Cornelius Green (born January 21, 1954) 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 wi ...

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 played college football for the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

. He was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

quarterback to start at

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

Early years

Green attended Dunbar High School where he practiced football, basketball and baseball. He was an option

that also played defense. He accepted a football scholarship from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

to play under head coach

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

. As a sophomore, he was named the starter at quarterback over Greg Hare. He was named

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 ...

MVP for the 1975 season, when his teammate Archie Griffin became the first two-time Heisman Trophy winner. Green compiled a 31–2–1 record in the regular season, played in four

Rose Bowls The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2. The Rose ...

, three as the starting quarterback, won the 1974 Rose Bowl against USC, won three Big Ten championships, and led the 1973 team to an undefeated season. In recognition of his Rose Bowl accomplishments, Greene was honored with induction into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 2019. Although his teams were based on run-oriented offenses, he still held the record of most career passing yards in school history for many years. He finished with 138-of-251 (55.0 percent) attempts for 2,255 yards and 17 touchdowns, while having 409 carries for 2,014 yards (4.9 YPC) and 28 touchdowns. In 1998, he was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Green was selected 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 ...

in the eleventh round (318th overall) of the 1976 NFL draft to play him at wide receiver. He was waived on August 23, 1976. He was claimed off waivers by the Seattle Seahawks the next day. He was waived again before the start of the regular season on September 7. Greene joined the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first seas ...

of 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 ...

in October for a five-day tryout, but did not sign a contract. He signed a contract with the Lions after the season in March 1977. He was released before the start of the regular season in June. He signed with the Columbus Stingers of the Midwest Football League the next month. He played with the Columbus Metros in the league in 1978. The Metros joined the Mid-Atlantic Football League in 1979, and he played wide receiver for Columbus.

Personal life

In 1982, he moved back to his hometown of Washington, D.C., to work for the city and to manage a recreation center. He is a faculty member and multi-sport coach at St. Albans High School.

References

External links

Greene made color irrelevant
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Cornelius 1954 births Living people Players of American football from Washington, D.C. Place of birth missing (living people) American football quarterbacks BC Lions players Ohio State Buckeyes football players African-American players of American football African-American players of Canadian football Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.) alumni Dallas Cowboys players Seattle Seahawks players Midwest Football League (1962–1978) players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople