| No. 55 | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positions | Linebacker Placekicker | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1936-09-30)September 30, 1936 Boise, Idaho, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Died | May 19, 2017(2017-05-19) (aged 80) Boise, Idaho, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 225 lb (102 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||||||
| High school | Boise | ||||||||||||||||||
| College | Idaho (1955–1957) | ||||||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1958: 4th round, 45th overall pick | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||||||
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Wayne Harrison Walker (September 30, 1936 – May 19, 2017) was an American professionalfootball player andsports broadcaster. He played 15 seasons with theDetroit Lions of theNational Football League (NFL), as alinebacker andplacekicker. Walker played in 200 regular season games, the second most for a defensive player at the time.[1] He played in threePro Bowls and was once selected as a first-team All-NFL player. After the1972 season, he retired as a player and was a sports broadcaster forCBS and the sports director forKPIX-TV inSan Francisco from 1974 to 1994. Walker was a weekend sportscaster during the off-season during his later years as a Detroit Lion.
Born and raised inBoise, Idaho, Walker graduated fromBoise High School in 1954.[2] As a teen, he playedAmerican Legionbaseball againstBaseball Hall of FamerHarmon Killebrew ofPayette;[3] Walker passed on an offer to playminor leaguebaseball to attend college.[4]
Walker playedcollege football at theUniversity of Idaho inMoscow, then a member of thePacific Coast Conference, as acenter and middle linebacker for theVandals underhead coachSkip Stahley.[5][6] Walker's teammate (and road roommate) at Idaho wasHall of FamerJerry Kramer ofSandpoint; both went on to lengthy careers in the NFL, and had their numbers retired at Idaho.[6][7]
As a senior in1957, Walker was ateam captain and was selected by theUnited Press as a second-team center on theAll-Pacific Coast team.[8] In theEast-West Shrine Game at San Francisco in late December,[9] he played on both sides of the ball and had fivetackles, three assists, twointerceptions, and blocked akick; he was voted the outstanding defensive player of the game.[5][10][11] He also played in theCollege All-Star Game in mid-August 1958, helping the pro rookies defeat theDetroit Lions, his new team, 35–19.[12][13]
Onspecial teams at Idaho, Walker was thelong snapper, as Kramer was theplacekicker.
Walker was selected by theDetroit Lions in thefourth round of the1958 NFL draft, 45th overall, in December1957, weeks before Detroit won theNFL title, their third of the decade.[2] He played for the Lions for 15 years from 1958 to 1972.[2] Walker appeared in 200 games for the Lions, a franchise record that was later broken by placekickerJason Hanson.[14][15] He also scored 345 points, which ranked third in Lions history at the time of his retirement (currently ninth).[16] As a placekicker, Walker converted 53 of 131 field goal attempts for a 40.5% success rate,[2] the lowest field goal percentage in NFL history.[17] He attempted 13 field goals of 50+ yards in his career, and missed them all. On extra points, he converted 172 of 175 attempts for a 98.3% success rate.[2]
After his retirement from the NFL, Walker was the sports director forKPIX-TV, the CBS affiliate inSan Francisco, for 20 years, from 1974 to 1994, where he succeededBarry Tompkins. He was also asports commentator for theSan Francisco 49ers' radio broadcasts for over 20 years, and a commentator onOakland Athletics baseball broadcasts[18] from1976 to1980 and in1985. During the1979 season, when the struggling A's lost 108 games, he teamed up with fellow southern IdahoanHarmon Killebrew. Walker was also a color commentator on regional NFL games for several years onCBS, working many games withTom Brookshier, who moved from color commentary to play-by-play beginning in1981.[19]
Walker and his wife Sylvia returned to theBoise area in 1994,[20] and he began hostingIncredible Idaho, a half-hour outdoor show on Boise's NBC affiliate,KTVB-TV.[21] In 1999, he retired from broadcasting.[22] In December of that year, Walker was ninth on theSports Illustrated list of greatest sports figures from Idaho.[23]
Diagnosed withthroat cancer in June 2007, Walker lost 60 pounds (27 kg) afterchemotherapy and radiation treatment. As of 2009, he was healthy again and had regained most of the lost weight.[20] In October 2015, Walker announced that he was suffering fromParkinson's disease, possibly as a result of the many concussions he suffered during his playing days.[24][25] He died on May 19, 2017, from complications from Parkinson's disease.[26][27][28]