the Quarterback

“I guess we need help,” admitted Coach George Wilson Sr. For all the careful planning and cute pep talks (“Let’s win one for the Flipper”), his Miami Dolphins, playing their first sea son in the American Football League, still had not won a game. Quarterback Rick Norton, a $300,000 bonus rookie from the University of Kentucky, had been intercepted six times in five games. The Miami offense was averaging only 14 points a game, and the defense was taking a pounding. “Those poor boys no sooner come off the field and sit down,” sighed Coach Wilson, “than the offense loses the ball right back again.”

All that was three weeks ago. By last week Wilson, 52, had found plenty of help. In exchange for two future draft choices, he picked up Fullback Cookie Gilchrist, whose off-field antics got him in trouble with both the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos — although he led the A.F.L. in rushing (with 1,096 yds.) in 1963. For the waiver price of $100, Wilson obtained 270-lb. Earl Faison, a four-time all-A.F.L. defensive end who had played out his option with the San Diego Chargers. For a passer, all Coach Wilson had to do was dicker across the breakfast table. When the Dolphins played Denver two weeks ago, their quarterback had never even started a college game at that position. His name: George Wilson Jr.

Saliva All Around. At Cincinnati’s little Xavier University last year, George Wilson Jr., 23, was strictly a second-stringer. How he ever got a chance to play pro ball with the Dolphins would be a mystery—if only the answer were not so obvious. But he has done wonders for nepotism. In the first quarter against the Broncos, George Jr. tossed a 67-yd. touchdown pass; the Dolphins, after nine straight exhibition and regular-season losses, destroyed Denver 24-7. Last week against the Houston Oilers, he completed all four passes he attempted—including an 80-yd. TD pass—and the Dolphins won their second in a row 20-13.

If pro football were horse racing, the stewards would be taking saliva samples from everybody on the Miami team. The victory over Houston put the Dolphins only 2½ games behind the league-leading New York Jets. George Jr.’s performance placed him sixth among all A.F.L. passers; he was also the league’s third-ranking punter, with an average of 44 yds. per kick. Still, insisted George Wilson Sr., who coached the Detroit Lions to the N.F.L. championship in 1957: “Nobody should be surprised at George Jr. He has been going to training camp since he was seven years old. He learned how to punt from Yale Lary and how to pass from Bobby Layne.”