Section IV Student-Athlete to NFL Draft Pick with Bill Shear

Our guest shares his unique story of first-time accomplishments, one of which landed him on the world stage.

He takes us on his memorable football journey, beginning with his days as a Section IV Football student-athlete at Owego Free Academy, then onto his College Football Experience, culminating with being an NFL Draft pick, with a very unique story, involving one of the most iconic NFL Coaches, whose name is on the Super Bowl Trophy.

Interwoven into his story are brief insights into a few of his other exceptional skills and great life lessons for all student-athletes.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:34

Our free standards into a field of other technical skills and great life lessons for all student athletes. It's my pleasure to introduce to you our guest, Bill Sheer. Welcome, Bill. And as appropriate, kick off this episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Well, I was started playing football as a junior at a Wiggle. I was a halfback and a safety on defense. We didn't do any kicking at a wiggle. We didn't kick extra points and we didn't kick field goals or anything like that. Although, to be truthful, I was interested in it. I used to watch the NFL games on TV, and uh um, you know, I'd be calculating how far those kicks were going to be. And I used to watch past summer all kick for the Giants. And but you know, at a Wiggle, they didn't want to do that, so we didn't. Um at a Wiggle, I had my junior year, I had a 95-yard touchdown run, um, which they were I was told that was a record for at that point, at that point, anyways. Uh, the year before as a sophomore on the JV team, I had like four or five 50-yard runs. Um, but you know, it's that's just about the way it went and played defense, and uh and that was it as far as high school. Then uh getting ready to go to college, I wanted to go to Portland, but uh my guidance counselor said I didn't have good enough marks, and he was probably accurate. And uh my mom used to tell me she never remembered me bringing a book home at night, and that was pretty close to being accurate. Um and uh but so so I didn't try. I figured I would go to Broom for a couple years and then hopefully I'd know what what I wanted to do. But a friend of mine on the football team came down the hallway and told me, hey, you got I got into Courtland, and I'm looking at them and I said, our marks are about the same. How did you do that? He said, Well, I just did. And uh so I asked the guidance counselors and they couldn't figure out what happened. So my dad said, my dad sent an application in for me, and I got approved by some reason. And then a week later I was disapproved because they made a mistake, and then my dad called them back and somehow talked them into that. He thought I should go there. So they worked out a way. It's called a passport program. Portland allows 30 students, boys and girls, to come in for people who played sports in high school or did something else in high school, the ban, something that took a lot of time and maybe hit hurt you a little bit as far as time you studied. So I get it, I got in on that. And of course, when I got there, you're it was you were ineligible to play sports, um, at least the first semester until you proved yourself. They made you go to classes, a couple classes at the beginning, and learn how to study. And I was delighted about that. Everybody else was was not, but I I knew I needed it, and so that's the way that went. And then I did okay the first semester, and uh I decided to go off. Coach Fenton at a Weigel encouraged me to go off for baseball, and uh I did, and uh I made the team. There was a hundred people trying out, 20 of us made it, and that was sort of the way it went. And once I made the team, then you know I I didn't I just wanted to prove I could make it, so I didn't put much effort into it, effort into it after that. So uh uh that's the way the first year went in baseball. I decided, well, that's it. I I proved I could make it, that's all I did it for. And second year, I decided to go out for golf. I made the golf team, and because I wanted to play at the Cortland Country Club, and which was kind of a ritzy place back in those days. So I did that, and uh uh we won the SUNY ac tournament at the end of the year, uh, which was pretty good. I I will I will not say I was part of it, but it was uh good for the team and good for the school. And uh then the first two years I was in college, I hardly I in fact I never went to a game until I was a sophomore. I went to a football game to watch my roommate, and I think they were playing East Straussburg, and it went right down to the wire, and the kicker kicked a 49-yard field goal, and they carried him off on their shoulders. And I said, Boy, that's the that's the position to play. That's pretty cool. So I started mouthing as as kids do, I started mouthing off to my roommate how I could do that. That didn't look that hard. And I had never ever kicked before. And uh so he started harassing me about doing it. So finally I made the mistake and said, Yeah, I'll try. So I went to Coach Robinson, and uh he said, Yeah, I could come. And then about a month later, he let me know. He says, Well, I a lot of the players that were gonna leave didn't leave, so they didn't have any room for me in the dorm during preseason. He said, You can come up every day if you want. And I said, Well, this is my way out because you know who's gonna want to leave there at 10 o'clock at night, drive home an hour, and then get up at four o'clock to get back up there. So I figured it was my way out, but then toward the end of the year, Coach Robinson came up to me and said, Well, some of the players who are gonna play are leaving school, so uh we got a place for you. So I lost my excuse, and uh that was how that went. And uh so then we went out for went out for football and uh got to camp. And uh the first day, first day I kicked, I was one for 15 and uh was kicking with the second team, the first team was down at the other end. I figured that was so embarrassing, I figured I'd wait till everybody went to bed at night in the dorm and I was gonna sneak out and go home. And I changed my mind. Then the next day, Robinson, without batting an eyelash about how bad I was, said, Okay, Bill, you go with the first team. Uh Cooper, you go down with the second team. And I made 15 out of 15, all perfect kicks, I mean right down the middle, and you know, couldn't have done any better. And so then the season started. We went to Alford, and of course I'm the second string kicker because Cooper, who's the kicker, he was a second grade kicker when Perot was there. And uh and but he was a great defensive end. In fact, he he was uh he made it the Hall of Fame of Portland for being the defensive end. So he was doing both until I could catch up with him in kicking, which I probably would have done about the middle of the season. I wouldn't have been better than him, but I would have been equal. And I know Coach Robinson preferred to have two different people doing it, so if he ever got hurt, they didn't lose two positions. So after the third game, it was a travel game, and I didn't get to go. And when the game was over, and my Bob, my roommate, came back, he uh he says, Well, you better get your toe ready. Uh Cooper tore out his tore his knee out, and you're the kicker now. And uh so that's what happened. And you know, I went down there, and of course, on the way down on the bus on that Monday, six other people were gonna try out for kicking because they knew how they knew I had never kicked before. So here's all these great athletes trying to kick, and they found out it was just about as hard as it looked for me. So um they they try they tried it once, and then that was it. So we went through the week, and the next game, the game we were gonna play was Bridgeport. And uh, and I don't I don't remember being nervous, but uh I must have been, but I don't remember it. And uh it was just uh I just prayed and I thought about it. They went out to do the coin flip, and they won the toss. And those days, you won the toss, you took the ball, you didn't try to overthink it and go on defense. So probably the luckiest thing it could have happened to me because going out there, kicking off the game, the start of the game instead of standing out there for 20 minutes on the sideline before something happened was probably the greatest thing, you know, kicking off and getting knocked on my butt. You know, it's just kind of it was I I believe it was a good thing. And we went on and went ahead 7-0. I kicked the extra point, and toward the end of the game, I kicked a 39-yard field goal to Iset with about two minutes to go, uh, which, if it surprised everybody else, it surprised me because I'd never done it before. And so we we won the game, and uh that was pretty good. And then next week we played Ithaca. I kicked two long field goals, which surprised me too, but we lost the game. But uh that was the way, you know, it just everything seemed to come together, and uh you know, the at the end of the season, I think I had made five field goals in five games, and I extra points. I think I was uh uh 12 for 14 on extra points, and uh that ended the year, and then that summer I was just trying to decide how can I get better, and so I uh I said what I'm gonna do is maybe go down to practice early, early, and uh and you know, I went down an hour before practice would start when nobody knew I was down there. A manager was a friend of mine, he came down and chased the balls, and I told him, Don't tell anybody I'm doing this, I just want to do it. And eventually, over three weeks of doing that, I got out. I was kicking 55 yarders in practice, but nobody knew. And uh I didn't want him to know. I wouldn't I wanted him to, you know, let me do whatever I was gonna do, uh, you know, by what I'm doing in practice, not what I was how how I was progressing on the side. And then I about the third or fourth game, I got a toe infection, and I we played Ithaca and we beat Ithaca, but I I missed three field goals. It was a it was a swirly win, but it was just a bad day for me to kick. And uh we lost, we won the game, but I I kind of stunk in that game. And then two days, two games later, we played Hobart, and that was the game that it was our homecoming. Uh the punter during warm-ups just tweaked his hamstring a little bit. He was he was our wide receiver, and he played the whole game at wide receiver, but if they didn't want they didn't want him to punt, just in case that would be something that would hurt him more. So um we got the they got the ball first. They got one first down, and then they punted to us. We got the ball around the 40. We drove it up there, it was it was like third and five, and I was standing next to my roommate, and I was because I thought he was going to probably put me in and just make me kick it down the field. And I told my roommate, I said, you know, if they we don't if he throws an incomplete pass on this, um, it'll be a 61-yarder, and that'll be John Stenerrew's record of 59 yards. Sure enough, Spec went back and he threw the ball about 55 yards in the air. It just went just missed Rick Page, who got a tryout with the Dallas Cowboys that year, too, because he was a senior. And uh so then it became fourth down. He sent me in, he just said, at least just get it down there. So we're in the huddle, and I said to the guys, I said, make sure you block well. And why one of them says to me, or one of them says, Why are you gonna make it? I said, Well, of course. Now, I didn't mean that, it just slipped out, but I said, No, I says, Robinson will kill me if they get it, we get it blocked at midfield. So, you know, they understood really what was going on. So the guy hiked the ball, I kicked it, and my job after I kick it is to run them to where the defensive end is and start down the field there and try to force a run back, try to force the run back to the middle of the field where their good tacklers are. And uh I got to the end, I started going down the field, and the ball was still in the air. It was like it was like God grabbed his handout and just took the ball and carried it, and it went through by about 12 yards. And uh they went after that, they went back and tried to figure out how long it would have been. And one of the coaches told me it would have been good from 70. But anyway, so the the butt kick was good, it kind of surprised everybody. I went back to pick my tee up, and John Ghee was the was the referee. And he's standing there, he's six foot eleven, and I'm five foot eight maybe. And he puts his hands on his hips and looks down and he says, You gotta be kidding me. And uh he might have used a different word for kidding me, but I'm not gonna mention that. And uh and uh I remember at halftime I was walking off the field because we they had a building where we went halftime just to sit and chat. And uh my dad and mom were there, of course, and they were they were way up on the top of the bleaches. How how he got down, I have no idea because we had 5,000 people there and it was packed. He's down there and he shook my hand. It was only the second time in my life he'd ever shook my hand. And I and I was in such a daze, I didn't even realize why he did it. It just, you know, so we went and the game ran over. And uh two weeks later, we went to Trenton State. Well, the week after that, we went to Brockport and I made I made nine extra points, nine for nine. Uh we kind of and it was seven to six at halftime, by the way. We really killed them in the second half. Then the next week we went to Trenton State into the wind. I kicked a 39-yarder and a 51-yarder, and I was probably more proud of it in a way because I know that a lot of the people were thinking, well, you had a lot of wind when you kicked a 61-yarder, which was correct. I but kicking a 51-yarder into the wind, I felt was it got you know, it just made me feel better. And that's sort of the way that ended up. And uh the last game of the year we went to Northeastern, and if we had won the game, uh we would have gone to a bowl game, and uh we lost, but I 14-7, but I tried a 70-yarder there, and it it got it got to but within five yards of the goalpost. So I don't know what how long that would have made it, but uh we at least tried.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Okay, that I'm gonna interrupt you right now of uh because up to this point, I mean there's so many things that happen and got such a unique uh history up to this point. What people need to understand is that that wasn't just a Portland record. That was uh that has never been done in any level of the NCAA, the NFL, or worldwide. You couldn't really call it a world record at that time of 51 yards.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Correct, correct. But what's an ask for is that I do have a standard 59 yard the year before. And of course, it became a hollow fan in the city.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Yeah, that's that's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Now take us uh your your next step. You had uh you were you were drafted. So take us to that next step in the NFL.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

In March, the coach's daughter, Randy, came down and told me, says Green Bay just called my dad, who's the head coach, and uh he uh they're coming to scout, they're coming to talk to you in three days. So finally, coach told me, and uh, we went down to the field house. It was uh it's a quite a long field house, and we went in there. I hadn't kicked in four and a half months. We had to use sneakers, and I went in there, and Ed Franco was the Green Bay Scout that came, and he was one of the seven blocks of granite at Fordham, along with Vince Lombardi. They were two of the linemen on that famous thing that you uh find you can see on Google.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

And uh, so we went through it and he had me kicking different distances, different angles, and I was 29 for 29, which it surprised anybody, it surprised me that I was that good after four and a half months. And then finally he looks down at the end of the end of the uh clo and of the field house and he says, See those two posts sticking up? He's kind of got a wire between. And so it's probably 45 or 50 yards. So I kicked the ball and boing, it hits the wire. And I just heard him, I said, Is that the wire you want me to? And and it just came out. I believe me, I didn't think about saying that. It just came out, he says, That's enough. We gotta go talk. So they took me, they took me and the coach up to the up to the dining room. We went up there, he talked to me, asked me a lot of questions, and you know, kind of an interview like they do with all players. And uh he said, We think Chandler's gonna retire at the end of this year, or maybe this year. Uh, if we draft you, would you be interested? I said, Yep. Yes, I will be. So, you know, so basically that was it. And then three days later, in fact, the night before the draft, the San Diego Chargers called me and they said, uh, you know, we're gonna, we, you know, they gave me, they talked to me a while and they said, we're gonna draft you in the 10th or 11th round, because you know, if no team in their right mind is gonna back in those days was gonna race a high draft pick on a kicker. And uh so that's they said we're gonna draft you in the 10th 11th or 12th round, and the Packers drafted me in the 10th. And uh I didn't even know they'd done it. I didn't even think about it that day because I was I was so happy when when the NFL and the AFL merged, I said this is probably a month before the before the draft, I said, boy, that's good because these these two leagues fighting each other, just they're killing each other financially. You know, one guy will draft you in the one the other one will draft you in the other league, and they got to pay more because they're trying to uh trying to get you away from the other one. And little did I know that I I regretted saying that because I was gonna be drafted by the NFL and the AFL, I would have got a lot of money, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

So sure. Um and another thing, uh Bill, that we our listeners, I'm sure, would like to know is not only were you drafted by the Green Bay Packers, but you were the first place kicker ever taken by Vince Lombardi in the 10 years that he was the head coach and general manager. That's saying something.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Yeah, that's true. Now, he that was the only true place kicker. He he he got a guy once for who the place kick and punt, but he mainly wanted was Donnie Anderson. He mainly wanted him for the puttings or for the punting. So, yeah, you're absolutely right on that. And I went there and I probably Travis Williams would have been my best friend there. He was also drafted the year I was, except he was a very high draft pick. He ran the 40 and 4-4, which may not seem good now, but 55 years ago, it was great. And he ran back four kickoffs during the season for touchdowns. And I believe it's still an NFL record 56 years later. He had four or four of them, and he he was fumbling a lot in practice. So Lombardi made him carry a ball in his hand when he wasn't anywhere he went, he had to carry a ball. And when he'd go to get in line to eat, I would I would take the ball so he could get his food. So we kind of became friends, and uh, you know, he was really good. He was a pack, he was with the Packers for a couple years, and then he went to some other team. But Bar Starr probably made the biggest impression on me because he back then the quarterbacks held. And uh I'm left footed. He'd only hold for rights. He would stay after practice and hold for me. He said, I want to give you a fair chance. He says, So I'm gonna stay extra time here with you. And that that made such an impression on me. And uh one time I was listening to the radio years later, and I was I don't I don't listen to uh Larry King, but he was on there and he said, Well, I got Bart Starr here. So I for some reason, this is like 11 o'clock at night, I called in and I got through, and I just wanted to thank him, you know, for all the millions of people that were listening. I just appreciated that he would stay around because he had just won the MVP in the first Super Bowl. This is the year of the second Super Bowl when I was there, and he was gonna, you know, and he was gonna get the MVP of that one, too. So he was the best quarterback going at that moment. And uh I really appreciated that he would spend time just for a nobody. And uh that, but that's the way the Packers were. When I got there, Elijah Pitts was he was you know a veteran running back, but he was working with he was working with Travis Williams. Well, he he's cutting his own throat. This guy runs a 4 4. Elijah Pitts is 34 years old, and but he worked, and every player did it. The Lombardy, Lombardi made it out a rule, and nobody dared not do it. So everybody worked good compared. To other teams where that I was at, where you could see that everybody was out for themselves, where the Packers and their record showed it that you know that wasn't the way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Exactly. And Bill, you were at that point in your career, you you think I mean it's been a magnificent career up to that point, but you were so close if to being on a Super Bowl champion team if you would have held on that whole season.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

True, true. But Lombardi, Lombardi, you know, gave me a choice. I could be on the taxi squad, which uh I didn't want to, you know, which I didn't do it. So I came back home and he got me a tryout with the Giants, which went pretty well. And and then I went and I I I taught school that year. And while I was teaching school, the Cincinnati, I don't know how they got the number, the Cincinnati Bengals called the school and wanted to talk to me. And they offered me a contract, and the San Diego Chargers a couple nights later offered me a contract. In fact, that I already had it on my desk before the Cincinnati one came, but I decided to go to Cincinnati because it was a lot closer. You know, I didn't want to go all the way to California. I didn't wasn't always excited about flying, so figured I could drive to Cincinnati. So that's that's the way that went.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

That is absolutely great, uh, Bill. And um, I really appreciate you sharing that with us. Bill, there's uh another New York State record that you hold here, and it actually is for four holes in one as a teenager while you were at We Go Free Academy. Now, I understand you you didn't play on the golf team because it interfered with baseball, but take me through those four holes in ones. One might be a little bit lucky, but four, you know, you got some skill.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Well, I wish I had I wish I had my son-in-law. I wish I had no Bernie Herzig, my son-in-law, because he's uh he's the golf coach at Binghamton University now, and he's an excellent teacher. Well, I I played golf. I taught myself how to play, which means I had an ugly swing. I used a baseball grip, but I played a lot. And I and it I just seemed to get lucky. I could remember playing with people when I got the hole in one, they thought it was luck, but when I hit it five feet from the pin, it was it was being a good player. So um that's sort of how it went. It was just one of those things where actually I got my fourth Holoan after I graduated from OFA, but just before I went to Cortland. So it was it was that's about when I did it. Then, you know, because I played a lot in the summers and uh with a lot of my friends, and uh I played with the number one guy at Seaton, and he would you know take me out and try to teach me how to do little things and uh went out with Ron Lasky from Main End One, he helped me a lot too. So uh I was lucky to go to the IBM Country Club where where you know I met a lot of guys actually ended up playing against them when we played in Main Endwell and football. So uh it was just nice, just a bunch of nice people.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

All right, I've got one more thing here I think our uh listeners would be interested in. But you uh in 1962, you represented OFA at the Section 4 table tennis sectionals. I didn't even realize they had that. Tell me a little bit, tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

I think that was the first year because we had never known about it either. So the school had a tournament to see who could go, and I fortunately won it, so I got to go, but so I but I didn't win. Let's put it that way. But it was uh it was a fun thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

That that sounds like a lot of fun, and you've you've got a lot of other accolades as a student athlete. We don't really have the time to do that, or we'd make this a mini-series, and we want to keep keep it focused as much as possible on Section 4 of football and and also what you did after you you left at Cortland and with the NFL. Bill, I want to thank you very much for sharing not only your time, but uh being so gracious with you know your background and and giving a lot of hope uh and inspiration to the young student athletes out there that could, hey, you know, if he can do that and take that approach, then then I can do that. And you've also woven in the working the extra things, you know, going early to practice and don't tell anybody about it and all the extra things you did to get help to make yourself better. You know, we want all those young student athletes out there and anybody in life in general to be willing to do those things and and look what can happen to you. You've got such a great background. And again, Bill, thank you for sharing everything. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right, you take care. Okay. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe. And remember, tell your friends, Coach Smith says visit cover4.com and be the next fan up. In football and life, it's not where we line up, it's where we wind up. Thank you for listening to the Cover Four podcast.