Donald Brookes McIlhenny (November 22, 1934 – April 18, 2023) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a halfback 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

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

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 ...

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 divisi ...

, and

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 ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

SMU Mustangs The SMU Mustangs are the athletic teams that represent Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, United States. The Mustangs were founded in 1911 and joined the Southwest Conference, competing against Baylor, Rice, Texas, Texa ...

Early years

McIlhenny attended Hillsboro High School in Nashville. He accepted a football scholarship from

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

. As a junior, he was third on the

Mustangs The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated animals, they ...

with 62 carries for 316 yards (5.1-yard avg.). As a senior, he led the team with 104 carries for 544 yards (5.2-yard avg.). McIlhenny was a teammate of future

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...

Raymond Berry Raymond Emmett Berry Jr. (born February 27, 1933) is an American former professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played as a split end for the Baltimore Colts from 1955 to 1967, and after several assist ...

and

Forrest Gregg Alvis Forrest Gregg (October 18, 1933 – April 12, 2019) was an American professional American football, football player and coach. A Pro Football Hall of Fame Tackle (gridiron football position), offensive tackle for 16 seasons in the Nationa ...

Professional career

Detroit Lions

McIlhenny was selected in the third round (27th overall) of the 1956 NFL Draft by the

. As a rookie, he was the team's leading rusher during the first four games of the season, before injuries limited his productivity and finished with 372 rushing yards in 9 games. On July 25, 1957, he was traded to the

along with offensive tackles

Ollie Spencer Oliver Spencer (April 17, 1931 – April 28, 1991) was an American National Football League (NFL) tackle and assistant coach. He played eight seasons in the NFL, with the Detroit Lions ( 1953 and 1956), the Green Bay Packers (1957 and 1958 ...

and

Norm Masters Norman Donald Masters (September 19, 1933 – April 19, 2011) was an American football offensive tackle for the Green Bay Packers. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Masters graduated from its St. Mary of Redford High School, and played c ...

, and offensive guard

Jim Salsbury Jim Salsbury (August 8, 1932 – March 29, 2002) was a guard in the National Football League. He was drafted in the second round of the 1955 NFL Draft The 1955 National Football League draft was held January 27–28, 1955 at the Warwick Hotel ...

, in exchange for quarterback

Tobin Rote Tobin Cornelius Rote (January 18, 1928 – June 27, 2000) was an American football player who played quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football Le ...

and defensive back

Val Joe Walker Val Joe Walker (January 7, 1930 –December 25, 2013) was a defensive back in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted in the seventh round of the 1952 NFL Draft by the New York Giants and would later play four seasons with the G ...

Green Bay Packers

The

used him as a reserve halfback for 4 seasons. He led the team in rushing in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

with 100 carries for 384 yards and was fifth in the league in kickoff return average (25.9 yards).

Dallas Cowboys

McIlhenny was selected by the

in the 1960 NFL Expansion Draft, becoming the first starting halfback in franchise history. In the Cowboys 1960 inaugural season, he scored the first rushing

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 Ameri ...

for the Cowboys and was second on the team in rushing with 96 carries for 321 yards in 11 games (7 starts). He was waived on October 11,

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

San Francisco 49ers

McIlhenny was claimed off waivers by the

and played in 5 games during the 1961 season.

Personal life and death

McIlhenny and his wife, who died in 2018, had four children. Their son

Lance McIlhenny Lance McIlhenny is a former American college football player who was an award-winning quarterback for Southern Methodist University. He led the SMU Mustangs to two Southwest Conference championships. Biography McIlhenny is considered to be one o ...

played for

and is the winningest

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 school and

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

history. McIlhenny died on April 18, 2023, at the age of 88, having suffered from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

for ten years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McIlhenny, Don 1934 births 2023 deaths American football halfbacks Dallas Cowboys players Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Detroit Lions players Green Bay Packers players Players of American football from Houston SMU Mustangs football players San Francisco 49ers players