William Corbus (October 5, 1911 – January 8, 1998) was an
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
guard
Guard or guards may refer to:
Professional occupations
* Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault
* Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street
* Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning
* Prison ...
who played for
Stanford University.
College career
Nicknamed ''The Baby-Faced Assassin'' due to his youthful appearance and athletic ferocity, Corbus, who acted as
placekicker as well as offensive lineman, was Stanford's first two-time
All-American in 1932 and 1933.
In 1933, Corbus kicked two late field goals to defeat USC 13-7,
helping to fulfill a promise made by his teammates from the class of 1936—a group known as the
Vow Boys—to never again lose to USC.
That year, Corbus helped Stanford the first of three straight
Rose Bowls
The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2. The Rose ...
before graduating as an honor student and student body president.
After football
Corbus played in the era before the
NFL draft
The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...
, and did not continue in professional football. He worked for the
A&P grocery store chain, retiring as vice-chairman in 1977.
He was inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame in 1957 and is a member of the
Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. His high school alma mater,
Vallejo high school, named their football stadium for him.
He died in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
in 1998.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbus, Bill
1911 births
1998 deaths
All-American college football players
American football guards
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Players of American football from San Francisco
Stanford Cardinal football players
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company
American football placekickers