William Francis "Zeke" O'Connor, Jr. (May 2, 1926 – March 6, 2021) 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 wi ...

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

who played five seasons in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. After retiring, O'Connor went into business and devoted himself to helping

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

ese Sherpas. O'Connor grew up in a large

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and went to college at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

. After starting for Notre Dame's football team as a freshman in 1944, he spent two years in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and played for a service team at Naval Station Great Lakes that was coached by

Paul Brown Paul Eugene Brown (September 7, 1908 – August 5, 1991) was an American football coach and executive in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Brown was both the co-founder and first coach of the Clevela ...

. O'Connor returned to Notre Dame in 1946 and graduated in 1947, but he did not play in his senior year because of a knee injury. O'Connor signed in 1948 with the Buffalo Bills of the AAFC, where he played for one year. He was then traded to the Cleveland Browns, another AAFC team coached by Brown. The Browns won the AAFC championship in 1949, but O'Connor was cut early the next year and played one season for the minor-league Jersey City Giants. He next had a one-year stint with the

New York Yanks The New York Yanks were an American football team that played in the National Football League under that name in the 1950 and 1951 seasons. Season by season overview 1949 The team began in 1944 as the Boston Yanks, owned by Kate Smith's manag ...

of 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 ...

before his playing career in the CFL with the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

. A late-game touchdown catch by O'Connor helped the Argonauts win the Grey Cup in 1952. O'Connor worked for

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

in Canada after his playing career, and served as the color commentator for Grey Cup broadcasts from 1956 to 1981. He became friends with the famed mountaineer

Sir Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropy, philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became th ...

and helped establish a foundation in his name to benefit Sherpas in Nepal. On September 24, 2015, O'Connor was the recipient of the Sandy Hawley Community Service Award, awarded by the

Ontario Sports Hall of Fame The Ontario Sports Hall of Fame is an association dedicated to honouring athletes and personalities with outstanding achievement in sports in Ontario, Canada. The hall of fame was established in 1994 by Bruce Prentice, following his 15-year tenure ...

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Early life and college

O'Connor was born in

and grew up in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, one of the city's five

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

s. He was the son of a police officer and part of a large

family. O'Connor attended

Mount Saint Michael Academy Mount Saint Michael Academy is an all-boys' Roman Catholic high school in the Wakefield neighborhood of the New York City borough of the Bronx. The school's campus also borders the city of Mount Vernon in neighboring Westchester County and is ad ...

, a Catholic school in the Bronx, where he played football and was voted the team's best

in 1942 and 1943. His large size – he was six feet, four inches tall – made him an attractive prospect for college football programs across the country, and he accepted a scholarship offer from Notre Dame. O'Connor was a starter for Notre Dame as a freshman left end in 1944. The team finished the season with an 8–2

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of matc ...

under coach

Edward McKeever Edward Clark Timothy McKeever (August 25, 1910 – September 13, 1974) was an American football player, coach, and executive. He served as the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame (1944) and Cornell University (1945–1946) and th ...

, but O'Connor joined a

V-12 Navy College Training Program The V-12 Navy College Training Program was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II. Between July 1, 1943, and June 30, 1946, more than 125,000 participants were enrolled in 131 colleg ...

in the middle of the year as

raged on. O'Connor played for a

team in a game against

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

held in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in late 1944. In 1945, he played for a service team at Naval Station Great Lakes outside of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

that was coached by

. He caught a touchdown pass that December in a 39–7 win over Notre Dame. O'Connor returned to Notre Dame in 1946, but coach

Frank Leahy Francis William Leahy (August 27, 1908 – June 21, 1973) was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive. He served as the head football coach at Boston College from 1939 to 1940 and at ...

demoted him to the second-team midway through the season as punishment for leaving the school's

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

, campus to see a girl. He suffered a knee injury in a practice before the start of the 1947 season that kept him on the bench all year. Notre Dame went undefeated in 1946 and 1947, and won the college football national championship both years by finishing first in the national polls.

Professional career

O'Connor was selected by the Buffalo Bills of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in the fourth round of the 1948 draft. The Green Bay Packers of the

were also interested in signing him, but O'Connor chose to play for the Bills because several Notre Dame alumni – including

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 ...

George Ratterman George William Ratterman (November 12, 1926 – November 3, 2007) was an American football player in the All-America Football Conference and the National Football League. Early life He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated from St. X ...

– were on the team. He had 301 receiving yards and two touchdowns in 1948, when the Bills had a 7–7 record and won the AAFC's eastern division. The Bills lost the AAFC championship game to the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

. The Bills traded O'Connor in early 1949 to the Browns for tackle Bob McClelland. O'Connor played in nine games for the Browns, a team coached by Paul Brown, but did not have a reception. Cleveland won the AAFC championship that year, its fourth in a row. The Browns cut O'Connor before the beginning of the next season, and he played in 1950 for the Jersey City Giants, a minor-league team in the now-defunct

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

. O'Connor signed in 1951 to play for the

, an NFL team. The Yanks finished with a 1–9–2 win–loss–tie record, putting them out of contention in the NFL's National Division. O'Connor earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

while playing in New York. In 1952, O'Connor began a two-year stint with the

of the

(CFL). In O'Connor's first season with the team, the Argonauts finished with a 7–4–1 record and went on to win the Grey Cup, the CFL's championship trophy. O'Connor caught a touchdown pass off of his fingertips late in the championship game from Nobby Wirkowski, sealing the 21–11 win over the Edmonton Eskimos. The play was one of the most celebrated of its era in the CFL and the Grey Cup, which was televised for the first time in 1952. O'Connor retired from football after the 1953 season, when the Argonauts finished with a 5–9 regular-season record.

Later life

O'Connor stayed in Canada after finishing his football career. He coached football in Toronto and took an entry-level job at

, a global department store chain. He also served as a

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

for Grey Cup broadcasts from 1956 to 1981. He worked at Sears for 31 years, rising to vice president of

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

. As O'Connor climbed the corporate ladder at Sears, he became the head of marketing for sporting goods in Canada and handled the company's relationships with major sports figures. These included

Ted Williams Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1 ...

and

, who became the first man to summit

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...

in 1953. O'Connor and Hillary met while O'Connor was on a camping trip in Ottawa in 1973 and struck up a friendship. Later that year, Hillary invited O'Connor and several other Sears executives to visit

and consider charitable contributions for the Sherpa people who helped him climb Everest. O'Connor suffered from

altitude sickness Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is the harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. People can respond to high altitude in different ways. Sympt ...

on the trip, but agreed to establish the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation of Canada when he returned to Toronto. O'Connor started the foundation and was its president for more than 30 years, helping build schools and hospitals in Nepal. He also introduced Nepal to the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...

, an athletic competition for disabled adults. His daughter Karen took over the foundation in 2008. O'Connor published a memoir in 2012 called ''Journey with the Sherpas: The Story of Zeke O'Connor and the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation''. He later lived in Toronto and still visited the Sherpas annually. He has three children. O'Connor died on March 6, 2021, at the age of 94.William Francis O'Connor
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Bill 1926 births 2021 deaths Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players Buffalo Bills (AAFC) players New York Yanks players Toronto Argonauts players Sportspeople from the Bronx Players of American football from New York City American football wide receivers Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players United States Navy personnel of World War II