Hall of Fame
Position: End
Years: 1949-1951
Place of Birth: San Diego, CA
Date of Birth: Apr 02, 1930
Date of Death: December 28, 2023
Jersey Number: 3
Height: 6-4
Weight: 225
High School: Herbert Hoover (San Diego, CA)
McColl was a two-time All- America End at Stanford (unanimous in 1951 and consensus in 1950), playing on both offense and defense for the Cardinal during the one platoon era. A captain on the 1951 Pacific Coast Conference Championship team, McColl helped Stanford notch a 9-2 record, a final No. 7 AP ranking, and a berth in the Rose Bowl against Illinois. He finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1951 while accumulating 46 receptions for 669 yards and seven touchdowns.
His three seasons in Palo Alto produced three winning seasons and an overall record of 21-8-3. He was the inaugural recipient of the W. J. Voit Memorial Trophy, which was awarded by the Helms Athletic Foundation from 1951 to 1978 to the outstanding college football player on the Pacific Coast.
A third round NFL Draft pick (32nd overall), McColl played with the Chicago Bears from 1952-59 under a contract that allowed him to complete his medical training at the University of Chicago. McColl could have written one of football's great biographies. He chose, instead, to retire from football, beginning a two-year Presbyterian mission at a leprosy hospital in Korea. It was a far cry from the playing fields of Palo Alto, where Bill McColl had carved history as one of Stanford's greatest players.
McColl represented the American ideal, and his compassionate heart led him with a burning with a desire to contribute to mankind as an orthopedic surgeon. He also ran three times as a Republican candidate from California for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Born April 2, 1930, in San Diego, McColl attended Herbert Hoover High School in his hometown. A high school honors student, he was Southern California's Schoolboy Athlete of the Year in 1948. He won San Diego's Soap Box Derby at the age of 11. He was inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame in 1954 and the San Diego Hall of Champions and the Breitbard Hall of Fame in 1965.
