William Acker Montgomery (born January 2, 1949) is a former

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

player for

The University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System. Founded as Arkansas Industrial University in 18 ...

and a member of the

Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame is the hall of fame and museum for sports in Arkansas, United States. The Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1959. The Hall's museum is located on the west end of the Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock, ...

, The University of Arkansas All-Century Team, The University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor,Arkansas Hall of Fame inductees
and the

SEC Football Legends SEC Football Legends is an annual award program of the Southeastern Conference designed to honor outstanding former college football players from each of the conference's fourteen member institutions. Begun in 1994, the Legends Dinner featuring vide ...

. He is married to his wife Susan Byrne Montgomery and has four sons.

High school

Montgomery attended R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton, Texas, where he participated in every sport and even became student body president. His personality was that of someone who carried himself with confidence. His choices for which college to play football came down Arkansas, Texas, or Alabama. He ultimately choose Arkansas and went on to have a very successful collegiate career.

College career

After graduating from R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton, Texas, Montgomery was the starting quarterback for the

Arkansas Razorbacks The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Fayetteville. The University of Arkans ...

in 1968, 1969 and 1970. At the conclusion of his career at Arkansas, he held virtually every school passing record, including career touchdown passes (29), career passing yards (4590), single season passing yards (1662), single game passing yards (338), career completion percentage (.560), career total offense (5052 yd.), single season total offense (1834 yd.), single game total offense (360 yd.), career passing attempts (602), single season passing attempts (234), career completions (337), single season completions (134), career completion percentage (.560) and single game completion percentage (.800). The Razorbacks went 28–5 in three seasons with Montgomery as the quarterback, the highest winning percentage (.875) in the school's history over any three-year period. In 1968, Montgomery led Arkansas to a share of the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

title and finished the season by winning the

1969 Sugar Bowl The 1969 Sugar Bowl was the 35th edition of the college football bowl game, played at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Wednesday, January 1. It featured the fourth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs of the Southeastern Conference (SEC ...

. In 1969, Montgomery played in

The Big Shootout ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

, a game in which #1-ranked

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

beat #2-ranked Arkansas, 15–14. He was selected All-Southwest Conference in 1970. In 2015 Montgomery was inducted into the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame.

Life after football

After football, Montgomery began an investment career starting in New York before settling in Dallas, Texas. He continues to support the University of Arkansas through financial and advisory contributions. He and his wife Susan have four sons. He currently works and lives in Dallas Texas.

Sources

1949 births Players of American football from McKinney, Texas Living people Arkansas Razorbacks football players {{collegefootball-player-stub