Mizzou hall of famer and longtime NFL executive Bill Tobin dies at 83

CINCINNATI, Ohio (KMIZ)

Mizzou hall of famer and former NFL executive Bill Tobin died at the age of 83, the Cincinnati Bengals announced on Friday.

Tobin had an illustrious career after his time in Columbia. He spent time as the general manager of the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears. He also was the director of player personnel for the Detroit Lions. But most recently, he was a consultant for the Cincinnati Bengals from 2003 to 2022.

The Bengals broke the news to football fans on Friday afternoon.

"He was a true NFL success story," Bengals President Mike Brown said. "He was a good person and I considered him a good friend. With Bill, I respected everything he said. I just took it as a given. He had an eye for players and what they would develop into. If he said the guy was a good player, then he was a good player; that's all I would need to know. We will miss him."

Tobin grew up in Burlington Junction, Missouri and played for the Mizzou Tigers, as he was a letterman from 1960 to 1962. He played as both a halfback and a kicker for MU, as his teams went 26-3-3 overall.

He created a lot of memories for Tiger football fans, including his MVP performance in Mizzou's 14-10 win over Georgia Tech in the 1962 Bluebonnet Bowl. In that game, he rushed for 114 yards on 11 carries, including a 77-yard touchdown run in the game that set the record for the longest run by a Tiger in a bowl game. His accolades in Columbia earned him a spot in the Mizzou Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

After Mizzou, he was the AFL's Houston Oilers rookie of the year and then played for three years for the Edmonton Eskimos in the CFL.

In 1964, Tobin got his behind the scenes look at football, joining Mizzou's staff as a graduate assistant coach from 1964-66. It was his first start in the coaching world and, eventually, took him to his first coaching start in the professional football world.

Funny enough, his professional opportunity came from his college coach: legendary Mizzou coach Dan Devine. Tobin worked for the Green Bay Packers in 1971 and after four years with the team, he moved on to the Bears organization. He spent 18 years in Chicago, moving all the way up to the ladder to vice president of player personnel, from 1987-92.

In 1994, Tobin made the jump over the Colts as a general manager and held that position for a couple of years. In his time in Indianapolis, he's credited with drafting NFL Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk and Marvin Harrison.

Colts owner Jim Irsay sent his condolences to Tobin's family via social media, on Friday.

"He lived a magical life associated with the game he loved, and our league will miss him," Irsay said in a post.

After a short stint as the director of player personnel for the Lions from 2001-02, he moved into his final role in the NFL with the Bengals.

"He taught me a lot. He taught a lot of scouts along the way. He'll leave a lasting legacy," Bengals director of college scouting Mike Potts said. "He did a lot of cross-checks on tape. There's no more trusted eye in terms of evaluation. Not just with the Bengals, but I would say in the whole NFL. Just in the terms of his eye for talent."

Cincinnati officials remembered one of the last meetings they had with Tobin in a press release, as the Bengals make their final preparations for the NFL Draft.

"He'd come into my office and we had a talk every year just about this time," Brown said. "He had his list of the guys in his area. I would talk with him not just about the players, but I would ask him about some others. He had a background that was a little special because both of us went back in time and we could talk about the old-time guys that we saw and the impressions they made with us and we could make comparisons to the guys of today. It was fun."

Tobin's son, Duke, still works for the Bengals in the personnel department, as he has since 1999.