Colin Edwin Ridgway (19 February 1937 – 13 May 1993) 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 ...

punter distinguished as being the first Australian to play 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 ...

. He also competed in the high jump at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Early years

In Aussie rules, Ridgway played U19s for Carlton and then in their reserves in 1955. He was a high jumper who competed at the 1956 Olympic Games (where he was the youngest high jumper) and the

1958 Commonwealth Games The 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games (Welsh: Gemau Ymerodraeth Prydain a'r Gymanwlad 1958) were held in Cardiff, Wales, from 18–26 July 1958. Thirty-five nations sent a total of 1,130 athletes and 228 officials to the Cardiff Games ...

for Australia. He had also competed in the Australian Open Track and Field Championships from 1955/56 to 1959/60. Ridgway failed to make the 1960 Australian Olympic team and so accepted an offer of a

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

scholarship to Lamar Tech (now

Lamar University Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the fall of 2021, t ...

). In 1961, he became the first Commonwealth athlete to clear 7 foot in the high jump.

Professional career

Even though he had never played an official

game, he was discovered by the

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 signed as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

to their 1965 team. During the

preseason In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

, he played a key role in the beating of the Green Bay Packers. He started the year on the

taxi squad In sports, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. Frequently used in gridiron football, they serve as extra players during the team's practices, ...

, before being promoted to the regular roster on 3 November. It turned out that the running drop-kicks that were commonly used at that time in Aussie rules did not translate well into the American game. He was waived on 24 August 1966, and at the request of the Cowboys, he accepted to play with the Savannah, Georgia, team of the North American Football League, in order to gain more experience.

Death

Colin Ridgway was murdered at his

University Park, Texas University Park is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States of America, in suburban Dallas. The population was 23,068 at the 2010 census. The city is home to Southern Methodist University. University Park is bordered on the north, east and we ...

, home in 1993. Although Kenneth Bicking Jr. was arrested as a probable suspect in 1996, the case still remains unsolved to date. A man publicly suspected by authorities as a killer-for-hire in Ridgway's murder was convicted 4 September 2014 in Florida of a separate violent crime that happened the year before the murder. Kenneth Alfred Bicking III was found guilty of armed sexual battery and kidnapping with a weapon, according to the Florida State Attorney's office. The maximum sentence is life in prison. Prosecutors said Bicking entered the victim's home in April 1992 without her permission, showed a gun, tied her up and put tape over her eyes and mouth before sexually assaulting her. Bicking was charged after new DNA technology was used in a follow-up investigation in 2011. Police in Dallas theorized that Bicking was hired by his father and Ridgway's widow to carry out the 1993 killing.

References

External links

Colin Ridgway bioThe Easy crimeThe incredible life and death of Australia’s NFL trailblazer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridgeway, Colin 1937 births 1993 deaths 1993 murders in the United States American football punters athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics athletes (track and field) at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Australian male high jumpers Australian murder victims Australian people murdered abroad Australian players of American football Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Australian rules football players that played in the NFL Commonwealth Games competitors for Australia Dallas Cowboys players deaths by firearm in Texas footballers who switched code Lamar Cardinals track and field athletes male murder victims Olympic athletes of Australia people from University Park, Texas people murdered in Texas Athletes from Melbourne track and field athletes in the National Football League unsolved murders in the United States

Early years

Professional career

Death

See also

References

External links