Tommy Wilcox (born July 30, 1959) is an American television personality and former

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 ...

player. He played

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

for the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

Crimson Tide from 1979 through 1982 and was a member of the

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

team and was a consensus selection to the

1981 College Football All-America Team The 1981 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1981. The National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...

. Presently Wilcox serves as the host of a hunting and fishing show entitled "Tommy Wilcox Outdoors."

Playing career

A native of

Harahan, Louisiana Harahan is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana and suburb of New Orleans. The city of Harahan is located in Jefferson Parish; its population was 9,116 at the 2020 census. Etymology Harahan was named in honor of James Theodore Harahan, presi ...

, Wilcox played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

for

Alfred Bonnabel High School Alfred T. Bonnabel Magnet Academy High School is a comprehensive public high school in Kenner, Louisiana, United States, and is part of Jefferson Parish Public Schools, the largest public school system in Louisiana. Bonnabel is the only high sch ...

. In 1977, a year in which the New Orleans area featured three outstanding quarterbacks in Wilcox,

Bobby Hebert Bobby Joseph Hebert Jr. (surname pronounced ; born August 19, 1960) is an American sportscaster and former professional football quarterback. He played in the United States Football League (USFL) and National Football League (NFL) from 1983 to ...

, and

John Fourcade John Charles Fourcade, Jr. (born October 11, 1960) is a former professional American football quarterback in the National Football League for the New Orleans Saints and recent head coach of the New Mexico Stars of American Indoor Football. Fourc ...

, he led Bonnabel to the state championship game. From there, he went to play for

Bear Bryant Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of ...

at Alabama. Wilcox started at

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

for his first season and was named SEC Freshman of the Year for his overall performance. In recognition for his play during his sophomore and junior years, Wilcox was a First Team All-SEC selection. After his junior year, Bunch was named as a consensus selection to the

. In recognition of his career with the Crimson Tide, Wilcox was selected to Alabama's Team of the Century in 1992. Although he was a consensus selection to the All-America Team, Wilcox went undrafted and was not signed as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

after the

1983 NFL Draft The 1983 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 26–27, 1983, at the New York She ...

. Although he wanted to be drafted by the

Birmingham Stallions The Birmingham Stallions were a franchise in the United States Football League, an attempt to establish a second professional league of American football in the United States in competition with the National Football League. They played their h ...

as part of the 1983

USFL Territorial Draft The United States Football League had two types of drafts as their main sources for player recruitment: the Collegiate Draft and the Territorial Draft. The Collegiate Draft resembled its NFL counterpart (the NFL Draft), in which teams were given a p ...

, the Stallions passed on Wilcox citing his speed and size. He was subsequently signed by the

Arizona Wranglers The Arizona Wranglers were a professional American Football team in the United States Football League that, name-wise, existed from late 1982 to mid-1985. They played at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, a su ...

where he was a defensive starter for their 1983 season. He played for the

Chicago Blitz The Chicago Blitz was a professional American football team that played in the United States Football League in the mid-1980s. They played at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Team history The Blitz were one of the twelve charter franchis ...

in 1984, but was forced to retire that season after he suffered a serious neck injury.

Later life

After his playing career, Wilcox became a teacher and football coach at Hillcrest High School in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

and later was a pharmaceutical sales representative. In the mid-1990s, Wilcox began to film his hunting and fishing show entitled "Tommy Wilcox Outdoors" and in the time since has filmed hundreds of episodes that also include famous sports personalities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcox, Tommy 1959 births Living people American football defensive backs Alabama Crimson Tide football players All-American college football players Arizona Wranglers players Chicago Blitz players People from Harahan, Louisiana Players of American football from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana