Bill Gregory

For other people of the same name, see William Gregory (disambiguation).

Bill Gregory

No. 77
Position:	Defensive tackle / Defensive end
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1949-12-14) December 14, 1949
Place of birth:	Galveston, Texas
Height:
Weight:
Career information
High school:	Lincoln (TX) La Marque
College:	Wisconsin
NFL draft:	1971 / Round: 3 / Pick: 77
Career history
Dallas Cowboys (1971–1977) Seattle Seahawks (1978–1980)
* Offseason and/or practice squad member only
Career highlights and awards
Honorable mention All-Big Ten (1969) Big Ten All-Academic second team (1969) All-Big Ten (1970) Third-team All-American (1970) 2× Super Bowl champion (VI, XII) 3× NFC Champion (1971, 1975, 1977)
Career NFL statistics
Interceptions: 2 Fumble recoveries: 6 Games started: 63 Games played: 142 Player stats at NFL.com
Player stats at PFR

William Penn Gregory, Jr. (born December 14, 1949) is a former American football defensive lineman in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks. He played college football at the University of Wisconsin and was drafted in the third round of the 1971 NFL Draft.

Early years

Gregory attended Lincoln High School where he practiced football, basketball and track. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, where he was named the starter at defensive tackle as a sophomore and finished second on the team in tackles with 75 (48 solo).

In 1969 he led the team in tackles with 102 (58 solo), receiving honorable mention All-Big Ten and second team Big Ten All-Academic honors. In 1970 he was moved to defensive end and received All-Big Ten and third-team All-American honors.

In 2007, he was inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Gregory was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the third round (77th overall pick) of the 1971 NFL Draft. He served mainly as a backup defensive tackle and defensive end, to some of the Cowboys greatest defensive players: Bob Lilly, Jethro Pugh, George Andrie, Larry Cole, Randy White, Harvey Martin and Ed "Too Tall" Jones.

He was a part time starter at right defensive tackle in 1975 (6 starts) and 1976 (6 starts). A knee injury slowed him in the early part of the 1977 season, but he ended up starting the final 2 regular season games and playing as a substitute in Super Bowl XII.

On August 29, 1978, he was traded along with a third round draft choice, to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for a third and a sixth round draft choices. The Cowboys ended up drafting Doug Cosbie with the third round draft selection and the Seahawks traded the third round draft choice they received to the San Francisco 49ers, so they could select Joe Montana.

Seattle Seahawks

In 1978, the Seattle Seahawks named him the starter at right defensive end and went on to register a then franchise record 9 sacks and also 65 tackles. The next year he finished with 6.5 sacks and 64 tackles. He was waived on August 17, 1981, after playing for the Seahawks in 46 games (43 starts).

Personal life

After leaving football, Gregory worked for IBM until his retirement.