Weldon Humble

Weldon Gaston "Hum" Humble (April 24, 1921 – April 14, 1998) was an American football guard who played five seasons in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Texans in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Humble grew up in Texas and was a multi-sport athlete at Brackenridge High School in San Antonio.

Humble was born in Nixon, Texas, a suburb of San Antonio, in 1921.

His athletic career began at San Antonio's Brackenridge High School.

Humble played as an end for two seasons and a fullback for a third season on the football team.

He enrolled at Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1940 and played three seasons on the school's football team.

Humble became an anchor on Cleveland's offensive line, helping the team win three straight AAFC titles in the late 1940s.

He also played on the basketball, track and swimming teams before graduating and enrolling at Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1940.

Humble began play on Rice's freshman team as an end in 1940.

He advanced to the varsity team the next year.

While he started as an end, coach Jess Neely switched him to guard before the first game of the season.

He thrived in the new position, and was named a sophomore all-star by the Associated Press after the Rice Owls finished 1941 with a 6–3–1 win–loss–tie record.

The following year, Humble earned All-Southwest Conference honors and won the George Martin Award, given to Rice's most valuable player, as Rice put up a 7–2–1 record.

Humble left Rice in 1943 for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then called Southwestern Louisiana Institute, to prepare for service in World War II in a V-12 U.S. Navy training program.

As he trained, he played alongside enlistees from Tulane University, the University of Tulsa and Louisiana State University on a military team that won six straight games and was selected to play in the first Oil Bowl in Houston.

Captained by Humble, Southwestern beat a service team from Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Halfback Alvin Dark loved playing behind Humble, recalling years later that "I'd never seen such blocking."

After the season, Humble enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and was sent to fight in the Pacific War.

He rose to the rank of first lieutenant and won a Bronze Star Medal.

Humble then spent three years in the U.S. Marines during World War II, serving in the Pacific War and earning a Bronze Star Medal before returning to complete his college studies in 1946.

Upon his discharge in 1946, Humble returned to Rice.

He lettered in football and track and field and was voted a consensus first-team All-American guard while captain of Rice's Southwest Conference co-champion team.

He was also named lineman of the week by the Associated Press in November for his strong tackling in a game against the Texas A&M Aggies.

Paul Brown, the coach of the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), met Humble while vacationing in Florida in 1946.

Brown came to watch the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day, and was staying in the same hotel as the Rice team.

He saw Humble and his wife Lorraine, whom Humble had met while in training at Southwestern, on a dance floor at the hotel.

Sportswriters named him a first-team All-American after the Rice Owls finished with an 8–2 win–loss record and beat Tennessee 8–0 in the 1947 Orange Bowl.

The AAFC's Baltimore Colts signed Humble in 1947, but the Browns acquired him in a trade before the season.

After finishing with an 8–2 record, Rice beat Tennessee in the Orange Bowl game in early 1947.

"He appeared to be the sort of fellow we like to have on our team," Brown said later in 1947.

When the AAFC dissolved in 1949, Cleveland moved to the NFL and won another championship in 1950.

Humble, who remained in the Marine Reserves, was called into service in the Korean War after the season.

He was expected to return to Cleveland the following year, but head coach Paul Brown traded him to the Texans before the 1952 season began.

He retired after one year in Dallas.

After his playing career, Humble worked as a bank executive and at an office supply company.

He was also the chairman of the selection committee for the Bluebonnet Bowl.

Humble was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1961, and was named to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the South Texas Football Hall of Fame in 1969.

He is also a member of the Rice University Athletics Hall of Fame.

He died in 1998 in Houston following a long illness.

Rice was ranked the 10th-best college team in the nation in the AP Poll.