Colin Ridgway

{{Short description|Australian-born American football player (1937–1993)}}

{{Infobox NFL biography

| name = Colin Ridgway

| position = Punter

| number = 88

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1937|02|19}}

| birth_place = Melbourne, Australia

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1993|05|13|1937|02|19}}

| death_place = University Park, Texas, U.S.

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 5

| weight_lbs = 211

| college = Lamar

| undraftedyear = 1965

| pastteams =

Dallas Cowboys ({{NFL Year|1965}})
Savannah Chiefs (1966)
Knoxville SOK (1966)
Dallas County Rockets (1966)

| statlabel1 = Games played

| statvalue1 = 3

| statlabel2 = Punts

| statvalue2 = 13

| pfr = RidgCo20

}}

Colin Edwin Ridgway (19 February 1937 – 13 May 1993) was an American football punter distinguished as being the first Australian to play in the National Football League (NFL). He also competed in the high jump at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Early years

In Aussie rules, Ridgway played U19s for Carlton and then in their reserves in 1955.{{cite web|url=https://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php?page=Colin%20Ridgway|title=Colin Ridgway|publisher=Blueseum}}

He was a high jumper who competed at the 1956 Olympic Games (where he was the youngest high jumper) and the 1958 Commonwealth Games for Australia.{{cite web| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19561029&id=GEFVAAAAIBAJ&pg=3861,3951646&hl=es | title=Misses Games-Will Retire | access-date=19 February 2016}}{{cite web| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19580325&id=QlFVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6564,3599986&hl=es | title=Nine Victorians Named Among 30 Athletes for Empire Games Team | access-date=19 February 2016}} He had also competed in the Australian Open Track and Field Championships from 1955/56 to 1959/60.{{cite web| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19551108&id=HBsRAAAAIBAJ&pg=2615,1061120&hl=es | title=A Casual Champion | access-date=19 February 2016}} Ridgway failed to make the 1960 Australian Olympic team and so accepted an offer of a track and field scholarship to Lamar Tech (now Lamar University). In 1961, he became the first Commonwealth athlete to clear 7 foot in the high jump.{{cite web| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19660213&id=UH4sAAAAIBAJ&pg=6456,2383441&hl=es | title=Texas Contributes Second Seven-Foot High Jumper | access-date=19 February 2016}}

Professional career

Even though he had never played an official American football game,{{cite web| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19620412&id=UT0yAAAAIBAJ&pg=6292,848669&hl=es | title=Seven-Foot Leaper Off the Grid Team | access-date=19 February 2016}} he was discovered by the Dallas Cowboys and signed as an undrafted free agent to their 1965 team. During the preseason, he played a key role in the beating of the Green Bay Packers.{{cite web| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19650831&id=TZhRAAAAIBAJ&pg=1022,5118007&hl=es | title=Vince Doesn't Believe in Specialists | access-date=19 February 2016}} He started the year on the taxi squad, before being promoted to the regular roster on 3 November.{{cite web| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19651104&id=_mVGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4081,923054&hl=es | title=Landry to Stick with Meredith | access-date=19 February 2016}}

It turned out that the running drop-kicks that were commonly used at that time in Aussie rules did not translate well into the American game. On 24 August 1966, he was waived and at the request of the Cowboys, he accepted to play with the Savannah Chiefs of the North American Football League, in order to gain more experience.{{cite web| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1774&dat=19660825&id=LSMhAAAAIBAJ&pg=4644,5649495&hl=es | title=Cowboys Release Manatee's Pettee | access-date=19 February 2016}} During the 1966 NAFL season, he was also a member of the Knoxville SOK and the Dallas County Rockets.{{cite web|url=https://www.profootballarchives.com/playerr/ridg00600.html|title=Colin Ridgway NFL Stats and Bio|website=www.profootballarchives.com|access-date=30 August 2023}}

Personal life

Up until his death in 1993, Ridgway had been married to his wife Joan Jackson for the last 15 years. During the 1960s, he was engaged to an American model named Helen Harrison.{{cite web|url=https://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/more-sports/morbid-end-for-first-aussie-nfl-player-colin-ridgway/news-story/61305032cc0a6e4e83280c06697b5302|title=Morbid end for first Aussie NFL player Colin Ridgway|work=The Courier Mail|date=October 17, 2014|access-date=30 August 2023}}

Death

Ridgway was murdered at his University Park, Texas, home in 1993. Although Kenneth Bicking Jr. was arrested as a probable suspect in 1996, the case still remains unsolved to date.{{cite web| url=http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2011-12-16/story/suspect-former-dallas-cowboys-death-arrested-jacksonville-rape-charges | title=Suspect in former Dallas Cowboy's death arrested on Jacksonville rape charges; other ties surround suspect | access-date=19 February 2016}}

A man publicly suspected by authorities as a killer-for-hire in Ridgway's murder was convicted on 4 September 2014 in Florida of a separate violent crime that happened the year before the murder. Kenneth Alfred Bicking III was found guilty of armed sexual battery and kidnapping with a weapon, according to the Florida State Attorney's office. The maximum sentence is life in prison. Prosecutors said Bicking entered the victim's home in April 1992 without her permission, showed a gun, tied her up and put tape over her eyes and mouth before sexually assaulting her. Bicking was charged after new DNA technology was used in a follow-up investigation in 2011. Police in Dallas theorized that Bicking was hired by his father and Ridgway's widow to carry out the 1993 killing.{{cite web | url=http://members.jacksonville.com/news/crime/2014-09-04/story/law-order-man-found-dead-apartment-complex-pond | title=Man found dead in apartment complex pond | access-date=19 February 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007094352/http://members.jacksonville.com/news/crime/2014-09-04/story/law-order-man-found-dead-apartment-complex-pond | archive-date=7 October 2014 | url-status=dead }}

References

External links

[http://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php?page=Colin%20Ridgway Colin Ridgway bio]
[http://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/the-easy-crime-6398011 The Easy crime]
[http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-features/in-depth/the-incredible-life-and-death-of-australias-nfl-trailblazer/news-story/9a49f273b8341d5c7c47cffcd4a74646 The incredible life and death of Australia’s NFL trailblazer]

Category:1937 births

Category:1993 deaths

Category:1993 murders in the United States

Category:American football punters

Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games

Category:Australian male high jumpers

Category:Australian murder victims

Category:Australian people murdered abroad

Category:Australian players of American football

Category:Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state)

Category:Australian rules footballers that played in the NFL