William James Parks (January 1, 1948 – July 22, 2009) 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 ...

wide receiver in the

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 ...

for the San Diego Chargers,

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...

, and

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...

. He played college football at Long Beach State University.

Early years

Parks attended

Culver City High School Culver City High School is the main public high school of the Culver City Unified School District (CCUSD) in Culver City, California. It was established in 1951. The school's colors are blue and silver, and the mascot is the centaur. As of 2021, it ...

, where he played

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 ...

and defensive back. He moved on to

Santa Monica College Santa Monica College (SMC) is a public, community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Although initially serving primarily pre-college high sc ...

, where he was moved to wide receiver after suffering a preseason concussion. In 1966, he set a school record with 9

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

receptions in a season. In 1967, he transferred to Long Beach State University where he became the school's first All-American. He had his best season as a sophomore, catching 79 passes (second in the nation) for 1,294 yards and 12 touchdowns. He was named All-American in 1968 as a junior, but was injured much of his senior year. Parks holds the school marks for receiving yards in a career (2,919), receiving yards in a game (298, versus

UCSB The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

in 1968), yards in a season (1,294 in 1967) and career

s (22). He also recorded 169 career receptions. In 1986, he was inducted into the Long Beach State University Hall of Fame.

Professional career

San Diego Chargers

Parks was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the 6th round (146th overall) of the

1970 NFL draft The 1970 National Football League Draft was the 35th National Football League Draft and the first of the league's modern era, following the merger of the National Football League with the American Football League. It was held on January 27–28, ...

. He sat the entire 1970 season because of injuries. In 1971, he replaced

Lance Alworth Lance Dwight Alworth (born August 3, 1940), nicknamed “Bambi”, is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) an ...

in the lineup and led the NFL in catches (41 catches) during the first ten games of the season, before being sidelined with a broken arm he suffered in the 10th game. He was named to the 1971 NFL All-rookie team. In

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

, the Chargers coveted

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

Duane Thomas Duane Julius Thomas (born June 21, 1947) is a former American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. He played college football at West Texas State University. Early yea ...

, the team traded Parks along with

Mike Montgomery Michael John Montgomery (born February 27, 1947) is a retired American basketball coach. He is best known for his 18-year tenure at Stanford (1986–2004), where he led the program to 12 NCAA Tournaments, including a Final Four appearance in 199 ...

to the

in exchange for him on August 1.

Dallas Cowboys

he was a backup wide receiver until the eighth game, when he was promoted to replace

. He would have a disappointing regular season with only 18 receptions, but he was a key player in the come from behind win over the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

in the playoffs, catching 7 passes for 136 yards and a

, in what turned out to be his best game as a professional. Parks was traded along with Tody Smith before the start of the 1973 season to the

, in exchange for their first and third round draft picks in the

1974 NFL Draft The 1974 NFL draft took place at the Americana Hotel in New York City, New York, on January 29–30, 1974. Each of the 26 NFL teams were granted 17 selections for a total of 442 picks. Many experts consider the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers to have ha ...

. For the first time in their history, the

had the first overall draft choice which they used to select

Ed "Too Tall" Jones Edward Lee Jones (born February 23, 1951), commonly known as Ed "Too Tall" Jones due to his height, is a former American football player who played 15 seasons (1974–1978, 1980–1989) in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys ...

. The team used the third round draft choice to select

Danny White Wilford Daniel White (born February 9, 1952) is a former quarterback and Punter (football), punter for the Dallas Cowboys and an American football coach in the Arena Football League. He has been the color commentator for Cowboys games on Compas ...

Houston Oilers

During his first season with the Oilers in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

, he had a career-high of 43 catches. He grabbed another 20 passes in 1974, but only caught 1 pass in 10 games in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. Parks retired after the 1975 season having played in the NFL for 5 seasons. He caught 123 passes for 1,826 yards and 7

s in his career.

Personal life

Parks succumbed to melanoma at age 61 in Hawaii.

References

External links

Long Beach State University Hall of Fame Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Billy 1948 births 2009 deaths American football wide receivers Dallas Cowboys players Deaths from melanoma Houston Oilers players Long Beach State 49ers football players People from Culver City, California Players of American football from California San Diego Chargers players Santa Monica Corsairs football players Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California