| No. 25, 29 | |||||||||||||||
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| Position: | Safety | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born: | (1966-03-09)March 9, 1966 (age 59) Belle Glade, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 224 lb (102 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school: | Glades Central(Belle Glade) | ||||||||||||||
| College: | Florida | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1989: 1st round, 25th pick | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
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Louis Oliver, III (born March 9, 1966) is an American former professionalfootball player who was asafety for eight seasons in theNational Football League (NFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Oliver playedcollege football for theFlorida Gators, earningAll-American honors twice. He was a first-round pick in the1989 NFL draft, and played professionally for theMiami Dolphins and theCincinnati Bengals of the NFL.
Oliver was born inBelle Glade, Florida in 1966.[1] He attendedGlades Central High School in Belle Glade,[2] and was a standout high school football player for the Glades Central Raiders.[3] Memorably, Oliver blocked twopunts in the same game as a junior.[3]
After graduating from high school, Oliver attended theUniversity of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was awalk-on player on head coachGalen Hall'sFlorida Gators football team in1985.[4][5] Subsequently, Oliver not only earned an athletic scholarship,[5] he became a startingfree safety and team captain, and totaled 11 careerinterceptions.[4] He was a first-teamAll-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in1987 and1988, a first-team All-American in 1987 and a consensus first-team All-American in 1988, and a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll honoree.[4][6] Oliver was also the recipient of the Gators'Fergie Ferguson Award recognizing the "senior football player who displays outstanding leadership, character and courage."[4]
Oliver graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 1989, and was inducted into theUniversity of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2000.[7][8] In one of a series of articles written forThe Gainesville Sun in 2006, theSun sports editors chose him as No. 24 among the greatest 100 Gators from the first century of Florida football.[9]
Oliver was selected by theMiami Dolphins in the first round (25th overall) of the 1989 NFL Draft.[10] He played seven seasons for the Dolphins (1989–1993,1995–1996) and one season for the Cincinnati Bengals (1994).[11] Oliver was reunited in the Dolphins' defensive backfield with his former Gators teammateJarvis Williams, and the pair were the Dolphins' starting safeties for the next five seasons. Arguably Oliver's greatest career highlight was an October 4, 1992 interception of a pass thrown byBuffalo BillsquarterbackJim Kelly, which he returned 103 yards for atouchdown,[11] and is the longest interception return in Dolphins history.[12]
During his eight-year NFL career, Oliver played in 117 regular season games, started 101 of them, and recorded 544 tackles and 27 interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns.[1]
Following his professional football career, Oliver used his pro sports connections to launch a business as a professional party liaison for sports stars and celebrities inSouth Florida. More currently, Louis is focused on many entrepreneurial pursuits. Louis entered thereal estate market to become a specialist in high-end, up-market properties for celebrities, and is currently ageneral partner in a Miami-based real estate firm. Louis is also the founder of the first ever smoking illuminating tip calledHighlightz.
