Billy Charles Dicken (born December 28, 1974) is a former

arena football Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

who is currently the defensive quality coach for the NC State Football team. Dicken played in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

from 2001 to 2006 for the Chicago Rush,

Detroit Fury The Detroit Fury were an arena football team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. History The team was a member of the Arena Football League from 2001 to 2004 and played at The Palace of Auburn Hills, also the home of the NBA's Detroit Pistons. Th ...

New Orleans VooDoo Louisiana Voodoo (french: Vaudou louisianais, es, Vudú de Luisiana), also known as New Orleans Voodoo, is an African diasporic religion which originated in Louisiana, now in the southern United States. It arose through a process of syncretis ...

and the

Columbus Destroyers The Columbus Destroyers were an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Columbus, Ohio, with home games in Nationwide Arena. The team was founded in as the Buffalo Destroyers, based in Buffalo, New York, and relocated to Columbus in . They fold ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

from 1994 to 1997.

Early life

Dicken attended Bloomington High School in

Bloomington, Illinois Bloomington is a city and the county seat of McLean County, Illinois, United States. It is adjacent to the town of Normal, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area. Bloomington ...

. Dicken played for the Raiders football, basketball and baseball teams, earning all-state honors as a quarterback his senior season.

College career

Dicken continued his baseball and football careers at

in 1993. Dicken took a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

season in 1993. He was a backup quarterback to Rick Trefzger in 1994, but still managed to tie Trefzger for the Purdue passing touchdowns lead with 3. In the 1994

Old Oaken Bucket The Old Oaken Bucket is a traveling trophy awarded in American college football as part of the rivalry between the Indiana Hoosiers football team of Indiana University and Purdue Boilermakers football team of Purdue University. It was first awa ...

Game, Dicken suffered an injury that kept him out the entire 1995 season. In 1996, Dicken returned to the quarterback position, once again splitting time with Trefzger, and this time John Reeves as well. The Boilermakers finished 3-8 in what became

Jim Colletto Jim Colletto (born October 4, 1944) is a former American football player and coach. He attended Monterey High School (1958–1962) where he was an all conference baseball and football player and starter on the varsity basketball team. At UCLA Col ...

's 6th and final season at Purdue. In 1997, with Trefzger and Reeves gone with graduation, Dicken was poised to become Purdue's full-time starting quarterback for the first time in his career. With new head coach

Joe Tiller Joseph Henry Tiller (December 7, 1942 – September 30, 2017) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at the University of Wyoming from 1991 to 1996 and Purdue University from 1997 to 2008, with a career record of know ...

, Purdue changed its offensive game plan to a pass-heavy air raid spread, a move Dicken liked. Dicken thrived his senior season, leading the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

in pass attempts, completions, passing yards and passing touchdowns on his way to being named a First Team All-Big Ten selection by the coaches.

Statistics

Source:

Professional career

Pre-draft

Despite a successful senior season at Purdue, Dicken's small height compared to other prospects made him unappealing to

National Football League 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 ...

teams for the upcoming

1998 NFL Draft The 1998 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 18–19, 1998, at the Theater at M ...

Early professional career

Dicken was signed by the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

in 1998, but he was released before training camp in June. Dicken then joined the

Nashville Kats The Nashville Kats were an Arena Football League team, located in Nashville, Tennessee. They were last coached by Pat Sperduto, who coached the team's original incarnation to two ArenaBowl appearances prior to the original franchise's move to A ...

, where he spent the season as the 3rd string quarterback, never appearing in a game. While in Nashville, then assistant coach

Frank Haege Frank Haege (born October 11, 1968) is an American football coach. He served as a head coach for 20 years in the Arena Football League, arenafootball2 and the NCAA from 2000-2019. He head coached 236 games, compiling a record of 119-117. Coa ...

noticed Dicken during a pregame warm-up. When Haege was named the head coach for

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

Quad City Steamwheelers The Quad City Steamwheelers were a professional arena football team. They were a charter member of the AF2 and played their home games at iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois. The team was founded on September 1, 1999 when the Quad Cities was ...

, he signed Dicken to be his quarterback.

Hamilton Tiger-cats

Dicken's play in the af2 helped him earn a roster spot with the Tiger-cats in 2000. Dicken was the backup to

Danny McManus Danny McManus (born June 17, 1965) is a former professional American football and Canadian football quarterback who passed for over 53,000 yards in seventeen seasons in the Canadian Football League and currently serves as the Assistant General Man ...

, and was thrust into action when McManus left a game with an injury.

Chicago Rush

Dicken's play in the af2 also helped him earn a roster spot with the Chicago Rush in 2001.

Coaching career

On January 17, 2014, Dicken was hired as the wide receivers coach for the Illinois State Redbirds football team. As of 2021 Dicken works as a Sales Development Representative for ServiceTrade based out of

Apex, North Carolina Apex () is a town in Wake County, North Carolina, United States. At its southern border, Apex encompasses the community of Friendship. In 1994, the downtown area was designated a historic district, and the Apex train depot, built in 1867, is desig ...

References

External links

Illinois State profile

Illinois Wesleyan profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dicken, Billy 1974 births Living people American football quarterbacks Chicago Rush players Columbus Destroyers players Detroit Fury players Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds football coaches Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Illinois State Redbirds football coaches Illinois Wesleyan Titans football coaches Nashville Kats players New Orleans VooDoo players Purdue Boilermakers football players Quad City Steamwheelers players Sportspeople from Bloomington, Illinois Players of American football from Illinois Alabama Steeldogs coaches