| No. 43 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positions | Cornerback •Safety | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | (1939-06-06)June 6, 1939 Handley, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died | January 1, 2020(2020-01-01) (aged 80) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. | ||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||
| Listed weight | 190 lb (86 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | Fort Worth (TX) Handley | ||||||||
| College | Arlington State | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1963: undrafted | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
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* Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Douglas Wayne Hart (June 6, 1939 – January 1, 2020) was a professionalAmerican football player, adefensive back who played eight seasons for theGreen Bay Packers of theNational Football League.[1][2]
Born and raised inHandley, Texas, which was later annexed byFort Worth, Hart playedhigh school football at Handley High School in Fort Worth.[3] He played two years of junior college football atNavarro College,[4] then walked on atArlington State College (nowUniversity of Texas at Arlington) and earned a football scholarship.
Unselected in the1963 NFL draft andAFL draft, Hart was signed as a free agent by theSt. Louis Cardinals, who waived him in training camp.[1] He was picked up on waivers by the Packers in and spent all of that1963 season on the Packers'taxi squad,[5] but played in every Packers game from1964 through1971; he retired in training camp in August1972 at age 33.[6]
In his NFL career as a cornerback and safety, Hart had 15 interceptions.[7] In 1969, he scored a touchdown on an 85-yard interception return against theMinnesota Vikings atMilwaukee County Stadium; it was the longest interception return in the NFL that season.[8][9][10] As of 2011, his five defensive touchdowns were tied for fourth place all-time for the Packers.[2] Hart was part of the Packer teams that won an unprecedentedthree consecutiveNFL championships, which concluded with thefirsttwoSuper Bowls.
While with the Packers, Hart lived in Green Bay year-round and the outdoor-minded Texan embracedwinter sports, taking upalpine skiing andsnowmobile racing.[11][12] He won races on anArctic Cat snowmobile,[13][14] a company that he would later serve as vice president.[5]
Legendary Packers coachVince Lombardi signed Hart to play for Green Bay after Hart had been cut by the Cardinals and had gone to work forBell Helicopter for two days.[2] After playing for the Packers in an exhibition game in Dallas, the Packers brought him up to Green Bay, where he was pleased to sign a contract: "Lombardi said I was going to be on the taxi squad as a rookie for $500 a week. That was more money than I'd ever seen in my life."[2]
As was the case with many of his players, Lombardi left a lasting impression upon Hart: "I think of Coach Lombardi and his philosophies in one way or another almost every day...He taught us to do your very best at whatever you're doing. He always said, 'When you walk off this field, you want to have those people in the stands say they just saw the very best playing at their very best.' "[5] In a 2013 interview, Hart said of his former coach, "He was a humane person, he really was...He was big and strong and he could get very hard (with people) sometimes, but when a person needed help he was available."[15] Hart's teammate, guardJerry Kramer, specifically mentioned Hart in an op-ed article he wrote forThe New York Times in 1997: "Max McGee, too, is a wealthy businessman (he foundedChi-Chi's, the chain of Mexican restaurants). So arePaul Hornung,Bart Starr, Doug Hart and a dozen others who didn't leave the game as rich men. All are still driven by Lombardi -- not because he ranted and raved but because he wanted desperately to see us do well."[16]
After his playing career, Hart was a successful businessman. He was anArctic Cat distributor inNeenah and later a vice president for the snowmobile manufacturer, and COO of Satellite Industries, aportable toilet manufacturer. He also ran a textile factory and, late in his career, became a licensedfly fishing guide inFlorida. He moved back toMinnesota in 2007 to be closer to his children and grandchildren.[2][5] Hart died on January 1, 2020, at the age of 80.[17]