Paul Collins (September 28, 1922 – July 16, 2012) 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 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 ...

who played 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).

College career

Collins attended the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

and was a member of the basketball, football, and track teams. As a senior, Collins led the Tigers with ten touchdowns scored and was named first team All-

Big Six Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

Professional career

Collins was drafted in the second round of the

1945 NFL Draft The 1945 National Football League Draft was held on April 8, 1945, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City, New York. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Chicago Cardinals selected halfback Charley Trippi. Player selections Round o ...

by the

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ca ...

. He played one season with the team, playing in three games with one start. and completing three of 17 passes for 43 yards with two interceptions. Collins lone start was a 10–0 loss on September 23, 1945, to 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 ...

Post football

After the end of his football career Collins worked as an account executive for Purina and Dow Chemical and was a real estate agent for Caldwell Banker. Collins died on July 16, 2012, in Royal Oak, Michigan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Paul 1922 births 2012 deaths Players of American football from Missouri American football quarterbacks Missouri Tigers football players Chicago Cardinals players Missouri Tigers men's basketball players