Bobby Joe Green

Bobby Joe Green (May 7, 1936 – May 28, 1993) was an American professional football player who was a punter for 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears. He played college football for the Florida Gators.

Early life

Green was born in Vernon, Texas, in 1936. He attended College High School in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and he played high school football for the College High Wildcats.

College career

Green accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was a punter and halfback for coach Bob Woodruff's Gators teams from 1958 and 1959. As a senior in 1959, he kicked fifty-four punts for an average distance of 44.9 yards—still the Gators' single-season record. His 82-yard punt against the Georgia Bulldogs in 1958 remains the longest punt by a Gator in the modern era.

Green also appeared on Oklahoma's 1956 National Championship roster.

Professional career

Green was selected in the ninth round (102nd pick overall) of the 1959 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers, and played fourteen seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears. He played for the Steelers in and , and then was traded to the Bears, for whom he played from to . Green also served as a volunteer kicking coach for the Florida Gators under head football coaches Charley Pell and Galen Hall from 1979 to 1989.

Green died as a result of a heart attack in his Gainesville home on the morning of May 28, 1993; he was 57 years old. He was survived by his wife Martha Jane and their son and daughter.