Hugh Donell Green (born July 27, 1959) is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player who was a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL) for eleven seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

for the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

, and was recognized as a three-time consensus All-American. Green was selected in the first round of the

1981 NFL Draft The 1981 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 28–29, 1981, at the New York S ...

, and played professionally for the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

and the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...

Early years

Green was born in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, ...

. He attended North Natchez High School.

College career

Green attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he played

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...

for the

University of Pittsburgh Panthers The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facu ...

from 1977 to 1980. Green was part of an elite team that included four future NFL Hall of Fame players: Defensive end

Rickey Jackson Rickey Anderson Jackson (born March 20, 1958) is a former American football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the New Orleans Saints (1981–1993) and the San Francisco 49ers (1994–1995). He led the team's Dome P ...

, Center

Russ Grimm Russell Scott Grimm (born May 2, 1959) is an American former professional football player who was a guard for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). He has also served as an assistant coach for the Redskins, Pittsburgh St ...

, lineman Jimbo Covert and quarterback

Dan Marino Daniel Constantine Marino Jr. (born September 15, 1961) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons with the Miami Dolphins. After a successful college career at Pittsburgh and b ...

. Several other future NFL stars would be his teammates, including

Mark May Mark Eric May (born November 2, 1959) is a former American college and professional football player who was a guard in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. May played college football for the University ...

. He was a three-time consensus first-team All-American (

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – In ...

) and a second-team All-America selection as a freshman in 1977. He was a consensus four-time All-East selection as well. In the 4 years Green played, the Pittsburgh Panthers compiled a 39–8–1 record, winning three bowl games en route (two

Gator Bowl The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game held in Jacksonville, Florida, operated by Gator Bowl Sports. It has been held continuously since 1946, making it the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised natio ...

s and one

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been pl ...

). His No. 99 jersey was retired at halftime of his final home game in the 1980 season. After the season, he played in both the

Hula Bowl The Hula Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game held annually, usually in January. From inception through the 2021 playing, it was held in Hawaii; since the 2022 edition, it has been played in Orlando, Florida. The game was first st ...

and Japan Bowl All-star games. Green left the university with 460 tackles and 53 career sacks in his college career.100 Greatest Players of All-Time #5 Hugh Green
Retrieved April 14, 2006 According to

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses ** South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

and

coach John McKay, "Hugh Green is the most productive player at his position I have ever seen in college". The table is a year-by-year showing of Green's defensive statistics. In 1980, Green won the

Walter Camp Award The Walter Camp Player of the Year Award is given annually to the collegiate American football player of the year, as decided by a group of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I FBS head coaches and sports information directo ...

, the

Maxwell Award The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the college football player judged by a panel of sportscasters, sportswriters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club to be the best al ...

, the

Lombardi Award The Rotary Lombardi Award is an award for college football in the United States. Awarded by the Rotary Club of Houston, Texas annually to the college football player "who best embodies the values and spirit of NFL's legendary coach Vince Lomba ...

and was the Sporting News Player of the Year, the UPI Player of the Year and finished second in the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and har ...

balloting, losing to

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Th ...

George Rogers of the University of South Carolina. Green's second-place finish in the voting was the best a defensive specialist had ever attained until 1997, when

Charles Woodson Charles Cameron Woodson (born October 7, 1976) is a former American football defensive back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers. He played college football at Michiga ...

won the award. Green was selected to the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vo ...

in 1996 and was named the fifth greatest college football player of All-Time by collegefootballnews.com. He was named to the all-time All-American team compiled by

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

in 1983. In 2007, Green was ranked No. 14 on ESPN's Top 25 Players In College Football History list. He was also named to

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

's College Football All-Century team in 1999.

Professional career

Green was selected as the seventh overall pick of the first round by the Buccaneers in the

. He was a 1982 All-Pro and 1983 All-Pro and was elected to the

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

twice in his career, in 1982 and 1983. Later in his career he suffered several injuries, including a car accident in the middle of the 1984 season for a fracture near the eye. He was traded to the Miami Dolphins in the middle of the 1985 season in exchange for their first- and second-round draft choices in the 1986 draft.DOLPHINS MAKE 'HUGE' TRADE ALL-PRO GREEN JOINS MIAMI FOR 2 DRAFT CHOICES, South Florida Sun Sentinel, October 10 1985
/ref> In the 1985 season he was on to a career-high in sacks and ended the season getting 7.5 while playing all 16 games despite the mid-season trade. His 1986 season ended in the Week 3 classic 51–45 game against the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The ...

. In the 1st quarter, Green suffered a knee injury and was carted off the field. In Miami, Green played six more solid seasons before retiring. He was a member of Don Shula's teams which were often playoff contenders and Green was a starter on those teams, racking up 7.5 sacks in 1989, to tie a career-high, for example.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Hugh 1959 births Living people All-American college football players American football linebackers College Football Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Natchez, Mississippi Pittsburgh Panthers football players Players of American football from Mississippi Miami Dolphins players National Conference Pro Bowl players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players