| No. 25, 36, 24, 15 | |||||||||
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| Position | Quarterback | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | (1937-03-15)March 15, 1937 Osage, Iowa, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died | September 27, 2016(2016-09-27) (aged 79) Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. | ||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||
| Listed weight | 185 lb (84 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | Roosevelt (Des Moines, Iowa) | ||||||||
| College | Iowa | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1959: 1st round,1st overall pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
Playing | |||||||||
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Coaching | |||||||||
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| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
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| Career AFL statistics | |||||||||
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Hearst Randolph Duncan Jr. (March 15, 1937 – September 27, 2016) was an American professionalfootball player who was aquarterback in theCanadian Football League (CFL) andAmerican Football League (AFL). He playedcollege football for theIowa Hawkeyes and was inducted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame in 1997.
He played for Iowa in theBig Ten Conference and played in twoRose Bowls (January1957,1959). He was the first overall pick in the1959 NFL draft by theGreen Bay Packers, but played professionally for CFL'sBC Lions and the AFL'sDallas Texans. After his football career, he became a lawyer.
Duncan was born to Hearst and Louise Duncan in 1937, inOsage, Iowa. He moved with his family toMason City before finally attendingRoosevelt High School inDes Moines. Duncan was a highly regarded prospect in bothfootball andbasketball. He was a first team all-stateguard on the Roosevelt basketball team that lost in the 1954 state championship game. Duncan was a first team all-state quarterback for Roosevelt, leading the Roughriders to an undefeated season and a state title in 1954. The teams only lost two games in his three years there.
Duncan graduated from high school after the 1954 fall semester, and he was heavilyrecruited after choosing to play football. He nearly went to theUniversity of Colorado inBoulder, but decided to attend theUniversity of Iowa inIowa City largely because of his friendship with Iowa assistant coachBump Elliott.[1]
His college career got off to a slow start. As a mid-year graduate and due to freshman ineligibility, Duncan had to wait one and a half years to play, joining Iowa in the spring of 1955 but seeing his first action as a sophomore in the fall of1956. Duncan became very discouraged over being constantly berated by Iowa coachForest Evashevski and being clobbered in practice byCal Jones. "Time after time, I was going to quit and transfer toIowa State," Duncan has said.[2]
But Duncan remained in Iowa City and waited his turn as the backup to Hawkeyes starKen Ploen in the 1956 season. In a non-conference game againstOregon State, the offense produced a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns after he replaced the injured Ploen in the 14–13 triumph. Iowa qualified for theRose Bowl, where they faced Oregon State again. Duncan entered the game in the second quarter after Ploen left the game briefly and led the offense to a touchdown in a 35–19 rout.
Duncan was named thestarter and paced the team in passing in1957. He battled snow and sleet to throw a touchdown pass for the only score in a win overNorthwestern, and he missed the end of Iowa's tie withMichigan because of leg cramps. Duncan scored four touchdowns, two passing and two rushing, againstMinnesota, and two touchdowns againstNotre Dame, one passing and one on aninterception return as adefensive back. Iowa went 7-1-1 on the season, and Duncan was named first teamAll-Big Ten.
As a senior in1958, Duncan helped guide Iowa to one of its best seasons ever. After a surprising early season tie againstAir Force, Iowa won five straight Big Ten games, clinching the Big Ten title as early as it had ever been clinched before.[3] The Hawkeyes ranked first in passing andtotal offense in the Big Ten, while Duncan led the nation in completion percentage and passing yardage.
Duncan's greatest game may have come in Iowa's lone loss in 1958, when he set a Big Ten record with 23 completions in 33 attempts for 249 yards in a 38–28 loss toOhio State. Duncan led Iowa to another Big Ten title and a 38–12 victory in theRose Bowl. His lone touchdown pass in the Rose Bowl broke the school record for touchdown passes in a season, which had been set byNile Kinnick in1939.
Duncan was named first team All-Big Ten. He was also named the 1958Big Ten MVP, and he was selected as aconsensus first team All-American. He won theWalter Camp Award and finished second in theHeisman Trophy balloting. Duncan is one of seven Iowa players toletter from 1956 through 1958. In that span, Iowa's record was 24–3–2 (.862) with two Big Ten titles, three top ten rankings in the finalAssociated Press poll, and two Rose Bowl victories.
Upon being voted Iowa's MVP, Duncan remarked, "There's nobody that knows any better than I do that this was all made possible by you guys here and the coaching staff behind me. I mean it. Just to be a part of this ball club was all that I really ever wanted."[4]
Duncan was the first overall selection of the1959 NFL draft, taken by theGreen Bay Packers on December 1, 1958, the same day that his runner-up finish in the Heisman Trophy vote went public.[5][6][7] However, he had reservations about a pro football career, especially one with a Packers team that had the worst record in the league at the time. It took a generous contract offer from theBritish Columbia Lions to lure him to theCanadian Football League instead. He later explained, "That was Green Bay beforeVince Lombardi (who was hired two months after the draft), and Canada offered a lot more dough."[8]
Whereas Iowa predecessor Ken Ploen left an indelible mark north of the border, where he became an all-time CFL great, Duncan proved to be ill-suited for the more wide-open Canadian style of game. In two seasons, he completed 47.6 percent of his pass attempts and threw nearly twice as many interceptions (42) as touchdowns (25) in the regular season.
After the Lions released him, Duncan signed with theAmerican Football League'sDallas Texans (now theKansas City Chiefs) in advance of the 1961 campaign. The newcomer practiced with the Texans during the day and attendedSouthern Methodist Universitylaw school at night. He was injured early in his first start in Week 2 and played sparingly the rest of the season. When TexanscoachHank Stram was reunited with former Purdue starLen Dawson before the next season, Duncan quit football to continue his pursuit of a law degree.
Duncan finished law school atDrake University, and for years, operated a successfullaw practice inDes Moines. Duncan married Paula Mathieson in 1960, and they have three sons: Jed, Matt and Scott. Jed and Matt Duncan played football atYale University and theUniversity of Iowa, respectively. Two of Randy Duncan's grandsons, Cole and Kyle Duncan, played football atBowdoin College. Duncan's granddaughter Grace is an established technology sales professional. Duncan also has a grandson, A.J., who works in human resource resources. Duncan died in Des Moines on September 27, 2016, from brain cancer.[9][10]
Duncan was inducted into theIowa Sports Hall of Fame in 1976 and theCollege Football Hall of Fame in 1997. In 1999,Sports Illustrated selected Randy Duncan as the 28th greatest sports figure in the history of the state of Iowa. Duncan was named honorary captain of the Iowa football team during the Iowa - Maine football game in 2008.