Greg Hansen's top 10 NFL players from Tucson high schools
- Updated
Olympic bronze medalist Michael Bates, who played 11 seasons in the NFL, tops the list.Β
Editor's note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today's list: the top 10 NFL players from Tucson high schools.
Tucson schools have produced 34 NFL players, from Tucson High quarterback Fred W. Enke in 1948 to Canyon del Oroβs KaDeem Carey in 2014.
None from that group has a backstory to match that of Amphitheater High School linebacker Riki Gray, who in 1984 changed his surname to Ellison.
Ellison was born in 1960 in Christchurch, New Zealand, the son of a professor who took the family to live in Malaysia. Ellisonβs parents divorced when he was 4 and he moved with his mother back to New Zealand.
At 8, Ellison and his mother moved to Pasadena, California, where she remarried and earned a degree at USC. Riki did not play his first football game until he was 13; by then, the family had moved to Tucson where his stepfather was a school teacher.
At Amphi, Ellison became a first-team Parade All-American in 1977 and the Arizona Player of the Year. As a sophomore he had been a key part of the Panthersβ 1975 state championship.
The recruiting struggle for Ellison was unlike any Tucson had witnessed in high school football. Notre Dame coach Dan Devine flew to Tucson and made his best pitch. Then USC coach John Robinson arrived and sold the Trojansβ tradition. Ellison nodded; the first college football game he had seen was a Trojans game at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Perhaps to express how much the Trojans wanted Ellison, Robinson and USC athletic director Dave Hubbard flew to Tucson on letter-of-intent day to make sure Ellison signed with USC and not Notre Dame.
A few months later, Ellison became the second USC true freshman to start his first college game, against Texas Tech.
Our top 10 rankings are driven mostly by NFL production and not college heroics:Β
The UAβs Olympic bronze medal sprinter played in five NFL Pro Bowls over 11 seasons, one of the most feared special teams players in league history.Β
He passed for 16,338 yards in the NFL from 1989-04, with 76 touchdowns after leading USC to a Rose Bowl.Β
Fina started 131 games and played in two Super Bowls for the Buffalo Bills in an 11-year NFL career that had humble beginnings: he was an undersized defensive tackle at Arizona before switching to offense.Β
Part of the Denver Broncos "Three Amigos" Super Bowl receiving corps, the UA All-Pac-10 tailback caught 415 passes for 5,695 yards and 37 touchdown in 81 starts over 11 years.Β
He made 119 NFL starts. When he signed with USC in 1979 he pointed to a 1980 game against Arizona in Tucson by saying: "I want to have rings on my fingers and bells on my toes when I come back to Tucson."Β
With 113 career starts for the then-St. Louis Cardinals, Dawson left the UA regarded as the top interior lineman in school history.Β
The sideline-to-sideline linebacker, a two-year all-conference player at Arizona, made 104 starts for the Cardinals in nine NFL seasons.Β
Before arriving with the Detroit Lions, Thompson first played at Oklahoma State. His NFL career was robust: 12 years and 4,682 receiving yards in 83 starts.Β
His first year was his best as he rushed for 1,023 years to become the 1968 AFL Rookie of the Year. Robinson played seven injury-marred NFL seasons and gained 2,947 yards.Β
He started 26 games at quarterback for Detroit and Philadelphia and completed passes for 4,169 yards from 1948-54.Β
Mario Bates of Amphi and ASU rushed for 3,048 yards mostly for the New Orleans Saints from 1994-2000. Arizonaβs Desert Swarm linebacker, Sean Harris, from Tucson High, played in 83 games, starting 38 for the Chicago Bears from 1995-01.
Editor's note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today's list: the top 10 NFL players from Tucson high schools.
Tucson schools have produced 34 NFL players, from Tucson High quarterback Fred W. Enke in 1948 to Canyon del Oroβs KaDeem Carey in 2014.
None from that group has a backstory to match that of Amphitheater High School linebacker Riki Gray, who in 1984 changed his surname to Ellison.
Ellison was born in 1960 in Christchurch, New Zealand, the son of a professor who took the family to live in Malaysia. Ellisonβs parents divorced when he was 4 and he moved with his mother back to New Zealand.
At 8, Ellison and his mother moved to Pasadena, California, where she remarried and earned a degree at USC. Riki did not play his first football game until he was 13; by then, the family had moved to Tucson where his stepfather was a school teacher.
At Amphi, Ellison became a first-team Parade All-American in 1977 and the Arizona Player of the Year. As a sophomore he had been a key part of the Panthersβ 1975 state championship.
The recruiting struggle for Ellison was unlike any Tucson had witnessed in high school football. Notre Dame coach Dan Devine flew to Tucson and made his best pitch. Then USC coach John Robinson arrived and sold the Trojansβ tradition. Ellison nodded; the first college football game he had seen was a Trojans game at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Perhaps to express how much the Trojans wanted Ellison, Robinson and USC athletic director Dave Hubbard flew to Tucson on letter-of-intent day to make sure Ellison signed with USC and not Notre Dame.
A few months later, Ellison became the second USC true freshman to start his first college game, against Texas Tech.
Our top 10 rankings are driven mostly by NFL production and not college heroics:Β
The UAβs Olympic bronze medal sprinter played in five NFL Pro Bowls over 11 seasons, one of the most feared special teams players in league history.Β
He passed for 16,338 yards in the NFL from 1989-04, with 76 touchdowns after leading USC to a Rose Bowl.Β
Fina started 131 games and played in two Super Bowls for the Buffalo Bills in an 11-year NFL career that had humble beginnings: he was an undersized defensive tackle at Arizona before switching to offense.Β
Part of the Denver Broncos "Three Amigos" Super Bowl receiving corps, the UA All-Pac-10 tailback caught 415 passes for 5,695 yards and 37 touchdown in 81 starts over 11 years.Β
He made 119 NFL starts. When he signed with USC in 1979 he pointed to a 1980 game against Arizona in Tucson by saying: "I want to have rings on my fingers and bells on my toes when I come back to Tucson."Β
With 113 career starts for the then-St. Louis Cardinals, Dawson left the UA regarded as the top interior lineman in school history.Β
The sideline-to-sideline linebacker, a two-year all-conference player at Arizona, made 104 starts for the Cardinals in nine NFL seasons.Β
Before arriving with the Detroit Lions, Thompson first played at Oklahoma State. His NFL career was robust: 12 years and 4,682 receiving yards in 83 starts.Β
His first year was his best as he rushed for 1,023 years to become the 1968 AFL Rookie of the Year. Robinson played seven injury-marred NFL seasons and gained 2,947 yards.Β
He started 26 games at quarterback for Detroit and Philadelphia and completed passes for 4,169 yards from 1948-54.Β
Mario Bates of Amphi and ASU rushed for 3,048 yards mostly for the New Orleans Saints from 1994-2000. Arizonaβs Desert Swarm linebacker, Sean Harris, from Tucson High, played in 83 games, starting 38 for the Chicago Bears from 1995-01.
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