William Nolen Parker (born December 28, 1948) 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 ...

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

who played for eleven seasons 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

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 ...

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

and

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 ...

North Texas University

Parker 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 ...

North Texas University The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...

. While playing at North Texas, Will made All Missouri Valley Conference in 1969 and 1970. In 2013 Will was voted as the Center for the North Texas All Century Team (1913-2013). In 2016 the North Texas Hall of Fame committee voted Will into the North Texas Hall of Fame.

San Francisco 49ers

Parker was originally drafted by the

in the

1971 NFL Draft The 1971 National Football League draft was held January 28–29, 1971, at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City, New York. The Boston Patriots, who did not officially change their name to New England Patriots until after the draft, used th ...

, made the Taxi Squad and participated in all practices for the entire season.

Buffalo Bills

Traded to Buffalo in 1973 as a snapper, center and backup guard; playing 8 years for the Bills. In 1976, going into his fourth year with the Buffalo Bills, Parker became their starting center. Despite a strong middle of the offensive line with Parker flanking left guard Reggie McKenzie and Hall-of-Fame right guard

Joe DeLamielleure Joseph Michael DeLamielleure ( ; born March 16, 1951) is an American former professional football player who was a guard in the National Football League (NFL). He was an All-American playing college football for the Michigan State Spartans. ...

in all 14 games, that team had a 3-11 won-lost record, the offense scoring only 160 points (11.4 points/game), 26th among 28 teams in the NFL. In 1977 OJ Simpson Buffalo's outstanding running back '77 season in Buffalo was cut short by injury. Before the 1978 season, the Bills traded OJ Simpson to the San Francisco 49ers for a series of draft picks. 8Willie played three seasons with the team's fortune improving to 5-11 in 1978 and 7-9 in 1979, the first two years with Chuck Knox as the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

, the same linemen trio up the middle in all 16 games during three years. However, in the following year, Parker was traded to the Detroit Lions to help in rebuilding Detroit's offensive line.

Detroit Lions

In 1980, his final year in the NFL, Parker went to the

, starting only once in 4 games, as a career-ending injury occurred in his final game against the Chicago Bears. Willie came back to the Detroit Lions in 1981 Training Camp and due to work related issue, decided to retire. In all Willie spent 11 years in the NFL.

References

NFL.com player page
1948 births Living people Players of American football from Houston American football centers North Texas Mean Green football players Buffalo Bills players Detroit Lions players {{offensive-lineman-1940s-stub