Donald Wayne Floyd (July 1, 1938 – March 9, 1980) was a professional
American football defensive end who played in the
American Football League
The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
(AFL).
Early life
Born in
Abilene, Texas
Abilene ( ) is a city in Taylor and Jones Counties in Texas, United States. Its population was 125,182 at the 2020 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the state of Texas. It is the principal city of the Abilene metropolitan statis ...
, Floyd played his
high school football in
Midlothian, Texas, for the
Midlothian Panthers. Midlothian named a stadium in his honor, but built a new one. Until 2018, Don Floyd stadium was used primarily as a practice field, which brought much criticism from Midlothian citizens. The road which runs next to the new Midlothian stadium is named in his honor. Also, in 2018, the field at MISD Multipurpose Stadium was named for him.
Floyd earned
All America honors at
Texas Christian University (TCU), played on offense and defense, and helped TCU to two conference championships and two bowl appearances.
Professional career
After being a
draft choice of both the
Baltimore Colts
The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...
of the
National Football League (NFL) and the
Houston Oilers of the AFL in 1960, Floyd signed with Houston in the fledgling AFL. He was selected as a
defensive end on the American Football League
All-League team in 1961 and 1962, and an
AFL Eastern Division All-Star in 1963. In the early 1960s, Floyd was among the best, using a combination of strength and speed to establish a presence to be accounted for by the opposition on every play.
He played in four
American Football League Championships, helping the Oilers win the league's first two titles in 1960 and 1961. Don Floyd is on the Oilers' All-Time Team.
Death
On March 9, 1980, while traveling with a friend through Raymondville on his way to Houston, Floyd began to experience chest pain. Floyd's friend took him to Willacy County Hospital in Raymondville, where a nurse instructed the pair to drive to a hospital in Harlingen, 30 miles away. On the drive toward Harlingen, Floyd died of a
heart attack. Surviving family members, including three former wives, sued the on-duty physician, the emergency room nurse and the hospital in Raymondville.
Subsequent investigation determined that the nurse at Willacy County Hospital had been told to send all patients to the Harlingen hospital except in true life-and-death emergencies. The nursing board disciplinary hearing against the nurse and subsequent legal challenges to it (''Lunsford v. Board of Nurse Examiners'') established that nurses have a
nurse-patient relationship and a
duty to act when a patient comes to an emergency room, even if the patient has never been seen by the hospital or one of its physicians.
See also
*
Other American Football League players
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Floyd, Don
1938 births
1980 deaths
People from Ellis County, Texas
Sportspeople from Abilene, Texas
Sportspeople from the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex
Players of American football from Texas
American football defensive ends
TCU Horned Frogs football players
All-American college football players
Houston Oilers players
American Football League players
American Football League All-League players
American Football League All-Star players