Willie Wood, a Hall of Fame safety whose key interception in Super Bowl I helped carry the Green Bay Packers to a 35-10 rout of the Kansas City Chiefs, died Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C. He was 83.
“The Green Bay Packers Family lost a legend today with the passing of Willie Wood,” Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy said in a statement. “Willie’s success story, rising from an undrafted rookie free agent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is an inspiration to generations of football fans. While his health challenges kept him from returning to Lambeau Field in recent years, his alumni weekend visits were cherished by both Willie and our fans. We extend our deepest condolences to Willie’s family and friends.”
In what was initially billed as the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game following the 1966 season, the heavily favored Packers were holding a tenuous 14-10 lead over the Chiefs at halftime. On Kansas City’s first possession of the third quarter, driving near midfield, quarterback Len Dawson felt pressure and tossed a wobbly pass that Wood picked off and returned 50 yards to the Chiefs’ 5-yard line.
Thanks to what legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi called “the steal of the game,” Green Bay scored on the next play for a 21-10 lead and never looked back.
“We played well in the first half and at the start of the second half, but that interception by Wood changed the complexion of the game,” Chiefs coach Hank Stram said at the time.
Wood had an injury-plagued college career at USC, where he became the first black quarterback in the Pacific Coast Conference. He was bypassed in the 1960 NFL draft but, undeterred, Wood sent a letter to NFL teams seeking a tryout. Lombardi then made two wise decisions in a career full of them — answering Wood’s letter, and moving him to free safety.
It was at that new position, on the opposite side of the ball, where Wood excelled. Known as a fierce hitter with a nose for the ball, Wood carved out a career that included being first-team All-Pro five times and he was selected for the Pro Bowl eight times.
Despite shoulder injuries that limited him in college, Wood never missed a game in his 12-year NFL career, all with the Packers, who won five titles during his time in Green Bay. He ranks second in team history with 48 career interceptions. Only Bobby Dillon, recently selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of its centennial class, has more (52).
Lombardi once said, “Pound for pound, Willie was the best tackler in the game.” Wood was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989.
Wood tried his hand at coaching after his retirement in 1971, first as an assistant with the San Diego Chargers. He later became the first black head coach in pro football when he was hired to lead the short-lived WFL’s Philadelphia Bell. He was also tabbed to run the Toronto Argonauts, becoming the first black head coach in the CFL.
But opportunities to return to the NFL as a head coach never materialized, and Wood instead focused on supporting his family and he started his own contracting business.
“The thing is, my dad never wanted to leave football,” his son, Andre, told the New York Times in 2016. “He needed a stable way to make a living. But I know he would have stayed [on] the NFL coaching track had he been asked to. But he wasn’t.”
In his later years, Wood battled neck, hip and knee problems, and — perhaps most devastatingly — dementia that left him with no memory of his big plays or his induction into the Hall of Fame.
The Packers said Wood had suffered from advanced stage dementia for close to a decade and died at an assisted living facility in D.C.
ESPN’s Rob Demovsky contributed to this report.