Although
Tony Dorsett is Hopewell High
School’s most famous contribution to the professional football
ranks, Bill Koman was the first Viking to make it to the pros. Not bad for an athlete
who was so seriously injured in a bicycle accident at age nine that
doctors wanted to amputate his left leg. Fortunately, they didn’t.
Bill overcame adversity to become a football star at Hopewell High
and the University of North Carolina, where he earned a degree in
economics in 1956. In spite of bad knees, Bill played 14 seasons as
a linebacker in the NFL. He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in
1956, but was released in September of 1957 and was signed by the
Philadelphia Eagles a month later. His final trade came in 1959 to
the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals. Bill proved to be
an iron man for the Cardinals, creaky knees and all: in nine years
he missed only one game and played 120 straight games at one
stretch. Bill played in the Pro Bowl in 1962 and 1964 and won the Old Pro
Award from the St Louis Quarterback Club in 1965. He retired from
pro football in 1968 and lived in St Louis with his wife and
four children.
Although