William Albert "Thunder" Thornton (September 20, 1939 – December 18, 2008) 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 with ...

fullback who played college football for the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

(1960–1962) and professional football for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

(1963–1965, 1967). Thornton also coached at

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

, and the St. Louis Football Cardinals.

Early years

A native of

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, he attended

Libbey High School Edward Drummond Libbey High School was a public high school building located on the south side of Toledo, Ohio which held classes from 1923 until 2010. It is part of Toledo Public Schools and contained the Smart Academy and Humanities Academy. L ...

in Toledo, graduating in 1959. Thornton participated in football, basketball, and track at Libbey. Thornton was recruited by numerous colleges but chose Nebraska over offers from Ohio State and other Big 10 and Mid-American conference schools.

College football career

Thornton played college football as a “two-way player” as a fullback and linebacker at

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

from 1960 to 1962. Thornton was selected by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

as a first-team fullback on the 1961 All-Big Eight Conference football team after his junior season. Thornton also earned Honorable Mention All-American from the

for the 1961 season. A pre-season separated shoulder injury shortened Thornton’s 1962 senior season at Nebraska. However, he still was a Husker co-captain, garnered Honorable Mention All-Big 8 and played in the post-season East-West Shrine All-Star game in San Francisco.

University of Nebraska honor

During his senior year at the

, Thornton was inducted into the prestigious Innocent’s Society, which is the

chancellor’s club that honors outstanding seniors for their academic and leadership abilities. Thornton was the first black inductee into the Society.

Professional football playing career

Thornton was drafted by the

with the 58th pick (5th round) in the

1963 NFL Draft The 1963 National Football League draft was held at the Sheraton in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday, December 3, 1962. The first overall selection was quarterback Terry Baker of Oregon State, the Heisman Trophy winner, taken by the Los Angeles Ram ...

. He played for the Cardinals from 1963 to 1965 and in 1967, appearing in 47 NFL games.

College Coaching career

Hired in 1969 as a University of Nebraska football graduate assistant by then coach

Bob Devaney Robert Simon Devaney (April 13, 1915 – May 9, 1997) was a college football coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Wyoming from 1957 to 1961 and at the University of Nebraska from 1962 to 1972, compiling a career record of . ...

, Thornton was promoted in 1970 to be the first black coach in the history of the University of Nebraska football program. Thornton coached at Nebraska from 1969 until early 1972. During his three-year stint as a coach with the Huskers, Nebraska won 3

Big 8 Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

titles and two (

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

and

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

) national championships. In 1978, Thornton was hired as the running backs coach for the

Missouri Tigers football The Missouri Tigers football program represents the University of Missouri (often referred to as Mizzou) in college football and competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Missouri's ...

team under head coach

Warren Powers Warren Anthony Powers (February 19, 1941 – November 2, 2021) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at Washington State University in 1977, and the University of Missouri from 1978 through 1984, compiling an over ...

. Thornton coached the running backs at Missouri from 1978 until 1982. During that period, Missouri advanced to four bowl games (

1978 Liberty Bowl The 1978 Liberty Bowl, a college football postseason bowl game, took place on December 23, 1978, at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. The competing teams in the 20th edition of the Liberty Bowl were the LSU Tigers of the Southe ...

, 1979 Hall of Fame Classic, 1980 Liberty Bowl, and

1981 Tangerine Bowl The 1981 Tangerine Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on December 19, 1981, at Camping World Stadium, Orlando Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The game featured the Southern Miss Golden Eagles football, Southern Miss Golden Eagles a ...

Professional Coaching career

In March 1972, immediately after the

Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

1971 National Championship season, Thornton left Nebraska and was hired as the running backs coach for the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

. Thornton was the first black coach ever hired by the

Cardinals Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

franchise. Thornton held that role for just 5 months until resigning just before the start of the

1972 NFL season The 1972 NFL season was the 53rd regular season of the National Football League. The Miami Dolphins became the first (and to date the only) NFL team to finish a championship season undefeated and untied when they beat the Washington Redskins ...

Later years

After retiring from coaching, Thornton worked for 16 years for the State of Missouri. He died in 2008 in

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...

, of complications from diabetes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Bill 1939 births 2008 deaths American football fullbacks St. Louis Cardinals (football) players Nebraska Cornhuskers football players Sportspeople from Toledo, Ohio Players of American football from Ohio Deaths from diabetes Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches Missouri Tigers football coaches St. Louis Cardinals (football) coaches