(By a weird turn of events, the building it still uses was designed by architect Waddy Butler Wood -- but, being white, he was almost certainly not related to Willie.)
His prospects limited by segregation, Wood went to Coalinga Junior College outside Fresno, California. Its motto is, "Once you go here, you can go anywhere." He went to the Junior College All-America Team. Then he went to the University of Southern California (USC), becoming the 1st black quarterback in the history of he Pacific Coast Conference, the forerunner of the current Pacific-12 Conference.
In 1959, he and Ron Mix, an offensive tackle who would become a Hall-of-Famer with the San Diego Chargers, were named USC's co-captains -- one black, one Jewish. In a 2007 interview, Mix said that they received hate mail, and that, "99 percent of the fraternities on campus would not allow either of us to become members."
Shoulder injuries limited Wood's playing time. As a result, he was not selected in the 1960 NFL Draft, or the 1960 AFL Draft. So he wrote letters to the teams in each league, asking for a tryout. Only one man answered: Vince Lombardi, head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers. Lombardi must have seen something in the letter, or perhaps he got some game film from USC and saw something in that, because he brought Wood to Green Bay, and signed him as a free agent.
If Lombardi was making a guess, it was a great one. Wood may also have made a guess: Seeing Bart Starr as the Packers' quarterback, he requested a switch to defense, and was made a free safety. This was also a great move: Wood ranks with his contemporary Larry Wilson, and later players Ronnie Lott, Steve Atwater and Ed Reed as one of the best free safeties in NFL history.
He was named to 8 Pro Bowls. He helped the Packers reach the NFL Championship Game in his rookie year, but they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. They won the Championship Game against the New York Giants in 1961, and did that again in 1962. In 1962, he led the NFL in interceptions and punt return yards.
Lombardi once said, "Pound-for-pound, Willie was the best tackler in the game." He said this even though he also coached Hall-of-Fame defensive players Willie Davis, Henry Jordan, Ray Nitschke and Herb Adderley.
After missing the Western Division title in 1963 and 1964, they beat the Cleveland Browns in the 1965 NFL Championship Game, then beat the Dallas Cowboys in the 1966 and 1967 editions, the latter remembered as the legendary "Ice Bowl."
These last 2 title games led to the Packers qualifying for the 1st 2 Super Bowls, in which they beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I, and the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II. In Super Bowl I, he made a key 2nd half interception, returning it for 50 yards, and Elijah Pitts scored a win-securing touchdown on the next play. Chiefs coach Hank Stram said, "That interception by Wood changed the complexion of the game." (It was not a racial comment: The Chiefs had plenty of black players.) In Super Bowl II, Wood returned a punt return for 31 yards, the longest in a Super Bowl for 16 years.
With the Packer dynasty aging, they didn't make the Playoffs again until after he retired, following the 1971 season. He finished with 48 interceptions, which he returned for 699 yards and 2 touchdowns. He had 1,391 yards on punt returns, which also included 2 touchdowns. In spite of the shoulder injuries that curtailed his college career, he made more consecutive starts than any free safety in NFL history: 154. He became a starter in his 2nd season, but played every game the year before, so that he not only never missed a game in his playing career, ready for all 166.
Right after his retirement, he became the defensive backs coach for the San Diego Chargers. In 1975, the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League named him their defensive coordinator. During training camp, before their 1st regular season game, head coach Ron Waller was fired, and Wood became the 1st head coach of a professional football team, with the sole exception of Fritz Pollard of the Akron Pros in 1921, at a time when the NFL could hardly have been called a "major league." The Bell were 4-7 when the WFL folded on October 21, 1975.
In 1979, Forrest Gregg, a former Packer teammate, was coaching the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. He brought Wood onto his staff, and left after the season to take the head job with the Cincinnati Bengals. Wood was then named the CFL's 1st black head coach. They went 6-10 in 1980, but lost their 1st 10 games in 1981, and he was fired. (Tommy Hudspeth, former head coach at Brigham Young and Texas-El Paso, coached them the rest of the way, and they finished 2-14, so whatever was wrong, it wasn't just Wood's coaching.)
Wood was elected to the NFL's 1960s All-Decade Team in 1969, the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1977, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989. The following year, he was selected for the ceremonial coin toss before Super Bowl XXIV. However, Wood was not selected either to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999 or the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.
He died yesterday, February 3, 2020, at the age of 83. He was predeceased by his wife, and survived by his sons Willie Jr. and Andre, and his daughter LaJuane.
Willie Wood Jr. played and coached in the Arena Football League. As his father's decline began, he took a job coaching at D.C.'s Woodrow Wilson High School, in order to stay close to him.
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