Robert Gilchrist Douglass (born June 22, 1947) is a former

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

(NFL) who played most of his career with the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

, who drafted him in the second round of the

1969 NFL Draft The 1969 National Football League draft was part of the common draft, the third and final year in which the NFL and American Football League (AFL) held a joint draft of college players. The draft took place January 28–29, 1969. The draft beg ...

. During his career, he also played for the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

, the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

, and the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

. Douglass retired after the 1978 season, after playing 10 seasons in the NFL. Douglass was raised in

El Dorado, Kansas El Dorado ( ) is city and county seat of Butler County, Kansas, United States. It is situated along the Walnut River in the central part of Butler County and located in south-central Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city ...

, where his father was a football coach and attended the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

. Douglass was a two-time All-Big Eight Conference (1967–68) selection and an All-American in 1968. During his senior season, he directed the Jayhawks to a 9–2 record, a share of the Big Eight Conference title and a spot in the 1969 Orange Bowl. He passed for 1,316 yards and 12 touchdowns during his final year as a Jayhawk and finished seventh in the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

voting that season. In 1972, playing for the Bears, Douglass set the record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in one season. The record stood for 34 years. In a 14-game 1972 season, he ran for 968 yards and 8

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether Rush (gridiron football), running, Forward pass, passing, returning a Kickoff (gridiron football), kickoff or Punt (gridiron football), punt, or recovering a Turno ...

on 141 carries. Six quarterbacks (three in the CFL, three in the NFL) have since run for over 1,000 yards. With Douglass starting, the Chicago Bears had a 13–31–1 record. In a November 4, 1973 game against the Packers, Douglass ran for four touchdowns in a 31–17 win. He and

Billy Kilmer William Orland Kilmer Jr. (born September 5, 1939) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints, and Washington Redskins. He w ...

are the only quarterbacks in NFL history to rush for four touchdowns in a single game. In five seasons from 1971 to 1975, Douglass played in 47 games and amassed 2,040 rushing yards. During that span, he averaged 43.4 rushing yards per game played—the third highest rushing yards per game average over a five-season span for a quarterback. (

Michael Vick Michael Dwayne Vick (born June 26, 1980) is a former American football quarterback. Regarded as having transformed the quarterback position with his rushing abilities, he is the NFL leader in quarterback rushing yards and was the league's firs ...

ranks first with 54.1 yards per game over a five-year span from 2002 to 2006). However, Douglass had little success as a passer, going 507-for-1178 for 36 touchdowns and 64

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

with a quarterback

passer rating Passer rating (also known as passing efficiency in college football) is a measure of the performance of passers, primarily quarterbacks, in gridiron football. There are two formulas currently in use: one used by both the National Football Leag ...

of only 48.5 during his 10-season NFL career. After his professional football career was over, Douglass briefly played minor league baseball in the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

organization. In 1980, he pitched four games for the Iowa Oaks where he had 7 innings pitched, issued 13 walks and failed to record a strikeout.

Personal life

Douglass was married to former ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' model Carol O'Neal. They had four children together and he became stepfather to her son. Douglass was arrested on charges of trespassing on April 13, 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglass, Bobby 1947 births Living people Sportspeople from Manhattan, Kansas American football quarterbacks Chicago Bears players Green Bay Packers players Iowa Oaks players Kansas Jayhawks football players New Orleans Saints players Oakland Raiders players San Diego Chargers players Players of American football from Kansas People from El Dorado, Kansas