Role Football player Career end 1984 Name Jack Thompson Career start 1975 | Pass attempts: 845 Weight 98 kg Height 1.91 m | |
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Date of birth: (1956-05-19) May 19, 1956 (age 59) NFL draft: 1979 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3 Education Washington State University | ||
Jack thompson polynesian football hall of fame
Jack Byron Thompson (born May 18, 1956) is a former professional football player, a quarterback in the National Football League for six seasons. Known as "The Throwin' Samoan," a nickname bestowed on him by Spokesman-Review columnist Harry Missildine during Thompson's breakout sophomore season at Washington State University in 1976.
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College career
As a collegian at Washington State in Pullman, Thompson set numerous school, Pac-10 and NCAA records. In the second game of 1976, he took over on offense after senior starter John Hopkins was injured making a tackle in the second quarter at Minnesota.
As a senior in 1978, he finished ninth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy, and concluded his college career as the most prolific passer in NCAA history with 7,818 passing yards. Thompson set Pac-10 records for attempts, completions, and TD passes. He was all-conference three times and either first-team, second-team, or honorable mention All-American three times.
He is one of only two WSU Cougars to have his number retired (with Pro Football Hall of Famer Mel Hein). Thompson wore No. 14 and graduated from Evergreen High School in 1974, south of Seattle.
NFL career
Thompson was the first quarterback selected in the 1979 NFL Draft, taken third overall by the Cincinnati Bengals, and played there for four years, which included the Super Bowl season in 1981.
Considered by ESPN to be a bust of a draft pick (#26 worst - fellow WSU grad Ryan Leaf is considered #1), Thompson went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1983 and was the starter, but was replaced the following year by Steve DeBerg.
After football
After his football career, Thompson settled in Seattle and became a mortgage banker, as well as a volunteer quarterbacks coach at Ballard High School. His son Tony, a tight end, followed in his dad's footsteps in suiting up at Washington State, and a nephew, Tavita Pritchard, was a quarterback at Stanford University.