Rocky Rasley (born April 27, 1947) 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 with ...

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

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 ...

from 1969–1970, 1972–1976. He attended Bakersfield's South High School and

Bakersfield College Bakersfield College (BC) is a public community college in Bakersfield, California. BC serves about 22,000 students each semester or 31,000 annually, and offers Associate degrees, certificate programs, and is one of fifteen California Community C ...

before enrolling at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

where 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 ...

under

Dee Andros Demosthenes Konstandies Andrecopoulos (October 17, 1924 – October 22, 2003) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics He was the head coach at the University of Idaho from 1962 to 1964 and Oregon State University from ...

during the "Giant Killers" season of 1967. The entire 1967 squad was later inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. Rasley was also inducted into the Bob Elias Kern County Sports Hall of Fame. Rasley was one of five

Beavers Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...

selected in the

1969 NFL Draft The 1969 National Football League draft was part of the common draft, the third and final year in which the NFL and American Football League (AFL) held a joint draft of college players. The draft took place January 28–29, 1969. The draft beg ...

, and was selected in the ninth round (216th overall) by 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 ...

. He played with the Lions for the 1969 and 1970 seasons, was on the Lions' taxi-squad during 1971, and rejoined the team for the 1972 and 1973 seasons. He then went to the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

for a season, followed by a season with the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

. Rasley was selected by the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

in the 1976 NFL Expansion Draft, but did not make the active roster and wound up playing for the

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 ...

his last season. Prior to joining the NFL, Rasley was a competitive wrestler. He finished 6th in the heavyweight (+100 kg) weight class at the 1969 FILA Wrestling World Championships, placing behind event winner

Aleksandr Medved Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Medved (born 16 September 1937) is a Ukrainian-born Soviet Belarusian retired freestyle wrestler who competed for the Soviet Union and was named "one of the greatest wrestlers in history" by FILA, the sport's governing bod ...

. Rasley also wrestled for the

Oregon State Beavers wrestling The Oregon State Beavers wrestling program was established in 1909, competing in collegiate wrestling across 95 seasons since then. Traditionally a national powerhouse, the Beavers won the Amateur Athletic Union national championship in 1926 (Ore ...

team, and was a letterman in 1968.http://osubeavers.nmnathletics.com//pdf6/26123.pdf?SPSID=37974&SPID=1958&DB_OEM_ID=4700

References

Season of the Giant Killers

Oregon State University Historical NFL Draft Picks

1976 NFL Expansion Draft

United States FILA Team 1969

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rasley, Rocky 1947 births American football offensive linemen Detroit Lions players Kansas City Chiefs players Living people New Orleans Saints players Oregon State Beavers football players San Francisco 49ers players