Long before he was John Wayne, a fresh-faced Marion Morrison had no designs on becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and most iconic actors. He wanted to play football professionally, and there was a decent chance he could have made it had fate not intervened.
The future ‘Duke’ had played the game since childhood and was a member of his high school team. In fact, he was good enough to earn a partial scholarship to the University of Southern California. Unfortunately, his dream of making it as a professional was cut short when he suffered a broken collarbone in a bodysurfing accident, which inadvertently changed the course of cinema history.
Due to the injury, Wayne – or Morrison, as he was still known – lost his scholarship and was forced to drop out of university because he’d been robbed of the financial assistance that allowed him to attend. That led to his coach, Howard Jones, pulling some strings to get him jobs as an extra and prop boy in films, topping over the first domino in his ascent towards legendary status.
As they say, the rest is history, or so it seemed for the next four decades. ‘The Duke’ was so laser-focused on succeeding in his new vocation, and it would be an understatement to say he achieved it. While he struggled during his first years in the business, a star-making turn in 1939’s Stagecoach lit the touchpaper on Wayne becoming one of his era’s defining onscreen figures.
He still enjoyed football from afar, even if he had no intention of playing at a competitive level. That was especially true by the early 1970s when he’d entered his 60s and had already seen part of his left lung and two ribs removed during his first battle with cancer. And yet, somebody still thought it would be a good idea to draft him into the NFL.
In 1971, in the midst of the draft’s 17th round, Atlanta Falcons head coach Norm Van Brocklin created a moment that would go down in NFL history for all the wrong reasons. “Do we want the roughest, toughest SOB in the draft?” he asked the gathered throng. “Atlanta picks John Wayne of Fort Apache State.”
Ignoring the fact that Wayne played for USC and not Fort Apache, it was an immediate farce. A team representative referred to their latest pick as “a big, strong guy who has also had success in a couple of movie roles,” which was true. Obviously, he was also 63 years old at the time and was hardly going to throw on the pads and take the field.
“I think that it’s a pretty sick joke when they select John Wayne,” one disgruntled attendee offered, which was also true, even if Atlanta were in on the gag. Needless to say, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle disqualified the selection to officially rule ‘The Duke’ out of getting suited and booted as a sexagenarian gridiron debutant, although it does beg the question as to what could have happened had it been allowed to proceed.